title: Mediated Assemblies: An Open Source Software Approach to Combinatorial Design and Fabrication
Creators: name: Rossi, Andrea
Publisher: name: UNSPECIFIED
Year: 2023

description: During the last decades, computational design in architecture moved from an experimental endeavour to a more mature field of research and practice. Early explorations have been mostly driven by an interest in the aesthetics and formal capabilities of complex morphologies. The need to fabricate such articulated forms has in turn fuelled the development of advanced design-to-production workflows, allowing architects to efficiently prototype complex geometries, while also accounting for the constraints of fabrication equipment. Ultimately, these advancements came to define a new architectural style, characterized by emphasis on complexity, continuity, parametric variation and mass-customization. While acknowledging the fundamental role of such research, this work attempts to identify the emergence of a novel direction within the field of computational design. Instead of focusing on formal complexity and parametric techniques, this research explores the potential of applying combinatorial design techniques to the generation of architecture as bottom-up assembly of discrete units. This novel approach aims at bringing the editability and reversibility of digital media to both architectural design and fabrication, relying on the concept of "digital materials", understood as materials composed of discrete elements combined via reversible connections. This requires the use of different computational design models, that emphasize on bottom-up combinatorial design techniques, serial production processes, collaborative assembly techniques between human and machine actors, and distributed models of control in both design and fabrication. In order to engage with such concepts through an explorative design-driven approach and address the lack of computational tools for combinatorial design, this thesis describes the development of an open-source computational toolkit for design and fabrication using discrete parts, called “Wasp”. The proposed software provides data-structures for the representation of discrete structures, algorithms for their generation, as well as a series of interfaces for design. The application of the framework to a variety of design case studies allows to test its usability and relevance, as well as provide a classification of discrete systems and their unique potential for architecture. From this, the work explores hybrid methods between serial production and mass customization, as well as procedures for the assembly of discrete parts into architectural structures, including robotics, augmented reality, and collaborative processes. Finally, possibilities for the integration of interactive elements are also explored, demonstrating initial steps towards the synthesis of structure and functional systems across discrete assemblies. This process allows to develop, test and evaluate open models of design and construction based on discrete systems, offering a relevant alternative to make computational design more accessible, include users in the process, and rethink buildings as open-ended editable assemblies of discrete parts.