Transient Materialization: Ephemeral Material-oriented Digital Fabrication

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(Long paper)

Keywords: Ephemeral material, digital fabrication, foam structure, dynamic and transformable, algorithm, chemical substances and thickening agents.

This paper introduces the notion of transient materialization through an exploration of the relationship between digital and material-based digital fabrication. The research was inspired by direct observations of nature’s beauty in the form of thin films. The building block of the experiment is an n-hedron structure composed mainly of soap foam, which is blown, through a mixture of air and helium (used to control the physical properties), into a foam structure. The paper questions this structure’s materiality, examines its physical performance and ephemeral characteristics, and expands on its meaning through an experiment in digital fabrication. Specifically, in this paper, we demonstrate the first phase of this technology and achieve a programmable foam structure. The experiment presents various configurations of dynamic and transformable foam structures on a large scale of fabrication. The fabrication interacts with the algorithm, which involves a mixture of air and helium (controlled by pneumatic valves) and additive chemical and food substances, all of which exist in a certain space and time. The aim of the project is to take architecture beyond the creation of static forms and into the design of dynamic, transformable and ephemeral material experimental processes.