Projects for ACADIA 2022 Hybrids and Haecceities

Projects of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA): Hybrids and Haecceities
Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania
Hybrids & Haecceities asks how technology enables, reflects, and challenges established disciplinary boundaries and design practices. Haecceities describes the discrete qualities or properties of objects that define them as unique, while Hybrids are entities with characteristics enhanced by the process of combining two or more elements with different properties. Hybrids & Haecceities aligns with a fundamental shift away from abstract generalized models of design and production towards custom or bespoke design now possible at an unprecedented scale due to Industry 4.0. This mode of working enables more diverse and considered forms of embodied, situated means of engagement with the world. Concurrently, the fourth industrial revolution risks unparalleled levels of consumption that will produce profound global effects with significant social, political and economic and environmental impacts. Acadia 2022 elucidates how Hybrids & Haecceities poses new ideas and approaches to design, be these computational, material, aesthetic, robotic, genetic, biological, environmental, or theoretical.

M. Akbarzadeh, D. Aviv, H. Jamelle, & R. Stuart-Smith (Eds.), Projects of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA): Hybrids and Haecceities. IngramSpark, 2023.

240 Pages.

The Autonomous Manufacturing Lab (AML) explores the integration of robotic manufacturing and construction within architectural design. The AML aims to reduce the environmental and economic costs of design and production while enhancing their cultural and aesthetic impact. The lab's integrative methods for generative design and manufacturing are developed as semi-autonomous systems, exploring possibilities for artisanal-like craftsmanship to be scaled to large production volumes. This approach provides greater specificity and enhanced aesthetic character in design responses compared to traditional automated methods, whilst also reducing material use and waste within bespoke design and production processes. The AML's research enhances design and production capabilities across diverse manufacturing methods and materials by developing industrial and mobile robot fabrication techniques, multi-agent systems, AI/machine learning computational approaches, and applications of real-time sensor and computer vision technologies. This multidisciplinary research includes the development of Aerial Additive Manufacturing, recently published in Nature, which demonstrates the world’s first in-flight additive manufacturing by cooperating drones, representing a rapidly deployable form of collective robotic construction.

University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
The Weitzman School of Design prepares students to address complex sociocultural and environmental issues through thoughtful inquiry, creative expression, and innovation. As a diverse community of scholars and practitioners, we are committed to advancing the public good–both locally and globally–through art, design, planning, and preservation.

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Projects for ACADIA 2022 Hybrids and Haecceities

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