Why should architecture continue to look, feel and function almost exactly as it always has, in spite of a dramatically changing world? Sticking to established conventions is often the easy and inexpensive way to do things, and it’s backed up by decades or centuries of practice. But as we move into a future of climate crisis and other challenges, perhaps it’s time to be bold.

Experimental architecture explores new paths and imagines new ways to meet the needs and challenges of humans in relation to the natural world. It’s not easy to break out of our assumptions about what we think architecture should be; radical new paths often don’t seem possible until we see them in action. Visionary architects and designers make the abstract into reality when they not only conceptualize extraordinary new ways of sheltering ourselves, but test them out in the real world, even on a small scale.

Breaking out of conventions might mean changing how we use our built environments, how they’re oriented, what they’re made of, their shapes or how they’re put together. After a while, if it’s successful, the experimental can become conventional, asking to be questioned and bucked and broken again in favor of something tailored to emerging circumstances. It never stops evolving.

Experimental Shapes & Materials

Reducing waste and pollution should be a major objective of architecture from this point forward, and that might mean shifting away from current construction norms altogether. What if all new buildings were made out of things like super-strong renewable wood, fungus-based self-healing concrete, nano cellulose made of waste materials and 3D-printed sandstone? Bendable concrete, water-saving bricks, cement that absorbs CO2 out of the atmosphere: all of this is possible and more. The ‘Concrete Vessel’ home pictured above, by Atelier FCJZ, features translucent glass fiber reinforced concrete made from recycled construction debris.

Some of the most impressive examples of experimental shapes and materials in architecture result from biomimicry, examining how nature’s forms and processes can help us develop more effective, efficient (and often more beautiful) structures. We see this in Singapore’s spectacular solar-powered Supertrees, a mechanical forest of vertical gardens, rainwater collection systems and conservatories that could theoretically also contain shops, restaurants or housing.

The University of Stuttgart’s carbon fiber pavilions are another striking example, inspired by the lightweight shell encasing the wings and abdomen of a beetle. Woven by robots, the pavilions are able to achieve highly unusual proportions, and they’re unusually strong. Imagine if we built custom structures like this and covered the surfaces with protective membranes to make them into walls and ceilings.

Experimental Construction Methods

Robots will continue to transform the construction industry in the near future, whether they’re building prefabricated load-bearing timber modules, undulating brick walls or 3D-printed fiber composites based on the behavior of spiders and silkworms. Robots can set building materials into place with unprecedented precision, achieve complex geometries and eliminate the need for waste-producing concrete molds.

Another bold move toward truly sustainable architecture is the Design for Disassembly (DfD, or Design for Deconstruction) movement, which considers and plans for the entire life cycle of a structure before it’s built in the name of adaptability and waste reduction. Ways to reuse or recycle every component of a structure using existing recycling streams are built into the designs, which are typically pre-fabricated, pre-assembled and/or modular. Closed-loop construction systems encourage innovation and produce unique aesthetics, as seen in Kieran Timberlake’s Cellophane House and Kengo Kuma’s Cafe Kureon.

Experimental Usage

Conventional architecture is nearly always distressingly ableist. Designed around the needs of a hypothetically “normal” person, it fails to address the reality of diverse bodies and abilities. Accessible architecture and interior design shouldn’t be “experimental,” it should already be a core element of every design, but alas, here we are. Architects can help the world catch up by adhering to the principles of Universal Design, serving as many people as possible without segregating those with different needs and working directly with people who are most impacted by inaccessible structures. The Universal Design Living Laboratory, the top-rated universal design home in North America, offers one example of what this can look like.

Other forms of user-centered design might center upon a social element, like Soar Design Studio’s residence converted to a communal space for local students, or the so-called “dementia villages” granting patients a degree of freedom and community they don’t experience in a typical nursing home setting. Experimental structures might also be placed in unexpected settings to expand access to housing in overcrowded cities, like Matthew Chamberlain’s “street tree pods.”

