Book Released:
Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture
Edited by Branko Kolarevic and Kevin R. Klinger; Published by Routledge.

Order this book: Routledge | Amazon

About the Book:
Designers are becoming more directly involved in the fabrication process from the earliest stages of design. This book showcases the design and research work by some of the leading designers, makers and thinkers today. This highly illustrated text brings together a wealth of information and numerous examples from practice which will appeal to both students and practitioners.

Book Contributors:
Branko Kolarevic and Kevin Klinger / Ball State University (Muncie, USA)
Brett Steele / Architectural Association (London, UK)
Jeanne Gang / Studio Gang Architects (Chicago, USA)
Shohei Shigematsu / OMA-AMO (New York, USA)
Donald Bates / LAB Architecture (Melbourne, Australia / London, UK)
David J. Lewis / LTL Architects (New York, USA)
David Erdman / servo (Los Angeles, USA)
Mark Goulthorpe / dECOi & MIT (Cambridge, USA)
Marta Malé-Alemany & José Pedro Sousa / ReD (Barcelona, Spain & Porto, Portugal)
Achim Menges / Ocean North & AA (London, UK)
Fabio Gramazio & Matthias Kohler / Gramazio/Kohler & ETH (Zurich, Switz.)
Chris Sharples / SHoP (New York, USA)
Makai Smith / Bentley Systems (Exton, USA)
Fabian Scheurer / designtoproduction & ETH (Zurich, Switzerland)
Frank Barkow / Barkow Leibinger (Berlin, Germany)
William Zahner / Zahner Architectural Metals (Kansas City, USA)
Ruben Suare / 3form (Salt Lake City, USA)
Marc Simmons / Front Inc. (New York, USA)
Mick Eekhout / Octatube & TU Delft (Delft, Netherlands)
Phil Bernstein / Autodesk & Yale University (New Haven, USA)

Kevin Klinger gives a lecture at California Polytechnic State University’s (San Luis Obispo) College of Architecture and Environmental Design on October 9, 2009. More information on Klinger’s lecture and Cal Poly’s lecture series (entitled: “Integrated Practices”) can be found here.

The Manufacturing Material Effects Exhibition, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, framed and displayed the design and material production work of leading international designers and fabricators who participated in the Manufacturing Material Effect international symposium, and subsequent book release from Routledge Press. Designed, fabricated, and installed by a design studio working closely with industry partners from local wood, aluminum, limestone, and plastics industries, the exhibition closely examined collaborative design and production practices from around the globe based on innovative and experimental processes of material exploration.

Each component of the exhibition display system was custom designed and fabricated. A digitally-fabricated plywood armature system was developed and optimized for efficient nesting, fabrication, and shipping in order to minimize material waste. Rear-illuminated acrylic panels were vacuum formed over CNC-milled wood patterns in close collaboration with a local plastics manufacturer. All connections and joints were facilitated by custom designed and laser cut aluminum clips. Digital files were exchanged with local limestone industry partners for the 3 axis CNC production of stone bases. Full-scale mock-ups facilitated the choreography of the vacuum forming process and connection details.

In order to test lighting effects, the studio deployed a variety of methods—both, computationally, and physically. Entire armature bays were fabricated at full-scale with lighting and wiring in order to optimize the lighting design. Simultaneously, the studio simulated the overall lighting effects using photometric light renderings and false-color illuminance studies. This coupling of digital and physical outputs allowed students to understand the successes and failures in both the design and analysis techniques.

The exhibition project was assembled and installed by the student team, using a coding system for identifying each unique component. Additionally, an interactive, touch-screen informational kiosk was developed and installed by Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts. The design process was richly enhanced by actively engaging and participating with the manufacturing process, along with the vetting of design schemes by industry partners, which led to a design process that was truly informed by production, cost, and material considerations, and fostering an innovative collaborative relationship between design and making.

Student Team:
Amber Agan
Matt Amore
Elizabeth Boone
Adam Buente
Lena Dodson
Brandon Hoopingarner
Joe Intriago
Adam James
Kyle Perry
Ross Smith
Rob Thompson

Faculty:
Kevin Klinger
Joshua Vermillion

Partners:
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts
Arrowhead Plastic Engineering
Indiana Limestone Fabricators
Mid-West Metal Products
Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association
David R. Webb Company
Amos-Hill Associates
Ball State Digital Corps
Laird Plastics

Process Photos

i.M.A.D.E hosted an international symposium entitled “Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Architecture as a material practice implies that making, the close engagement of the material, is intrinsic to a design process. Material effects, such as pattern, texture, relief, or varying properties, become the means through which building surfaces manifest the design intent, often at different scales. As surfaces become more complex in their form, shape, composition, and appearance, the manufacturing of material effects becomes a locus of design and production efforts.
Today, however, making is increasingly being mediated – it is the CNC machines and not the hands of the maker that mostly shape the materials and their properties. Innovative new techniques based on digital technologies are redefining the relationship between design and fabrication, enabling a closer interrogation of materials from the earliest stages of design, encoding in the process new ways of thinking of and making architecture.
i.M.A.D.E assembled leading thinkers, designers, and manufacturers from around the world to closely examine collaborative design and production practices based on innovative and experimental processes of material exploration. The symposium framed the various levels of engagement of new forms of architectural production that bring designers deeper into the complexities of making, assembly, and material formulation.

MMFX Symposium website

CHAIRS: Kevin Klinger and Branko Kolarevic, Ball State University

VENUE: Indianapolis Museum of Art

CORPORATE SPONSORS:
Autodesk Inc.
Bentley Systems Inc.
McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group
Autodessys

INSTITUTIONAL SPONSORS:
i.M.A.D.E
College of Architecture & Planning, Ball State University
Department of Architecture, Ball State University
Center for Media Design, Ball State University
Indianapolis Museum of Art

[flickr size="small" float="right"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/digifab/3610175311/[/flickr]

The Manufacturing Material Effects Symposium was reviewed in Architectural Review Australia by Greg More and Andrew Maher of RMIT.

Architectural Review Australia, Issue 101