Craft Driven Robotic Composites

The manipulation of weaving as a traditional industrial process as a craft, and as a numerically controlled robotic winding procedure, was examined and evaluated through the construction of an architectural scale monocoque shelter. This wound carbon fiber prototypical structure represents a production method for quick deployment, flexibility in form, and lightness of material. The implications of this case study and its future goals are to be explored in relation to the rapid evolution of robotic fabrication and architectural design while being tested through the traditional craft of hand winding as a direct translation of computational information. The methodology and means in which the results are assessed are presented in this study. What is a related and beneficial by-product is the investigation of uniform and continuous winding that fulfills the technical requirements of monocoque and span, while allowing for additive layers of artistry or optical effects (Fig. 1). The oft-converging fields of craft and technology produce novel methods and tools for design, as technology adapts to unforeseen artistic impulse. Simultaneously, these new methods also require a reevaluation of both how art and architectural projects are evaluated.