Top image: robot-built metallic structures by Prix

Does the idea of deploying robotic plants and animals in natural habitats to help save threatened species and reduce pollution make you feel better or worse about the state of the world? On the one hand, it’s kind of alarming that we’ve reached the point where we’re investing in bionic cockroaches and robot bees to make up for the destruction humans have unleashed upon the Earth. But on the other hand, recent advances in technology make it possible to explore, monitor and aid our environment in dazzling new ways, like using machine learning to predict the behavior of threatened species or interactive bio-tags to warn whales away from our ships.

High-Tech Bio-Tagging Systems

via GIPHY

The ‘Augmented Nature’ project helmed by a team of designers and engineers at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London aims to empower animals to thrive in their natural habitats and avoid threats of nearby humans. The team has developed two robotic bio-tags: one for the collard peccary, a type of pig that lives in the Amazon rainforest, and one for the humpback whale. In addition to passively gathering information on the animals, the tags actively aid them.

Using vibration, the bio-tags guide the peccaries to areas where they can dig wallows and disperse seeds, creating new habitats in safer areas away from destructive logging operations. Peccaries are crucial to both plant growth and amphibian habitats in the forest as they travel through the underbrush and roll in the mud.

The oceans have changed dramatically for humpback whales in the last century thanks to ship activities, pollution and ocean acidification, putting them at risk of ship collisions and disorienting them with the sounds of engines and other human activities. But these whales are essential players in ocean health, carrying nutrients from the depths where they feed back up to the surface to nourish phytoplankton, the basis of the entire food web. The Augmented Nature whale bio-tag integrates an underwater speaker to actively communicate with tagged whales, using sound to inform them about the positions of nearby ships.

Drone Bees & Other Synthetic Pollinators

Could pollinating robots really make up for the fact that bees are dying? Many scientists are skeptical, but the situation is desperate enough to give it a shot. Bee populations are plummeting, and without them, our crops are in serious trouble. The United States lost 44 percent of all honeybee colonies in 2016, and other species are near mass extinction. While it seems clear that we need to put a lot more effort into saving the living bees we still have, drones could help fill in the gaps in the meantime.

Pollinating robots are currently under development in a variety of forms, including insect-sized drones that use horse hairs coated with ionic liquid gel to mimic the biology of living bees, created by Eijiro Miyako, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Others aim to look a little more like real bees. Surprisingly, even mega retailer Walmart is putting a hat in the game; Walmart filed a patent for autonomous robot bees in March 2018.

Some people believe robotics could help keep bees alive, too. It seems like a sad reflection of the state of our world when we have to create artificial flowers to nourish bees because real ones are too covered in chemicals and mites. Artist Michael Candy built this conceptual Synthetic Pollenizer, a system of 3D-printed robotic flowers, which is installed alongside real plants to encourage bees to pollinate. Equipped with pollen and nectar, the machine feeds pollen collected from beehives into a synthetic stamen and then sends it through motors to regulate the amount of pollen on the ‘flower.’

“Bees are easily the most utilitarian pollinators used in industrial agriculture and they are suffering from a variety of environmental problems,” says Candy. “Perhaps in a future where designer crops are no longer able to produce pollen yet still receive it – then the Synthetic Pollenizer could rehabilitate the reproductive cycle of these genetically modified crops.”

Robotic Animals Document & Monitor Marine Life

A soft robotic fish named SoFi developed by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory swims alongside real fish to capture close-up footage without disrupting or alarming them. The robot has been tested at depths of more than 50 feet for up to 40 minutes in Fiji’s Rainbow Reef. Its silicone body is based on those of real fish to give it a natural swimming pattern, and its buoyancy is controlled by an adjustable weight compartment and ‘buoyancy control unit’ that changes the fish’s density by compressing and decompressing air. The team uses a waterproofed Super Nintendo controller to steer it.

