Glusion: Filament to Surface​​​​

SCI-Arc Thesis in collaboration with Haleh Olfati and William Hu​​

Undergraduate Thesis Award for Outstanding Thesis Project

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role | design and robotic fabrication 

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Thesis Statement: Glusion is a research based thesis investigating alternative shaping logics and tectonic morphologies. Architecture commonly relies on a tectonics of assembly defined through joints and connections. This thesis explores the potentials of a rheological material in the search of a joint-less tectonic system.

 

Glusion is a homogenous and fused process which can vary its form from a single strand to a solid mass. It explores material variability through manipulation of density, patterning, layering and fusing. The strand is the sufficient part to the whole and when accumulated becomes the whole. Whether reading the object as a figure, mass or surface, there are no discernible differences between the parts and the whole. Therefore a new geometrical understanding of the form is discovered. In this process, the boundaries of mass, surface and aperture are fused.

 

A precise yet anexact and repetitive platform is necessary to achieve a wide range of textural qualities such as smooth, fine, fuzzy, furry, hairy, squiggly, flaky, rough and thick. By situating the experiment in the Sci-Arc Robot House, parameters such as reach, speed and distance define the experiment setups. The stranded object is an outcome of the interaction between robotic motion and material deposition.