Agenda

The Mixed Matters Visiting School will be the first of its kind focusing each time on a rotating exploration of a different multi-material, as opposed to a fixed geographic location. The scope will be to explore contemporary practices of material design, moving away from explorations of single, isotropic or composite materials and towards a new field of investigation dealing with material mixtures and grading. The aim will be to discover new types of graded materials mixes through which we can begin to question ideas of tectonics, messy building processes, energy, resource and material wastage and the minimal aesthetics of sharp boundaries and uniformity.

For the first cycle of this exploration we will be based at the Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) and the office of str.ucture GmbH Engineering in Stuttgart, where we will attempt to stretch the possibilities of what can be mixed with concrete. We will be utilising the concrete spraying robot at ILEK and effectively building individual small scale prototypes in graded concrete. Intensive digital material simulations will be made alongside physical material prototyping and towards designing the prototypes.

Prominent features of the workshop/skills developed:

• Teaching team consisting of AA Diploma tutors and ILEK and str.ucture engineers.
• Access to the studio spaces and workshop facilities of the Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) and str.ucture GmbH Structural Design Engineering.
• Computational skills tuition on Grasshopper, Karamba Parametric Structural Engineering & Rhino Membrane software.
• Fabrication of small to medium scale functionally graded concrete prototypes.
• Lectures series by academics and practitioners in the fields of architecture and engineering.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/STUDY/VISITING/stuttgart

image credit: UHPC Studio@ ILEK