Taubman College faculty members Mania Aghaei Meibodi and Wes McGee are exhibiting “Plastic Architecture” at The Cooper Union through November 7.
“Plastic Architecture” explores the potential for large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to disrupt the high-performance building façade industry. Through functional integration and optimization, future façade systems will possess improved thermal and structural performance while being lighter and faster to produce and install. (Learn more about the “Plastic Architecture” exhibition here.)
Aghaei Meibodi — an assistant professor of architecture and director of the Digital Architecture and Research Technologies (DART) Lab at Taubman College — is an architect specializing in computational design and robotic fabrication to material innovations. She develops seamless combinations of digital technologies and physical building processes that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to the building industry. With additive manufacturing (AM) at the core of this process, her research introduces new design methods and construction techniques that together enable geometrically complex adaptations in architecture.
McGee — an associate professor of architecture and the director of the Fabrication and Robotics Lab at Taubman College — explores the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies with design-driven workflows. He is known for innovating in the space of design and fabrication across a range of material processes, particularly in the application of industrial robotic tools to architectural production. Wes is co-founder and partner of Matter Design, and his research revolves around interrogating the means and methods of material production in architecture, focusing on developing new connections between design, engineering, materials, and manufacturing processes as they relate to the built environment.
