Hydrophilic Structures

Last month, we completed the third edition of the Robotic Earthcrafts workshop series, which I co-organized with Fulya Akipek, following the first in 2018 and the second in 2023. An earthen mixture composed of clayey soil, lime, fibers, and cement was rammed into molds produced via robotic hot-wire cutting. The geometry of the fabricated wall is based on a hexagonal grid and features a Truchet-like variation. Constructed using four different block types, the wall was completed within 5 days and…

This project is developed in the summer workshop titled Robotic Earthcrafts conducted at İstanbul Bilgi University Architectural Design graduate program. Students call this project “ZOM”. Students are Murat Sökün, Zeynep Çakmak, and Özlem Güven. We organized the workshop together with Fulya Akipek and Hülya Oral. You can find more details about the workshop here. In this project, a simple robot code created the EPS molds of the rammed-earth module. Below are some of the photos of the design and construction…

Can digital design and robot technology be integrated with an ecological design approach? The robotic earthcrafts workshop at Istanbul Bilgi University attempts to relate to biological parameters and digital design and fabrication processes. Thus, the summer school will include seminars and practices on computational design, robotic fabrication, rammed-earth construction techniques, and permaculture design principles to discuss and experience the relationships between technology and ecology. So, the results will be the proposals for micro-permaculture systems, constructed from rammed-earth blocks, with plantings….

Rammed earth is an unpredictable, labor-intensive building material, and far less durable than concrete. It cannot deliver the standard strength expected by engineering academia. And perhaps it is for the better that it cannot. Because it tells us an entirely different story. It reminds us architectural thinking that dares to look outside the box. What I want to share here, is not just a simple studio project, but a profound life lesson for many of us here, lived in the…

This paper investigates the integration of robotic fabrication into first-year undergraduate design education, particularly in a basic design studio. Traditionally, robotic technologies are not introduced at this level due to perceived skill gaps among novice students. The study demonstrates the potential and strategies for incorporating robotic arms into early design education through an experiment conducted at Istanbul Bilgi University. The experiment involved 32 students from various design disciplines, divided into control groups using hand-held tools and test groups using a…