Studio 18

Exlab: Articulated Matter

Darcy Zelenko and Danny Ngo

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

Innovation in the built environment is led by shifting understandings of technology. As subsets of this technology; data, computation and fabrication methods are main the drivers leading this change. In order to pursue change, moments of inspiration are provoked to shift traditional processes and concepts. To search for this innovation, the environment in which experimentation is explored is paramount.

The encouragement of innovation within an architectural design process looks towards prototyping as a learning outcome, due to its capacity to test concepts and generate data. This can be used to refine and optimise further outcomes and to eventually prove concepts entirely. An architect’s ability to define, measure and interpret this data can stimulate smart solutions that digital design processes alone cannot. Instead of being used purely as a method for production, digital fabrication technology can hold a larger stake in the design process that can be harnessed to innovatively save material, create novel geometry and design unique effects. Computation and digital fabrication help create a methodology of design that has redefined the role of the architect.

Exlab: AM explores material innovation in architecture, encouraging the dissection of matter through an experimental process of prototyping and research. Traditional making methods, fabrication techniques and digital technology are leveraged to challenge and transform stagnant material methods commonly used in construction.

Studio Outcome

Last semester A.M developed a casting method to create thin shell structures using textile-embedded concrete cured over custom inflatables. While innovative, this system lacks refinement. As such, this semester Exlab: AM will begin where the last one ended.

Students will be introduced and educated about Inflated Concrete Morphologies early in the semester. Within this conceptual framework, students will be allocated an area of research to innovate upon. They will conduct this research in line with the Exlab pedagogy based around free play and critical reflection across a number of guided exercises.

Inflated Concrete Morphologies will be explored at the architectural scale with students developing proposals that transfer this technology to contemporary architectural projects. This work will be used to further progress the research Exlab: AM has undertaken and will be used to develop further prototype structures that the entire studio will collaborate on.

Studio Leaders

Darcy Zelenko is a Graduate of Architecture from the Melbourne School of Design. He is the Lead Technician of Digital Fabrication at Fablab and works as designer across the architectural and furniture design scales. Darcy's main areas of expertise are CNC fabrication and parametric design which he also teaches within the MSD.

Danny Ngo is a recent graduate of architecture from UoM, designer & maker and a CNC operator at the FabLab. His exploration lies within social design, digital fabrication and explorative furniture, querying material research and investigative prototyping through digital media. Danny’s interests seek to re-define normative design processes in ‘architecture’, provoking ‘novel’ function and rational form through fabrication.

Readings & References

• Bleecker, Julian. - Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Facts and Fiction
• Burry, Mark & Burry, Jane - Prototyping for Architects

Schedule Mondays 17:15-20:15 and Thursdays 17:15-20:15 in MSD NextLab

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