Digital Fabrication at Gramazio and Kohler’s Pike Loop

Image courtesy of Storefront for Art and Architecture

On Pike Place between Division Street and East Broadway in New York City’s Chinatown, a robot is hard at work building what is being billed as the first full-scale, on-site digitally fabricated projects in the U.S.  Pike Loop, an architectural installation by Zürich-based architects Gramazio & Kohler in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture at ETH Zürich and Storefront for Art & Architecture, combines technology often used in architecture and industrial design to quickly build prototypes of a final product with robotic fabrication methods used in the automotive and other precision industries.  The difference here is that the so-called prototype is in fact the final product, and the fabrication is done not in a factory but on the spot.

An installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2008 by Gramazio & Kohler, Image courtesy of Storefront

Architects have been exploring digital fabrication and on-site assembly as ways to minimize energy consumption and material waste while bringing costs down.  Although the Pike Loop project is an installation with a short life span and limited functionality, many are looking to projects like this to advance the building technology so that eventually it may be applied in such high-need sectors as low-income housing and emergency shelter, where low cost and high efficiency are the primary concerns.  On-site fabrication offers the the promise of a shortened supply chain and its attendant benefits of minimizing transportation costs and time, and reducing overhead.

Pike Loop progress photo by Storefront

The robot, named R-O-B, has been at it over a week, busily working to meet its deadline of October 27, when the installation will open to the public with a reception at 7pm.  R-O-B’s working hours are 9am-7pm and visitors can view its progress during those hours.

More information is available at Storefront for Art & Architecture.  Images below courtesy of Dezeen:

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