James Coleman, Dr Nadya Peek, Craig Long
Title: Pop-Up Production
Instructors:
James Coleman – A. Zahner Company
Nadya Peek – University of Washington HCDE/ MIT Center for Bits and Atoms
Craig Long - Autodesk Dynamo
Summary:
This workshop explores the creative possibilities of production automation through machine construction,
machine programming, material exploration, and machine control. Part design is only the first step in
production. What follows includes geometry rationalization, material optimization, machine programming, motor
control, and part management. However, these subsequent steps and the labor that goes into them are often
rendered invisible. Different production partners may make vastly different decisions for this invisible work, and
those decisions can blow budgets, degrade quality, produce waste, and reduce efficiency. In this workshop we
will explicitly explore the tension between design and production by running a machine-based production line.
Participants in this workshop will design and build their fabrication machines using the Cardboard Machine
Construction Kit and PyGestalt (networked machine control) with Autodesk Build Space support. Then we will
run these machines as a mini-factory to produce 1000s of parts. Depending on the group’s design agenda,
time, cost, and materials, we will modify and scale our means of production. During the workshop we will
physically explore architectural fabrication practices at scale by constructing a full stack design-to- fabrication
workflow.