The Self-Assembly Line

source: revistacodigo
Crear objetos que cambien de forma por sí mismos es el nuevo objetivo que persigue Skylar Tibbits, un arquitecto, diseñador e investigador de la Facultad de Arquitectura del MIT. Recientemente, Tibbits está explorando lo que él llama 4D printing: la cuarta dimensión en la que se imprime es el tiempo, pues los objetos producidos mediante esta técnica están programados para doblarse, expandirse, contraerse o ensamblarse a sí mismos una vez impresos. En esta conferencia TED, Tibbits habla sobre los alcances de su investigación.
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source: architecturemitedu
SKYLAR TIBBITS is a trained Architect, Designer and Computer Scientist whose research currently focuses on developing self-assembly technologies for large-scale structures in our physical environment. Skylar graduated from Philadelphia University with a 5 yr. Bachelor of Architecture degree and minor in experimental computation. Continuing his education at MIT, he received a Masters of Science in Design + Computation and a Masters of Science in Computer Science.
Skylar is currently a lecturer in MIT’s Department of Architecture, teaching graduate and undergraduate design studios and co-teaching How to Make (Almost) Anything, a seminar at MIT’s Media Lab. Skylar was recently awarded a TED2012 Senior Fellowship, a TED2011 Fellowship and has been named a Revolutionary Mind in SEED Magazine’s 2008 Design Issue. His previous work experience includes: Zaha Hadid Architects, Asymptote Architecture, SKIII Space Variations and Point b Design. Skylar has exhibited work at a number of venues around the world including: the Guggenheim Museum NY and the Beijing Biennale, lectured at MoMA and SEED Media Group’s MIND08 Conference, Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Institute for Computational Design in Stuttgart and The Center for Architecture NY. He has been published in numerous articles and built large-scale installations around the world from Paris, Calgary, NY to Frankfurt and MIT. As a guest critic, Skylar has visited a range of schools including; the Architectural Association, University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Skylar Tibbits is the founder and principal of SJET LLC. Started in 2007 as platform for experimental computation and design, SJET has grown into a multidisciplinary research based practice crossing disciplines from architecture and design, fabrication, computer science to robotics.
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source: ted
Can we create objects that assemble themselves — that zip together like a strand of DNA or that have the ability for transformation embedded into them? These are the questions that Skylar Tibbits investigates in his Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, a cross-disciplinary research space where designers, scientists and engineers come together to find ways for disordered parts to become ordered structures.
A trained architect, designer and computer scientist, Tibbits teaches design studios at MIT’s Department of Architecture and co-teaches the seminar “How to Make (Almost) Anything” at MIT’s Media Lab. Before that, he worked at a number of design offices including Zaha Hadid Architects, Asymptote Architecture, SKIII Space Variations and Point b Design. His work has been shown at the Guggenheim Museum and the Beijing Biennale.
Tibbits has collaborated with a number of influential people over the years, including Neil Gershenfeld and The Center for Bits and Atoms, Erik and Marty Demaine at MIT, Adam Bly at SEED Media Group and Marc Fornes of THEVERYMANY. In 2007, he and Marc Fornes co-curated Scriptedbypurpose, the first exhibition focused exclusively on scripted processes within design. Also in 2007, he founded SJET, a multifaceted practice and research platform for experimental computation and design. SJET crosses disciplines from architecture and design, fabrication, computer science and robotics.
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source: archdaily
Together, Skylar Tibbits and Arthur Olson presented a large-scale installation at the 2012 TED Conference in Long Beach, CA entitled The Self-Assembly Line – a large-scale version of a self-assembly virus module, demonstrated as an interactive and performative structure. A discrete set of modules are activated by stochastic rotation from a larger container/structure that forces the interaction between units. The unit geometry and attraction mechanisms (magnetics) ensure the units will come into contact with one another and auto-align into locally-correct configurations. Overtime, as more units come into contact, break away, and reconnect, larger, furniture scale elements emerge. Given different sets of unit geometries and attraction polarities various structures could be achieved. By changing the external conditions, the geometry of the unit, the attraction of the units and the number of units supplied, the desired global configuration can be programmed. Continue reading for more.
Architecturally, this installation approaches the scenario of self-assembly as a vision for constructing large-scale structures – furniture, buildings or infrastructure – as opposed to most current endeavors in self-assembly at micro and molecular scale-lengths. Self-Assembly as a method of construction relies on discrete and programmable components, simple construction/design sequences, energy input and structural redundancy – fundamental elements that are demonstrated in the installation. This installation demonstrates the intersection of macro and micro worlds as well as translation from molecular and synthetic phenomena to large-scale physical implementation. We aim to fuse the worlds of design, computation and biology through a process of scaling up. While implementing the known structure of molecular systems, this installation also proposes the implementation of design/engineering to natural phenomena as a hybrid system. Part scientific research, part design speculation – we are neither restricted to the exact specifications of the biological realm, nor the limitlessness of the design world. The two can speak to each other while forming an interactive discovery of blown-up biological principles. Patterns emerge from within the interaction of the parts and unknown formations/hierarchies are developed through explicit programmability and simple energy input.
Courtesy of Skylar Tibbits and Arthur Olson
The installation presents, at the architectural-scale, biomimetic processes that span from molecules to organisms. Making these processes explicit in a large-scale, dynamic, aesthetic context provides a universally accessible demonstration of phenomena that are usually hidden from common experience.
Courtesy of Skylar Tibbits and Arthur Olson
The underlying mechanisms that promote self-assembly and the generation of structural complexity from stochastic input are fundamental to our understanding of living systems. Experiencing the dynamics of such mechanisms provides the conceptual scaffolding for understanding scientific ideas that range from thermodynamics to evolution, without necessarily framing it in those terms. The installation itself demonstrates how such concepts can be adapted to uses that encompass human ingenuity and expression.
Designers: Skylar Tibbits, Founder & Principal, SJET & Lecturer, Department of Architecture MIT and Arthur Olson, The Molecular Graphics Laboratory, The Scripps Institute, CA
Project Team: Martin Seymour, Andrew Manto, Erioseto Hendranata, Justin Gallagher, Laura Salazar, Veronica Emig, Aaron Olson
Sponsor: TED Conferences & SEED Media Group
Year: 2012