Fabrications

Three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) is an innovative digital fabrication and automation technique based on additive manufacturing that enables the creation of complex and customized structures in the architecture and construction industry. Its most notable advantages include eliminating formwork costs and labor (Buswell et al., 2020; Lyu et al., 2021; Kaliyavaradhan et al., 2022) and facilitating the fabrication of structural elements with complex curvatures, particularly in printing systems utilizing industrial robotic arms (Alabbasi et al., 2023; De Soto et al., 2018)….

This project aims to promote the widespread use of earthen architecture in new urban and rural developments, in line with the overarching goal of sustainable cities. The potential solutions earthen architecture offers across various dimensions, such as human health, efficient resource utilization, locality, economic viability, and cultural continuity, can only be realized to the extent that they are integrated into the construction sector. When the vernacular knowledge embedded in local architectural solutions is enhanced through modern design-to-production technologies, earthen architecture…

We continued the previous week’s experiments with Efecan. Using the sandblasting tool, we started performing point and line tests. The Grasshopper script I developed for this process is below. It allows us to move the gun along defined paths or execute target shots at specific points. To mount the IBIX pressurized gun onto the Kuka KR-20 model robot, I 3D-printed a custom adapter using PETG. Although it required a bit of force, the gun fits tightly into the adapter; it…

The 2025 IAAC Istanbul Summer school was conducted at İstanbul Bilgi University last year. Yesterday, a video was published about it on YouTube. It was prepared by Arkitekt. Here is the video: This reminded me the workshop and I decided to write about my side of the study. The reciprocal structure was designed by Gamze Gündüz, where she finalized it using a Grasshopper code. Then, the timber elements were labeled and sized with the help of Grasshopper again and integrated…

Today, Efecan and I attached the sandblasting device to the robotic arm. The device sprays a special sandblasting material onto surfaces using air pressure. Thus, it is used for cleaning moldy and dirty surfaces in buildings under restoration. Under normal conditions, the sandblasting gun is controlled manually. If the cleaning is too light, it remains insufficient, but it shouldn’t be so intense as to erode the stone either. Normally, the operator performs this control visually. Here, the potential uses for…

Urban Atölye, led by architect Nilüfer Kozikoğlu initiated the development of this Grasshopper code. The concept was to create a random relief pattern on a surface to be carved out using CNC technology. In Turkish, this technique is referred to as “kaşıklama,” as the resulting shapes resemble those carved out by a spoon. Consequently, I named this Grasshopper definition “spooning.” The definition employs the Populate Geometry component to achieve a random distribution. However, you can further refine it to allow…

The Image Sampler has always been a very effective Grasshopper component. Once again, I had the opportunity to use this component for a professional job. As you can see, with the help of a straightforward and short script, we can create a relief of an image to fit the desired panel dimensions on the screen. We can process this onto a suitable material using a CNC mill, laser cutter, or water jet. For the beginners, here are the image sampler…

This is a robotic fabrication student project developed in the Digital Fabrication elective course in 2018. This group of students experimented with the hot wire cutting of EPS foam. Their aim was to create curved surfaces by using a straight wire. Design research started with a literature study of precedents. Then, after several cutting experiments with the available hotwire cutter tool, they gained better control over the technology. However, they found the available tool too large and inefficient. They decided…

I will try to explain the student project called KUKABAE that was developed in my Robotic Fabrication elective course in 2018. This was a very interesting project. Initially, the students were doing the design to attach an ordinary pen holder to the robot. but then the project changed by chance. they decided to replace a pen holder with a ceramic knife. As seen in the video and pictures, the relationship between the material and the instrument became more complicated and…

Today, we have studied creating complex robot programs manually again. Platonic solids were the subject of this study. Students tried to create a sequence of robot moves that produces a Platonic solid out of a 17cm EPS cube. We simply call this the robotic hotwire cutting polyhedra exercise. However, the size of our hotwire cutter became one of the problems because of its risk of crashing. We crashed several times but managed to cut some polyhedra at the end of…