LONDON.- Sir John Soane’s Museum offers a glimpse of the future of building construction with a live installation of the Polibot – a prototype cable construction robot developed by architects Mamou-Mani – as part of an exhibition that considers the cultural implications of digital construction and fabrication technologies.
New robotic technologies are set to revolutionise the way buildings are constructed. Inspired by the ‘spider cams’ of sports stadia and pick-and-place technology, the Polibot ‘picks’ individual bricks and then ‘places’ them one by one to create a freestanding structure. Dramatically installed in the Museum, the Polibot offers a tantalising glimpse of the possibilities of robotic technologies and their impact on architectural design.
The Polibot progressively constructs and then deconstructs domes referencing Sir John Soane’s designs for the Bank of England. Curves and lines from digital drawings inspired by Soane’s architectural drawings are translated into lines of code – a new medium of building ‘instructions’ that dictate the Polibot’s actions. The code also contains the instructions for the deconstruction of the dome. In this way it anticipates the new cyclical nature of the building process, in which demolition and sustainable recycling is expected and reflected in the design and construction, and in an indirect way calling to mind Soane’s office’s depictions of his designs for the Bank of England as a future ruin.
The second part of the exhibition explores the wider impact of robotic and digital fabrication. In the centre of the galleries is a 3D printer creating parametrically-designed columns which will be added to the display as they are produced. These will be juxtaposed with drawings from Soane’s office depicting the various forms and articulations of classical columns. Other Soane material displayed here includes the innovative hollow bricks that Soane developed for the Bank of England, which inspired the modular units used by the Polibot and reveals Soane’s own experimentation with innovative building technology.
The exhibition also explores the current revolution being inaugurated by digital construction and fabrication technologies. This is both focused on the future, utilising new and emerging technologies, but also signals a return to the past by reigniting the pre-modern relationship between architect and builder-craftsman. In this instance, a robot or printer with communication taking place not through drawings but lines of code.
This idea runs through the exhibition, and is brought to the fore most explicitly in the juxtaposition of two designs for temples, which as a typology is architecture at its purest: a stunning watercolour drawing the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, Soane’s favourite ancient building, and Mamou-Mani’s Galaxia Temple built (and burnt) at the 2018 Burning Man festival.
Situating cutting-edge technology in the heart of the Soane Museum, this exhibition offers a powerful showcase of the architectural potential of digital construction and fabrication technologies, while revealing the deep-rooted cultural meanings and resonances of these transformations.
Arthur Mamou-Mani said: ‘It is an honour for our work to be exhibited at the Soane Museum and to follow in Soane’s footsteps of architectural experimentation. We see our work exploring the parameters and fabrication processes driving our building ‘systems’ in continuity with historical models of design and construction. At the same time, our conceptual and practical merging of building and unbuilding architecture through a set of algorithmic rules and robotic tools poses an important challenge to the recurring trope of architectural ruins and the notions of architectural individuality and legacy.’
Owen Hopkins, Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Education, said: ‘Robotic technologies are going to revolutionise how buildings are constructed and therefore also how they are designed. This installation will offer the public a snapshot of the new possibilities afforded by these technologies, and in doing so spark a vital conversation about their implications for architecture and cities. Given how fundamentally these and related types of technologies such as AI look set to transform everyday life over the next few decades, it is vital that this conversation has a public platform – one that the Soane Museum is ideally placed to provide.’
