Workshop 03: Designing with Irregularity: Collective Interlocking Assemblies with Found and Processed Materials
Workshop providers:
Mengdi Mao (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), mengdi.mao.22@ucl.ac.uk
Sakiko Noda (TU Berlin), noda@tu-berlin.de
Workshop Description
Architectural construction has traditionally relied on standardised components and predetermined connections. In contrast, reclaimed materials, natural objects, and irregular fragments introduce uncertainty, often eliminated from construction.
Rather than eliminating irregularities, this workshop aims to open up the possibility of material differences in the architectural context and explores how varying degrees of
material irregularity influence assembly strategies through a comparative design exercise. Participants will work with two material conditions: digitally processed stones and timber with defined interfaces, and unprocessed found stones and timber with no predetermined assembly logic. These material conditions will be prototyped and evaluated through interlocking of stones within the timber boundary system that acts as a reconfigurable assembly framework.
The workshop introduces participants to material classification, assembly logic, and boundary design through a combination of computational analysis and hands-on construction. Working in small groups, participants will investigate how different material conditions affect stability, spatial organisation, porosity, and collective assembly behaviour.
Rather than focusing on the design of individual components, the workshop emphasises the design of relationships between materials, boundaries, and construction processes. Through iterative testing and comparison, participants will explore how architectural systems can emerge from negotiation between material irregularity and adaptive assembly structures.
The workshop is suitable for architecture students, researchers, designers, and practitioners interested in computational design, material intelligence, adaptive reuse, and assembly systems. No prior fabrication experience is required.
Schedule
09:30-10:00 Introduction: Material Irregularity and Adaptive Assembly
10:00–11:00 Material Scanning and Classification
11:00–12:30 Digital Analysis and Assembly Strategy Development
12:30-13:30 Break
13:30–15:30 Group Assembly Experiments
15:30–17:00 Comparative Evaluation and Collective Installation
17:00–17:30 Presentation and Discussion
Expected Outcomes
Participants will produce:
- Comparative assembly prototypes
- Physical installation fragments
- Documentation of assembly strategies
- Comparative observations between processed and found material systems
Workshop type:
one day on-site workshop
Pre-requisits:
- own laptop
- Rhino Grasshopper installation
