Martin Tamke

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation · CITA

By mapping material properties that influence mechanical performance across the timber resource at a high spatial resolution and matching them to digitally simulated performance demands in designed glulam elements (Fig. 1), work-flows such as the RawLam Experiments hint towards the ability to use material stocks usually unemployed in glulam manufac...

Material design and production must be rethought in light of limited resources, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals, promoting sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation. Currently, building practices rely on composite materials to meet a variety of performance demands, by bonding different materials together. This results...

This paper examines temporality within material and architectural cascades. It takes point of departure in the perception of bio-based materials as abundant within the emerging framework of bio-based circular design, and the need for materials that can incorporate flexibility to local availability, ecological implications, and cost. In this paper w...

Architects and building owners often lack a systematic way to understand how their buildings are used, making it difficult to improve designs. To address this, the Sensing Behaviour framework provides method-ologies and tools to gain insights into the behaviour of building users. The framework connects pre-and post-creation loops to learn from past...

Sitting at the intersection of architecture and textile design practices and underpinned by a design probes approach, the project examines—from a practice-based perspective—the digital crafting of 3D-printed bioluminescent micro-architectures. While bioluminescence is commonly used as a marker in biology and medicine, in the fields of design and ar...

Knit, with its inherent flexibility and ability to integrate bespoke material performance, creates a promising alternative to traditionally woven membranes in architectural textile applications. The CNC-knitting technology allows for the manufacturing of membranes with gradient expansion properties by numerically controlling the distribution of var...

La biologie moderne est en train de réinterpréter notre corps. Là où ce dernier était autrefois considéré comme un organisme autonome, contrôlé et essentiellement fermé sur lui-même, nous nous envisageons désormais comme des êtres participant à une écologie de micro-organismes commensaux, symbiotiques et pathogènes. On estime que nous sommes habité...

La biología moderna está reinterpretando nuestro cuerpo. Si antes el cuerpo se consideraba un organismo autónomo, controlado y esencialmente cerrado, ahora se sabe que formamos parte de una ecología de microorganismos comensales, simbióticos y patógenos. Se cree que en nuestro interior habitan entre 10 y 100 billones de células microbianas (Ursell...

The construction industry consumes significant quantities of mineral-based materials, thereby causing pollution and raw material depletion. To meet projected demands for new buildings, while simultaneously reducing the use of non-renewable materials and fossil-based carbon, there is therefore a strong drive to develop alternative, renewable materia...

Additive manufacturing technologies have the potential to initiate changes in architecture’smaterial culture and move us towards a bio-based paradigm. Robotic 3d-printing can proposenew design languages, logics and tectonics specific to wet biopolymers. In this paper we presentstrategies and workflows for cellulose-based biopolymer 3d-printing. We...

This paper introduces the knit as a special case of functionally graded materials. The ability to specify knitted material both structurally and materially allows for multi-dimensional grading of the knit. This ability to functionally grade knit is defining for knitted material’s relevance to architecture and construction, as it allows for combinin...

In response to global challenges of resource scarcity, increasing attention is being paid to bio-based materials - a domain that covers familiar materials such as timber and emerging materials such as bio-plastics and mycelium composites. The ability to observe, analyse, simulate, and design with their interior heterogeneity and behaviour over time...

Machine-Learning models thrive on data. The more data available, or creatable, the more defined is the problem representation, and the more accurate is the obtained prediction. This presents a challenge for physical, material datasets, specifically those related to fabrication systems, in which data is tied to physical artefacts which necessitate f...

The surging demand for timber in construction due to its many ecological and structural benefits brings with it parallel concerns for its sustainable exploitation and the resultant increased stress on the forest biome. The intelligent and efficient utilization of the forest resource is therefore a necessary focus if its exploitation is to be kept w...

By hybridising the principles of the living with the methods of design, the emerging field of biodesign is exploring how to radically transform the ecological imprint of contemporary material culture while questioning the creative opportunities induced by the appropriation of metabolic processes. This new bio-based foundation challenges architects...

