Underwriting this desire is the idea of multi-materiality, where the homogeneity of digital surfaces is replaced with complex depth, sectional, and compositional effects. The goal is to create building skins from a patchwork of materials and inlayed objects as heterogeneous as a calico cat or a Korean seafood pancake. Ingredients in the pancake include thermo-formable polymer sheet stock, as well as cast or squished-in liquid rubbers and resins, embedded semi-rigid 3D prints as structural core, and low-profile technology such as electroluminescent film. Multi-step tooling processes– such as the use of loose ‘sub-tools’– were used to create local delamination and cavities between surfaces. Critical for the ongoing research project of SQUISHED! has been the use of the SCI-Arc robots as tattoo artists. This has required developing a digital bridge between ZBrush, the entertainment industry sculpting and painting tool, and the hard backend of VAL3, the robot control language. The robots engrave, cut, mark, and deposit wet materials into, onto and between complex surfaces. In this project we are specifically designing interior/exterior wall panels. Similar to any other wall panel, these panels are holding construction systems embedded in them in a way that not only they are acting structural but also they create apertures and design be being a multi-layer panel. The final module has about 10 layers of ABS, Styrene or PETG plastic which each one are acting both structural and architectural.
Collaboration with
Sara Moomsaz
Taryn Bone
Hannah Palovich
Garrett Santo
