Bartlett Academics Launch New Book – Robotic Building

Edited by Mollie Claypool, Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Gilles Retsin, and Vicente Soler, Robotic Building asks how the use of robotic technology affects architecture in the context of automation. The book, published by Detail, explores what architecture could be, and what architectural production may look like, as human labour becomes more obsolete in times of increasing technological ubiquity. 

“Robotic Building aims to position automation architecture, as a means to revive a socio-political discourse on the role of technology in architectural production, presenting automation as critical in how society can become more equitable and democratic in its spatiality. It’s a culmination of years of design research in our Design Computation Lab.

Mollie Claypool, Co-editor of Robotic Building and Lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture.

A combination of book and monograph, each chapter explores a different theme (Craft, Print, Assemble, Many and Diffuse) with an introductory essay that frames existing positions towards automation, digital design, digital fabrication and labour, in a historical and contemporary architectural context. This is accompanied by a variety of examples, mostly built works from architects, designers and research teams, including Mario Yablonina, Achim Menges, ZHCODE and Matter Design. 

The book boasts a foreword by Professor Mario Carpo, two position pieces by Antoine Picon and Philippe Morel and a final chapter exploring the idea of the architect as a robot that merges with its environment and becomes part of our experience. 

Mollie, Gilles, Manuel and Vicente lead the Design Computation Lab within B-Pro.

More information

• Buy your copy of Robotic Building online
• Find out more about our Master’s programmes in Architectural Design and Architectural Computation

Image: Multi-Species Robotic Fabrication for Filament Structures: Towards a Robotic Ecosystem. Mario Yablonina and Achim Menges, 2015.