Cast Agency

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BACKGROUND
The focus of this research is a design methodology that engages topological optimisation, behavioural algorithms and robotic fabrication. This methodology was tested through the generative design and additive manufacture of an installation exhibited at Real-Material-Ethereal at Monash University. The methodological innovation of this research project is the integration of Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization (BESO) with multi-agent generative design algorithms. This approach, termed swarmBESO, attempts to negotiate between concerns of architectural design and structural engineering. The project contributes to our research agenda exploring the design and fabrication of intricate lattice structures through the application of 3D printed formwork and concrete casting strategies.

CONTRIBUTION
This project makes a contribution to the development and discourse surrounding architectural implications of intricate lattice structures design & fabrication. Designing & fabricating intricate lattice structures demonstrate the process of integrating two algorithms which will establish a real-time feedback loop in the process of designing complex forms. The project represents an important step in the process of encoding rules of topological structural optimisation into multi-agent systems. This has been developed to create complex geometry that embeds the necessary constraints of a 3D printing fabrication process.

SIGNIFICANCE
The significance of the project is in the develop of a relationship between structural-based form-finding methods and swarm systems, for evaluation in algorithmic design and robotic fabrication. This collaboration between RMIT CISM and RMIT Architecture builds on prior research in structural optimisation and robotic fabrication that has been published internationally as book chapters, and conference papers: this installation adds to this body of work and creates an important hybridisation of these two strands of research.