A New Material Vision

Abstract

Architecture and the built environment hold a key position in this new perspective. Construction is notoriously intense in its use of materials. In industrialized countries, our built environment consumes 40% of all extracted resources along with the 30–40% of generated energy. The first probe examines incremental sheet forming for the rigidization of metal plates. The timber industry is a good example of a practice challenged by its current industrialization. Timber is a grown material belonging to the biosphere. The core characteristics of timber are its inherent heterogeneity and anisotropy. The state of large-scale timber construction has been made possible by the development of engineered timber products such as glue-laminated timber or glulam and cross-laminated timber. The chapter examines the use of robotic incremental sheet forming and calculative models for material change to make thin sheets strong, as well as feedback of information during the fabrication process to create reflective performance in light.