MAS ETH DFAB | research project
The Beyond Transparency glass pavilion explores how Additive Manufacturing (AM), computational design, and digital fabrication can enhance industry float glass. A novel robotic process developed by the chair of Digital Building Technologies enables the fabrication of a polychromatic glass mono material with varying colors and textures.
The students of the Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Digital Fabrication 2020-2021 explore the unique potential of this technology in an 11-week course. The creative potential and interconnection between fabrication processes, materiality, color, and geometry lay the basis for the design and fabrication of the full-scale installation consisting of 18 individually designed glass elements of 2x1m size. Each panel is robotically fabricated and kilned in the facilities of ETH Zürich.
Team :
Instructors : Rena GieseckeIoanna MitropoulouRemy ClémenteEleni SkevakiYael Ifrah
Design and Fabrication: MAS ETH in Architecture and Digital Fabrication_Class of 2020-2021
computational design
Customized computational tools are developed to design patterns of color and material deposition. Computational design strategies enable design from granular detail to the overall pattern design. To design each panel's color and transparency properties, a point cloud model of the site is employed to create the filtering effects in relation to site characteristics.
Robotic Fabrication
Robotic fabrication allows for the customization of float glass. The attached multi-channel tool contains granular glass of different colors and enables printing iridescent patterns. The granular glass surface is fused with the float glass at high temperatures in the kiln into one polychromatic glass element. Granular materiality is enhanced through strategic play with robotic process parameters and robotic brush strokes.
Phase 1 - Panel testing and prototyping
During Phase 1 of the project, in order to help all the team members understand the process, every 4 people form a sub-group to practice the process with their own computational design tools. Each group had to chance to test 4 160mm * 320mm glass panels.
Phase 2 - Full-size glass panel Fabrication & pavilion construction
Designed specifically for the site of the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue in Zurich, the forty square meter pavilion is an immersive, panoramic light color space assembled of eighteen individual panels along an oval floor plan. Each panel showcases how standardized architectural materials can be robotically enhanced with novel material properties of varying color, opacity and texture. The immersive installation demonstrates the potential of glass architecture beyond mere transparency and reinterprets its surrounding landscape.
