A FETISH FOR FABRICATION

Fortmeyer reveals that architects Peter Testa and Devyn Weiser like to point out that the robotic Staubli instruments installed last spring in the new Robot House at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), in Los Angeles CA, are not people. For that matter, the Robot House is not a house, but rather a converted double-height space at the south end of SCI-Arc's main building. The room has two glass walls and a catwalk overhead, which allow students to view the robots in action. Testa expects that the tools will eventually be sophisticated enough to enable designers to tightly control the work spheres of multiple robots in complex spatial conditions. This would set the stage for robots moving out of the factory and onto the construction site, ultimately allowing a much more adaptive and responsive design environment, where both architect and client can evaluate outcomes in real time.