The development of new building materials has decisively influenced the progression of architecture through the link between built form and available material systems. The new generation of engineered materials are no exception. However, to fully utilise these materials in the design process, there is a need for designers to understand how these new materials perform. In this paper we propose a method for sensing and representing the response of materials to external stimuli, at the early design stage, to help the designer establish a material awareness. We present a novel approach for embedding capacitive sensors into material models in order to improve material performance of designs. The method was applied and tested during two workshops, both discussed in this paper. The outcome is a method for anticipating engineered material behaviour.

Among current adoptions of standard industrial robotic arms for automation and mass customisation in the building industry, robotic fabrication is of interest for bespoke manufacturing and advancing mobile and onsite construction processes. The use of robotic arms can be of significance particularly where access and site conditions limit further construction of building elements to be inserted in an existing architectural fabric. This paper introduces research and development of robotic carbonfibre winding of an integrated ceiling structure to support open and flexible workspaces scenarios. The project Systems Reef 1.0 explores the potential and viability for an integrated infrastructure that expands standard office-ceiling grid systems to support flexible workspace scenario and the agency of networked, dynamic and self-organising teams. To this extent, multiple soffit-hung, rotational and retractable data booms provide fibre-optic data, electrical cabling and integrated lighting. Through geometrically complex, fibre-reinforced building elements that are robotically manufactured onsite, a new distribution system for data and light can be provided to support individual and multi-group collaborations in a contemporary open-plan office for maximum flexibility. In this paper, we discuss research into the development of robotic carbon-fibre threading sequences and physical demonstrators for an integrated ceiling structure that takes into account local ceiling constraints. Using a KUKA KR10 industrial robot and mobile platform, carbon-fibre threading prototypes were integrated with onsite conditions and synthesised in four physical demonstrators that support data provision for flexible desking in open-plan office environment where prefabrication of large-sized building modules is restricted due to access constraints. The paper discusses challenges in integrating robotic carbon-fibre threading, data-driven occupancy, structural performance and results for workspace flexibility, and concludes with an outlook towards future potentials.

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