It may not be quite as graceful as the real thing, but the MantaDroid by the National University of Singapore is pretty close to passing as its biological counterpart, at least from a distance. The droid is designed to aid in marine biodiversity studies – and also, unsurprisingly, to carry out underwater surveillance.

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Augmented Nature 6 Ways Robotics Are Aiding Conservation Efforts

The buildings and infrastructure of the not-so-distant future might look like they were dropped here from an alien planet thanks to the complex geometries and curvaceous surfaces robotic building technologies are able to produce. 3D printing in metal and concrete are among the biggest breakthroughs, but robots can also set building materials like bricks into place with unprecedented precision and produce prefabricated timber modules of the sort usually created by craftspeople. These 13 recent projects give us a glimpse at what we might be able to expect over the next couple decades.

3D-Printed Metal Bridge by MX3D

Looking like it was airlifted here from another planet, this metal bridge by MX3D took four robots six months to print and it’s almost ready to be set in place across one of Amsterdam’s oldest canals. “This bridge will show how 3D printing finally enters the world of large-scale, functional objects and sustainable materials while allowing unprecedented freedom of form,” says Joris Laarman. “The symbolism of the bridge is a beautiful metaphor to connect the technology of the future with the old city, in a way that brings out the best of both worlds.”

Prefabricated Load-Bearing Timber Modules Made by Robots

Think old-fashioned timber construction could escape the grip of digitalization? ETH Zurich proves that isn’t true with the creation of load-bearing timber modules prefabricated by robots in the company’s new laboratory. A single robot guides each beam as it’s sawed, and a second drills holes before the two robots collaborate to position the beams in the correct spatial arrangement. The result is a geometric structure that can be joined with other units to create a three-dimensional volume.

Robotically Fabricated Shanghai Gallery Facade

An undulating facade on an art gallery in Shanghai shows off a beautiful robotic masonry fabrication innovation as part of a recent renovation by Archi-Union. The facade’s curving protrusions couldn’t have been shaped with such precision by hand-laying techniques; a robotic mechanical arm arranged the old reclaimed bricks to ensure they’ll hold up to modern standards

3D Printed Formwork for Concrete

Looking almost like it was sculpted from clay and fired in a massive kiln, this truss-style support is actually made of concrete that was poured into a 3D-printed mold. The firm XtreeE programmed a robotic arm to extrude concrete into the shape of the outer layer of the structure, poured more concrete inside, and then filed the envelope away.

3D-Printed Structures Inspired by Thai Architecture

Traditional Thai handicrafts made of coconut leaves informed the shape of unusual 3D-printed structures by Thailand-based cement manufacturer Siam Research and Innovation Company (SRI.) “The weaving pattern is designed to be modular and implement in a concrete block,” says the company. “The concrete is being extruded using 3D printing to increase its dimensions as its weaving appearance. After printing, the 3D printing concrete panel is fabricated with the pattern and serves as as structure for holding its weight. After fabrication, the weaving pattern of final module acts as a truss for structural purposes.”

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If you’re down about the oncoming dystopia in which robots take all of our jobs before we’ve structurally reorganized society to support ourselves, enjoy a few moments of smug comfort in these videos of supposedly advanced machines falling, spilling coffee, arguing with each other like old couples and committing suicide in fountains. They’ll give you a brief sense of satisfaction before you read yet another article about how automation is about to destroy your industry.

Security Robot Drowns Itself

Police and security robots equipped with cameras, sensors and alarms (but thankfully not weapons, yet) – what could go wrong? So far, in the case of the 300-pound, cone-shaped Knightscope robots used to patrol shopping centers and parking lots, problems have mostly involved running over the feet of toddlers. But then, as documented by @bilalforooqui on Twitter, one of them let us know he was very depressed by drowning himself in the fountain of a Washington D.C. office building. “We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots,” says Farooqui.

