This open access book is a compilation of selected papers from 2021 DigitalFUTURES―The 3rd International Conference on Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication (CDRF 2021). The work focuses on novel techniques for computational design and robotic fabrication. The contents make valuable contributions to academic researchers, designers, and engineers in the industry. As well, readers encounter new ideas about understanding material intelligence in architecture.
Philip F. Yuan is currently the Associate Dean, tenured professor of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) at Tongji University, Council Member of Architects Sector, Virtual and Automated Construction Sector as well as Academic Committee of Computational Design Sector at Architectural Society of China; Director of Academic Committee of Shanghai Digital Fabrication Engineering Technology Center; Co-Chair of DigitalFUTURES Association. His research mainly focuses on the field of performance-based architectural tectonics, the application of robotic fabrication equipment, and developments of robotic fabrication technologies.
Hua Chai is a PhD candidate at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Tongji University. His research mainly focuses on developing robotic fabrication platforms and computational design strategies for advanced timber structures. He holds a Master degree of Architecture from Tongji University. In 2020, he visited the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), University of Stuttgart as a guest researcher, where he mainly focused on the development of mobile platform-based robotic timber architecture together with colleagues from ICD and Fab-Union. He has been involved in leading several international workshops on robotic timber construction DigitalFUTURES and ACADIA 2020.
Chao Yan is Postdoctoral Researcher at Tongji University where he conducts researches on the history of construction technology and digital design theory. He was Visiting Lecturer at China Academy of Art, where he has taught design studio and theory courses from 2014 to 2018, and Visiting Scholar at University of Virginia in 2019. His work focuses on the intersection between architectural theory and philosophy, and he has published extensively on the history and theory of body, neurophilosophy in architecture, post-68 architectural history, etc. His recent work is to construct a body perspective to review the history of digital design and fabrication.
Neil Leach is Architect and Theorist. He is currently Visiting Professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Visiting Professor at Tongji University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California, and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Fellow. He has also taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the Architectural Association, Cornell University, Columbia University, the Dessau Institute of Architecture, the Royal Danish School of Fine Arts, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the International University of Catalonia, the University of Bath, the University of Brighton, the University of Nottingham, and London Consortium.
