Text by CLOT Magazine
How will robots influence the future of design processes and the built environment? This question sums up the idea behind the third edition of the Norman Foster Foundation Robotics Atelier will take place on November 4-8, 2019 at Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos in Madrid. The 2019 Robotics Atelier will include seminars, lectures, one-to-one tutoring and architectural tours.
The workshop will focus on large-scale 3D printing with recycled plastics. A special challenge is to design a building skin that can have multiple functionalities embedded within one complex geometrical system and, at the same time, that can integrate a variety of functions able to respond to specific environments. The 2019 Robotics Atelier will culminate in a five-day event led by its mentor, Xavier De Kestelier, Principal and Head of Design Technology and Innovation at HASSELL Studio, London, United Kingdom.
Over the past ten years, designers have been teased by the potential applications of 3D printing. Anything from 3D-printed cars to violins; 3D printing has been proclaimed to be the inception of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. (…) It could be argued that its true impact on the architecture industry is yet to come, states Xavier De Kestelier.
A public debate is held on November 5 chaired by Tim Stonor and the participation of Philip Beesley, Adrian Bowyer, Anna Dyson, Xavier De Kestelier, Frédéric Migayrou, Claudia Pasquero and Liam Young.
The Norman Foster Foundation promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists anticipate the future. The Foundation believes in the importance of connecting architecture, design, technology and the arts to serve better society and the value of a holistic education encouraging experimentation through research and projects.
The Academic Body spans a wide range of practitioners that work in different fields related to manufacturing and digital fabrication. This year’s Academic Body includes Philip Beesley, Director of the Living Architecture Systems Group, Toronto, Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada and the European Graduate School in Switzerland; Manuel Jiménez García, Founding Partner of Nagami; Achim Menges, Director of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD), Stuttgart University, Stuttgart, Germany; or Frédéric Migayrou, Deputy Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Création Industrielle (MNAM-CCI) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, to name a few.