Robots Falling at the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Most DARPA creations, funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, are intended to someday replace humans in dangerous scenarios like wars and disasters, but that doesn’t stop them from being utterly terrifying, especially the ones that look like massive dogs and cheetahs. But if this compilation of robots falling down at the DARPA Robotics Challenge is any indication, it’s going to be a while before we should feel too much concern.

Flying Robot Dive-Bomb

Sure, these robots look and behave just like animals, all right – like angry mother birds eager to attack humans who have wandered too close to their nest. Featured in this video is the Festo SmartBird, an ultralight flying robot that’s usually pretty impressive, developed to help research groups studying animals.

Coffee Robot Makes a Mess

Cafe X in San Francisco aims to be an example of why we no longer need human baristas. Built in partnership with WMF, an automatic coffee company, the Cafe X Coffee Robot is supposed to deliver perfect consistent drinks after you order using a touchscreen or app. But as you can see in this video, things don’t always go according to plan.

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Robot Fails 12 Times Supposedly Intelligent Machines Screwed Up

Not so long ago, we made horror movies about invasive technology that was theoretical at the time, like RoboCop, Christine, Demon Seed and Videodrome. The 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report seemed far-out at the time, but accurately predicted a lot of today’s tech – and its drawbacks. Yet in 2017, most of us shrug our shoulders at surveillance and data mining, because if we aren’t committing crimes, who cares about our inconsequential little lives? Technology has a lot to offer humanity – including the potential to save us from ourselves – but as each new advancement becomes mundane, what are we giving up in return? Indulge your inner conspiracy theorist, if you will, and take a moment to examine how things like insect-sized drones, robotic police and even smart beds can go wrong.

Insect Drones Bug Your Home

Theoretically, bee drones could prolong the future of humanity after we’ve killed off real bees, continuing to pollinate the crops we rely on for survival. That’s definitely a plus. This ‘Plan Bee’ design is just one of several prototypes recently proposed to deal with the problem we’ve created, detecting flowers using ultraviolet light. It’s a great – and sad – idea, but do we really want to grow accustomed to insect-sized drones buzzing around in the air? Engineers have already produced tiny robotic bugs, like these produced by the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, added cameras to them, and sold them to the government for testing. They’re small enough to fly through open windows, and it’s not too far-fetched to imagine them becoming advanced enough to pass as real insects while in flight.

Facial Recognition Smart Phone Apps

A new facial recognition app called NameTag lets you surreptitiously scan your date’s face (just pretend like you’re checking a text and hold your phone between you while seated at a table) and compare it with dating and social media profiles on sites like OkCupid, Facebook and LinkedIn. The value in this is supposed to be in knowing exactly who you’re interacting with and instantly discover what you have in common. NameTag will also scan sex offender registries. It’s undeniably Black Mirror-esque (season 3, episode 1, anyone?), enabling random strangers to do the kind of background checks that employers already perform. It’s a stalker’s dream.

Real Life RoboCop

Imagine this five-foot-tall, 300-pound robot silently zooming toward you in a dark parking garage, fixing its camera lens eye on your face. The K5 Security Robot by Knightscope is designed to detect anomalous behavior, like someone walking through a closed building at night. This particular design uses sensors, cameras and navigation equipment to notify a remote security center of potential threats. If bots like these became widespread, how long would it be before they’re equipped with facial recognition software and even weapons like tasers? Check out the K5’s ominous website.

Smart TV Surveillance

Yes, your laptop camera can be hacked and remotely activated without you knowing. Wikileaks recently revealed that the CIA remotely turns on cameras and microphones on all kinds of devices to spy on citizens. It’s not just a theory, it’s happening. For example, a tool called ‘Weeping Angel’ exploits a technological loophole in Samsung Smart TVs to place the target television in ‘fake-off’ mode, recording conversations in the room and sending them to a covert CIA server via wifi. Do you really think the agency is only targeting suspected terrorists who just happen to own a Samsung? (FYI, if you own one yourself, here’s how to disable the feature that allows your TV to listen to you.)

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