This paper discusses the foundations of a bio-based material paradigm for architecture. It argues that moving from a current reliance on the non-renewable materials of the geosphere, to the renewable and fundamentally cyclical materials of the biosphere can establish alternate foundations for thinking alternative sustainable building practices. By...

‘Imprimer la Lumière’ examines the making of a bioluminescent micro architecture. The project positions itself inside a sustainability agenda. By exploring the use of light-emitting bacteria as a material for architecture it asks what are the concepts, methods and technologies needed for designing with living materials. The project devises new mean...

Joints design is an essential step in the process of designing timber structures. Complex architectural topologies require thorough planning and scheduling, as it is necessary to consider numerous factors such as structural stability, fabrication capabilities, and ease of assembly. This paper introduces a novel approach to timber joints design that...

‘Imprimer la Lumière’ examines the making of sympoetic environments that interfaces living bioluminescent bacteria colonies with spaces for human inhabitation. By employing design methodologies from architecture and textiles design, the paper asks how the experimental probing of how to design, fabricate, inoculate and feed an architecture challenge...

This paper introduces an experimental method to close the gap between the digital value chain of the timber industry and design-to-production methodologies of contemporary architectural design workflows. We present the speculative research probe RawLam, which investigates how the integration of data gathering across the wood value chain, performanc...

This paper examines the use of machine learning in creating digitally integrated design-to-fabrication workflows. As computational design allows for new methods of material specification and fabrication, it enables direct functional grading of material at high detail thereby tuning the design performance in response to performance criteria. However...

This paper presents a novel human-machine collaborative approach to automatic quality-control of Glass-Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) molds directly on the factory floor. The framework introduces Industry 4.0 technologies to enhance the ability of skilled craftsmen to make molds through the provision of horizontal feedback regarding dimensional t...

CITA Complex Modelling investigates the infrastructures of architectural design models. By questioning the tools for integrating information across the expanded digital design chain, the book asks how to support feedback between different scales of design engagement moving from material design, across design, simulation and analysis to specificatio...

Current design practices rely on a set of computational tools to simulate and optimize the design in regards to questions concerning architecture, engineering, and construction. However, little progress has been made in tools related to the design and execution of a building assembly. This paper aims to present an integrated procedure that targets...

The feedback-loops of the modern architectural design practice are broken, as architects rarely get to experience and learn about life in their buildings in a systematic way. Through novel survey and annotation methods, this project aims to develop tools and methodologies that assist architects in getting insights into the built environment. This p...

Machine Learning (ML) is opening new perspectives for architectural fabrication, as it holds the potential for the profession to shortcut the currently tedious and costly setup of digital integrated design to fabrication workflows and make these more adaptable. To establish and alter these workflows rapidly becomes a main concern with the advent of...

In this paper, we are presenting a design to fabrication system, which allows to produce efficiently and highly automated customised knitted textile elements for architectural application on industrial computer-controlled knitting machines (Computer Numerical Control (CNC) knitting machines). These textile elements can, in this way, be individual i...

This document focuses on the exploration of casting complex concrete architectural elements with ice formwork. Replacing conventional concrete formwork with ice formwork,allows to produce architectural elements with complex geometries in a highly controlled off-site production process,with almost complete use of the mold material. Usingdigitallydri...

Extending recent work on Form Active Hybrid Structures of Active Bend and CNC knitted (Computer Numerical Control) tensile members we present a set of innovations in design and manufacturing, which together allow to build structural systems, that morph across multiple structural states. While state of the art tools and fabrications methods in texti...

Nowadays digital tools support architects, engineers and constructors in many specific tasks in the construction industry. While these tools are covering almost all aspects of design and manufacturing, the planning and design for the assembly of buildings remain an unexplored area. This research aims to lay the foundations of a new framework for th...

This chapter describes a research thread at CITA which explores how computation and a challenging of traditional material practice can impact the use of timber in architectural design and fabrication. Several past research projects at CITA have demonstrated the potential for streamlining the design-to-production process using computational tools, a...

