RESEARCH EXPERTISE
The Digital Craft Lab at CCA has four primary areas of research expertise:
- Digital Fabrication
- Architectural Robotics & Physical Computing
- Generative Design
- Interactive & Virtual Architecture
These research areas are investigated through a number of Platforms that consist of advanced studios, seminars, and workshops with the results being communicated through a variety of media such as publications, exhibitions, and symposia.
2015-2016 RESEARCH PLATFORMS
ADVANCED STUDIO: Creative Architecture Machines
#creativearchmachine #architecturalrobotics #3dprinting #arduino
This studio will embrace a more radical approach to the design and fabrication of architecture. The main ambition of the studio is to explore the efficacy of digital processes and their potential to contribute to a wider conversation about architecture, technology and culture. Through the production of experimental and speculative fabrication machines we will endeavor to contribute to a wider debate within architecture about the role architects might play in a coming world where the lines between the digital and the physical are rapidly being blurred beyond recognition. Core Faculty: Jason Kelly Johnson with Michael Shiloh
ADVANCED STUDIO: Buoyant Ecologies
#buoyantecologies #digitalfabrication
This studio continues the work of the Buoyant Ecologies research project, which explores the design of ecologically-optimized envelopes for waterfront structures that promote habitats for diverse marine species. The research initiative began as a collaboration with Autodesk Workshop at Pier 9, Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Kreysler & Associates. A primary focus of the project is to develop customized fiber-reinforced polymer substrates that vary to provide marine habitats for a range of species, thereby enhancing the surrounding ecology. For more information on the project, see this link. Core Faculty: Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, Evan Jones
RESEARCH SEMINAR: Kinematic Code
#kinematiccode #generativedesign #kuka
This course focuses on the use of procedural techniques in the physical and digital generation of art, design, and architecture. Students will explore the development of scripted actions in the works of several minimalist, conceptual, and computational artists since the 1950s. Central to this investigation will be the inexact relationship between code and its implementation as a site for creative opportunity. Students will learn to write parametric definitions describing a set of actions and then perform these actions using robotic motion control and a variety of custom tools for drawing, painting, and fabrication. The class will be using Grasshopper and the Kuka robotic arm. Core Faculty: Andrew Kudless
RESEARCH SEMINAR: Interactive Surfaces
#interactivesurfaces #arduino #sensingthecity #firefly
This seminar course will research, design, prototype and test interactive surfaces. These surfaces will be live, dynamic, sensing, kinetic and programmable. Using electronics, sensors, actuators and material investigations, seminar participants will invent new ways to create interactive floors, walls, ceilings, screens, tabletop and more. We will also explore and write software to visualize, code and control these surfaces.In Part One of the seminar, students will explore interactive strategies and surface typologies from various sources including the design and technical disciplines. In Part Two participants will learn cutting-edge hardware and software tools like Arduino, Firefly, Processing and more. In Part Three, students will develop full scale working prototypes of their designs. Core Faculty: Jason Kelly Johnson