Material Synthesis Fusing the Physical and the Computational Architectural Design Series

A new understanding of the material in architecture is fast emerging. Designers are no longer conceiving of the digital realm as separate from the physical world. Instead computation is being regarded as the key interface for material exploration and vice versa. This represents a significant perceptual shift in which the materiality of architecture is no longer seen to be a fixed property and passive receptor of form, but is transformed into an active generator of design and an adaptive agent of architectural performance. In stark contrast to previous linear and mechanistic modes of fabrication and construction, materialisation is now beginning to coexist with design as explorative robotic processes. This represents a radical departure from both the trite modernist emphasis on 'truth to materials' and the dismissal of materials by the previous generation of digital architects.

The issue features designers, researchers and thinkers that are at the forefront of exploring new modes of material enquiry and its deep interrelationship with technology, biology and culture. Through their work, which unfolds from multifaceted alliances between the fields of design, engineering and natural sciences, it seeks to trace the emergence of a novel material culture in architecture.

• Architectural and engineering contributors include: Sean Ahlquist, Martin Bechthold, Philippe Block, Karola Dierichs, Jan Knippers, Achim Menges, Neri Oxman, Steffen Reichert and Tobias Schwinn.
• Scientific and philosophical perspectives provided by: Mario Carpo, Manuel De Landa, Neil Gershenfeld and Thomas Speck.
• Features the design research of: Harvard's Material Processes and Systems Group, MIT's Mediated Matter Group and Stuttgart University's Institute for Computational Design.

Editorial 05
Helen Castle

About the Guest-Editor 06
Achim Menges

Introduction Fusing the Computational and the Physical: Towards a Novel Material Culture 08
Achim Menges

The New Materiality: Towards a Novel Material Culture 16
Manuel DeLanda

The New Science of Form-Searching 22
Mario Carpo

The New Cyber-Physical Making in Architecture: Computational Construction 28
Achim Menges

Self-X materials and Structures in Nature and Technology: Bio-inspiration as a Driving Force for Technical Innocation 34
Thomas Speck, Jan Knippers and Olga Speck

Fibrous Tectonics 40
Achim Menges and Jan Knippers

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2012: Coreless Filament Winding Based on the Morphological Principles of an Arthropod Exoskeleton 48
Jan Knippers, Riccardo, La Magna, Achim Menges, Steffen Reichert, Tobias Schwinn,and  Frédéric Waimer

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013–14: Modular Coreless Filament Winding Based on Beetle Elytra 54
Moritz Doerstelmann, Jan Knippers, Achim Menges, Stefana Parascho, Marshall Prado, and Tobias Schwinn

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2014–15: Fibre Placement on a Pneumatic Body Based on a Water Spider Web 60
Moritz Doerstelmann, Jan Knippers, Valentin Koslowski, Achim Menges, Marshall Prado, Gundula Schieber, Lauren Vasey

Performative Wood: Physically Programming the Responsive Architecture of the HygroScope and HygroSkin Projects 66
Achim Menges and Steffen Reichert

Structural Stone Surfaces: New Compression Shells Inspired by the Past 74
Philippe Block, Tom Van Mele and Matthias Rippmann

Membrane Morphologies: Heterogeneous Forces and Articulated Material Form 80
Sean Ahlquist

Granular Morphologies: Programming Material Behaviour with Designed Aggregates 86
Karola Dierichs and Achim Menges

Fabrication Agency: Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall 92
Tobias Schwinn and Achim Menges

Templating Design for Biology and Biology for Design 100
Neri Oxman

Hacking Science: The ALivE Group’s Material Design Methods for Interdisciplinary Enivornments 108
Martin Bechthold and Allen Sayegh

Computational Design and Automotive Material:Cross-disciplinary Design Research by the Mercedes-Benz Center of Advanced Design and the Institute for Computational Design (ICD), University of Stuttgart 114
Bastian Baudy, Steffen Koehl, Achim Menges and Steffen Reichert

Macrofabrication with Digital Materials: Robotic Assembly 122
Neil Gershenfeld, Matthew Carney, Benjamin Jenett, Sam Calisch and Spencer Wilson

Counterpoint Actualising (Overlooked) Material Capacities 128
Branko Kolarevic

Contributors 134

Achim Menges is a registered architect and professor at the University of Stuttgart, where he is the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design. Currently he is Visiting Professor in Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and at the AA School of Architecture in London. Achim's practice and research focuses on the development of integral design processes at the intersection of morphogenetic design computation, biomimetic engineering and computer-aided manufacturing. It is based on an interdisciplinary approach in collaboration with structural engineers, computer scientists, material scientists and biologists.