Today, scattered design processes and manual interventions are almost inevitable within the AEC industry, especially for 3D modelling processes and data management during the post-tender phases of large-scale and geometrically complex architectural projects that involves the participation of many different trades, which have to communicate efficien...

This paper discusses the design, simulation and construction of a bending-active textile hybrid structure commissioned to the authors as part of the 2018 Venice Biennale. The hybrid structure combines the flexibility and elastic properties of GFRP rods together with bespoke CNC knitted fabric, creating a subtle equilibrium of forces along the unfol...

Geometries designed with carefully controlled heat absorption and heat transfer profiles often elude designers because of the complexity of thermodynamic phenomena and their associated discipline-specific numerical models. This project examines the behavior and design of geometries associated with non-isolated thermodynamic systems by constructing...

Form-finding processes are an integral part of structural design. Because of their limitations, the classic approaches to finding a form – such as hanging models and the soap-film analogy – play only a minor role. The various possibilities of digital experimentation in the context of structural optimisation create new options for the designer gener...

In this article, we propose that new architectural design practices might be based on machine learning approaches to better leverage data-rich environments and workflows. Through reference to recent architectural research, we describe how the application of machine learning can occur throughout the design and fabrication process, to develop varied...

Multiscale design and analysis models promise a robust, multimethod, multidisciplinary approach, but at present have limited application during the architectural design process. To explore the use of multiscale models in architecture, we develop a calibrated modeling and simulation platform for the design and analysis of a prototypical envelope mad...

Background The concept of building information management (BIM) is based on its holistic nature. This idea pays off, if all relevant information is fused into one consistent data set. As a consequence, the completeness of data is vital and the research question on how to complete data automatically remains open. Methods In this article we present a...

Terrestrial laser scanners equipped with in-built cameras are well suited for identifying surfaces in point clouds of building interiors. The colours from the images can be automatically projected on the planar structures, resulting in a textured 3D model of rooms, halls, corridors, stairwells and other indoor spaces. Besides this, using computer v...

This research project presents both innovative multi-scalar modelling methods and production processes aimed at facilitating the design and fabrication of free-form glue-laminated timber structures. The paper reports on a research effort that aims to elucidate and formalize the connection between material performance, multi-scalar modelling (Weinan...

This research project presents both innovative multi-scalar modelling methods and production processes aimed at facilitating the design and fabrication of free-form glue-laminated timber structures. The paper reports on a research effort that aims to elucidate and formalize the connection between material performance, multi-scalar modelling (Weinan...

Fibrous systems represent an alternative approach for building construction, combining individual member continuity with the potential for bespoke and locally differentiated distributions of material. A synthesis of multiple computational approaches in both design morphogenesis and in fabrication logics enable the modelling of construction assembli...

This paper will discuss the role of simulation in extended architectural design modelling. As a framing paper, the aim is to present and discuss the role of integrated design simulation and feedback between design and simulation in a series of projects under the Complex Modelling framework. Complex Modelling examining how methods from the parallel...

Architectural practice and its methods are changing with the emergence of new approaches towards design and fabrication. Experimentation has played an important role as method for knowledge creation in practice based research. In architecture and design the experiment is a particular mode of exploring the multiple and heterogeneous intersections th...

The development of novel form-active hybrid structures (FAHS) is impeded by a lack of modelling tools that allow for exploratory topology modelling of shaped assemblies. We present a flexible and real-time computational design modelling pipeline developed for the exploratory modelling of FAHS that enables designers and engineers to iteratively cons...

This paper presents an enquiry into how to inform material systems that allow for a high degree of variation and gradation of their material composition. Presenting knit as a particular system of material fabrication, we discuss how new practices that integrate material design into the architectural design chain presents new opportunities and chall...

In the context of the EU FP7 DURAARK project (2013-2016), inter-disciplinary methods, technologies and tools have been researched and developed, that support the Long Term Preservation of semantically enriched digital representations of built structures. The results of the research efforts include approaches of semi-automatically deriving building...