Macro-Scale Granular Systems
Designed granular materials are well suited to macro-
scale construction. In principle there are no size limits to
the material system, as small elements of the same type
can be
infinitely
amassed. An example in the natural
world are deserts being made from vast numbers of
small sand
grains. This
represents a radically different
approach from known assembly systems, where
scaling up frequently denotes increasing the size of the
elements and consequently of the fabrication processes.
Furthermore, scaling up of a granular system can also be
conducted in a relatively open-ended manner by simply
adding more material, whereas in a controlled assembly
process the final size of the structure needs to be
defined
at the outset. Due to the self-forming properties of
granular materials, fabrication processes do not need
to be very
refined;
the machines can even become
embedded in the granular system itself, as will be shown
later. Machines for fabrication are thus not as much of
a
scale-confining
factor as in conventional construction
methods. Designed or not, granular materials are also
rapidly deployable; large structures can thus be quickly
constructed, reconstructed and deconstructed.
In the ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2015, realised by the
Institute ...
