IoA Sliver Lecture - Michael Hansmeyer

“Digital Grotesque”
Architecture stands at an inflection point. The confluence of advances in both computation and fabrication technologies offers architects the possibility of designing and constructing hitherto unimaginable forms.
With increases in processing power, the roughly triangulated geometries and simple blobs of the early 2000’s have given way to the possibility of complex geometries at multiple scales with details approaching the threshold of human visibility. In parallel, advances in additive manufacturing technologies have put us at the verge of printing any form. Recent machines with print spaces of many cubic meters can print not only small architectural models, but full-scale structural architectural components. As a result, a form with a few million surfaces is as easy to print as a form with a few dozen.
For the first time, complexity is not an impediment to design and fabrication. Rather, it is an opportunity that is waiting to be explored.