How a robot made this other great wall in China
How a robot made this other great wall in China
Human hands aren’t as precise
An exhibition space for an artist group in Shanghai just had a much-needed makeover, thanks to a very clever bricklayer.
The catch is that the bricklayer is not human.
To create a new façade for the Chi She space by artists Zhang Peili and Geng Jiangyi, Archi-Union Architects employed robotic masonry fabrication techniques.
Arguably even the most artful of human hands today — save perhaps for skilled masons associated with Antoni Gaudi and Eladio Dieste perhaps, as TreeHugger pointed out — could not achieve the brickwork, whose undulating, curvy form was made possible by the precise control of a robotic mechanical arm, provided by fabrication company Fab-Union.
No material was essentially wasted, let alone bought. As future-forward as this kind of bricklaying is, the façade only recycled grey green bricks from the previous structure.
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“The dilapidation of these old bricks coordinated with the stretch display of the curving walls are narrating a connection between people and bricks, machines and construction, design and culture, which will be spread permanently in the shadow of external walls under the setting sun,” the architects noted in ArchDaily.
The complex parametric design, which conveys “the vitality of both the exhibition space and the wider neighborhood,” was completed earlier this year. Construction commenced in April, and the structure was finished in September.
Other renovations of the 200-sqm exhibition space include a newly elevated roof, which has been replaced with a lightweight timber canopy. The roof now has an interlayer space through which guests can peek at the sky, the architects noted.
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Source: Property Report