Breaking down brick walls

Abstract

Architectural designs are not just collections of 3D objects. Architects have both high-level aesthetic design intent, and intent for the functionality of the building; these must eventually translate into real-world construction materials and processes. Physical prototypes are still essential for the architect and their clients to get a feel for whether designs "work". An exciting recent development in architecture is the use of industrial robots to automatically construct 3D prototype architectural models. But programming the robots requires tedious procedures of low-level commands, far removed from the designer's intent.