Robot House

Description

Robotics is the fastest-growing and most exciting area of development in architecture and architectural education for a generation, offering new paradigms for design and fabrication. Schools and practices around the world are engaging robotics and this publication offers new insights into the full design potential of their application. Robot House features projects produced by one of the most innovative robotics design studios in the world, often interacting with a wide range of technologies from motion capture to material science - a realm far beyond conventional 3D modeling and the capabilities of 3D printing. The book has three central sections: Techniques, which sets out the fields and the thinking that underlie the new uses for robotics; Projects, which offers detailed presentations that explore how these principles can be applied and augmented through interactive prototypes and working models; and Platforms, which presents the working tools for used for this new genre of improvisational robotics through specially drawn technical illustrations. The introduction frames the current developments in the history of architectural innovation, and the reference section includes a glossary and diagrams.

Peter Testa is founding partner of Testa & Weiser, an architecture studio known for conceptual and technical breakthroughs, and is a senior design faculty member of SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). Author of three books, he has lectured extensively in the United States and Europe, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the MIT Innovation in Teaching Award and the Design Arts Award of the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is in the permanent collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and is exhibited at museums worldwide.