rexlab_ars

FrAgile 3 – Coralloid Cocoons

The installation is part of a series of prototypical and theoretical investigations into FrAgility, which explore the synthesis of agile robotic fabrication methods with fragile materiality. In this case, 3 industrial robots have 3D-printed their own structural, ornamental, porous and coral-like sheltering cocoons in concrete, one of architecture’s archetypical materials. In a second stage, which can be observed live at the Ars Electronica 2016, the robots spin a much finer, filigree and elastic layer of PLA in a process of cocooning. The installation symbolizes the on-going metamorphosis of robotics in architecture to transform from stubby and clumsy ‘Fordian caterpillars’ to frAgile ‘post-digital chrysalises’.

Research Project and Design:

Prof. Marjan Colletti, Johannes Ladinig, REX|LAB

Collaborators:

Georg Grasser, Galo Patricio Montayo Asan, Pedja Gavrilovic, Lukas Jonathan Härtenberger, David Christoph Stieler, Christoph Tobias Schlopschnat, Peter Griebel

Sponsored by:

Ars Electronica; the Faculty of Architecture, the Institute for Experimental Architecture and REX|LAB – Innsbruck University