The Versailles School of Architecture is holding its annual "intelligent fabrication" workshop which will take place from June 19th  to June 30th  2023. This years special guest is Dr. Gilles Retsin who’s work investigates the topic of ‘discrete architecture’, digital technologies, automation, digital theory, housing and economic platforms.

The workshop will address real scale construction with … straw. Straw has seen a revival in its use for residential buildings as a low carbon alternative to other construction methods. The workshop will explore the architectural possibilities of using discrete straw-bales as building blocks in combination with AI-based methods such as Image GAN’s. To enhance the exploration of possibilities, digital workflows for the design, optimization and manufacturing processes will be employed by the students. Can AI help us design a new future using age-old materials? How can traditional low tech methods be combined and enhanced by new approaches to design and manufacturing? How can calculation methods and digital design be made more robust and closer to real problems by scale 1:1 experimentation?The workshop tries to offer bridges for the gap between theoretical knowledge and 1:1 scale experimentation.

Students will explore parametric modeling via Karamba 3D, a structural analysis tool implemented in the visual programming environment Grasshopper, running in Rhinoceros 3D. In parallel with the digital explorations, they will exhaust the material, test prestressed straw and timber connections to ultimately prototype and assemble a villa with swimming pool. All projects will be structurally evaluated and receive a carbon footprint assessment for optimization during conception.

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In parallel, a lecture series will host outstanding academics and practitioners involved in the field of digital fabrication, discretized architecture, low carbon construction methods and parametric geometry.