Animate Concrete – Dance with Me!

Roto-moulded concrete elements by the Digital Design Unit become dancing partners

Architects from the Digital Design Unit (DDU) in Darmstadt and the choreographers from Berlin-based studio tanzpol explore the interrelationship of choreography and architecture with their “Animate Concrete” project. What happens when you can dance with architectural elements? What, if seemingly massive pieces rock and move at the touch of your hand?

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Animate Concrete – Dance with Me!

The massive-looking but lightweight hollow elements made of concrete and a water-based acrylic resin polymer are designed as discreet elements that join together, but never permanently: with their dry-joint, interlocking connection details they are meant to be rolled, wobbled and rocked by one person without heavy lifting equipment. They can be assembled, dis-assembled and re-assembled into changing urban configurations. Not only allow these qualities for a more circular approach in architecture and construction as the pieces can be reused in future buildings, they also offer a constand, dynamic re-calibration of architectural elements and the human bodies that use, abuse and re-use them.

This mutually dependent relationship opens up the possibility to enter into ever new forms of interaction between spatial configuration and human bodies, blurring the lines between (human) maker and (inanimate) object and instead offering animate concrete bodies in motion. Inspired by dance theorist Rudolf Laban who regarded movement as a forming force for living architecture, tanzpool developed a choreography for both: people and concrete pieces. Dancers are exploring the counter-intuitive kinetic behavior of the objects, which move unexpectedly due to their surprising (and invisible) mass distribution that prompts them to move like tumbling toys.

Animate Concrete furthermore seeks to provide novel strategies to save building material resources by rotoforming, thereby minimizing material consumption and reducing the weight of precast concrete components. In the robotic process, small amounts of liquid material are cast in a formwork, which is then slowly rotated by a robot. The material spreads along the formwork surface, creating a hollow body. The robot arm rotates the formwork in a defined path, distributing the material to create a variable wall thickness and mass distribution.

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Animate Concrete – Making Of

The installation Animate Concrete was shown at the Dutch Design Week 2022 (20-30 Oct) in Eindhoven as part of Robots that Build – The Extension of Man an exhibition and two-day symposium at the TU/e Eindhoven. The show featured large-scale models and prototypes that used robots in innovative and experimental ways in architecture and design. The shown explored cooperation of man and machine, sustainable and circular materials and the potentials of digital fabrication and showcased the versatile use of robotic fabrication through the application of various materials and techniques such as additive manufacturing, robotic weaving, casting and roto-molding.

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Animate Concrete – 3D Scan and Motion Tracking

Rolling Assembly sequence of elements.

Gentle touches make the elements move.

The hollow objects rest in unexpected positions because of a non-uniform mass distribution.

Exploring novel forms of interactions with building elements

Building element affords rocking chair movements.

An object animated by its user

Fabrication: Preparing element for robotic rotoforming.

Concrete elements as dancing partners

Isometric view of interlocking elements with their rotational freedom

Isometry of Rotoforming technology and construction of formwork

Animated objects and their motion paths for rolling interlocking.

Robots that Build Symposium:

October 20-21

8.45 AM – 5.30 PM

Registration:

https://robotsthatbuild.org

Robots that Build Exhibition

October 20. – November 14.

Opening: 20. Oktober 5.30PM

Plaza, Vertigo Building auf dem TU/e-Campus

Project team

Architecture

Digital Design Unit (DDU), Prof. Dr.-Ing Oliver Tessmann, Samim Mehdizadeh M.Sc., Technische Universität Darmstadt

Choreography:

Ashkan Afsharian, Johana Kasperowitsch, tanzpol

Samim Mehdizadeh

Dance:

Johanna Kasperowitsch, Susanne Grau

Scientific development and project management

Samim Mehdizadeh M.Sc.

Robotic fabrication:

Danial Ahmad, Mirko Dutschke, Jingwei Fang, Bingqun Liu, Joshua Schäfer, Luke Schüßler, Daniel Schinkels, Malcolm Unger, Leon Wietschorke

Design team:

Nesrin Asma, Bingqun Liu, Aleyna Yanar, Ye Hong, Luke Schüßler, Daniel Schinkels, Kai Shima, Robin Wehrle, Jasmin Tietianiec, Malcolm Unger, Mashal Maria Hashimi, Jingwei Fang, Yishu Dai, Joshua Schäfer, Mirko Dutschke, Cristina Maria Calin, Sara Elif Yildiz, Tong Lee, Leonie Konz, Leon Wietschorke

Movie:

Maxim Abrossimov (Dance, Making of)

Joshua Schäfer (Motion Capture)

Funding:

https://www.fonds-daku.de/

Media:

Animate Concrete featured in baunetz Campus:

Animate Concrete featured at DETAIL: