Cocoon

WIP

Mackenzie Bruce + Gabrielle Clune + Ruxin Xie

Advisor Dr. Arash Adel

Co-Advisor: Salma Mozaffari

Cocoon seeks to advance manufacturing processes of clay robotic printing to create complex concrete structures using robotically 3D printed clay formwork. Concrete, a material widely used in the architecture construction industry today for its low-cost and considerable strength as a composite building material, allows designers to work with nearly any form imaginable; if the technology to build the formwork is possible. By manipulating two historic and widely used materials, clay and concrete, Cocoon breathes new life into these low-tech materials.

The incremental casting and printing process anchors the materials together, creating a symbiotic and harmonious relationship between them. The concrete’s fluidity takes shape from the 3D printed clay formwork, allowing the clay to gain structure from the concrete as it cures.  As the clay loses moisture, the formwork begins to shrink, crack, and reveal the concrete below.  This self-demolding process produces easily removable formwork that can then be recycled by adding water to rehydrate the clay creating a zero-waste formwork. This process allows for creation of branching structures while maintaining a continuous print bead, accommodating additional supports to structure the print from deformation due to hydrostatic pressure. The novelty of the process created by 3D printing clay formwork using the robotic arm allows for rapid production of zero-waste customizable formwork.