Generative Architectural Design and Build Strategies based on the Mapping of Human Behaviour

The introduction of robotics in construction offers the possibility of implementing design processes that incorporate unforeseen levels of complexity. Not only does this allow for the construction of high degrees of formal differentiation, but for the conception of projects with a high-resolution integration of performative qualities. These performance aspects can include environmental and economical properties but also social and cultural mechanisms, which can be monitored through the tracing of human activities within architectural and urban spaces. This research presented here focuses on technologies and work flows that enable on -site data collection and construction implementation, in separated design and build phases or in an integrated process with continuous feedback. It discusses a series of small projects that explore new scenarios for the creation of architectural structures, experimenting with mobile and low- cost fabrication devices, connected to generative design algorithms driven by sensory technologies. These projects show that instead of working directly with the geometry of the final outcome, architects can begin to script individual and unique processes for generating structures, using rule-sets that capture the intelligence and underlying logic of materiality, organisation and spatial performance. We advocate a new paradigm where the architect is a 'process designer', aiming to generate emergent outcomes where the inherent complexity of the project is generated towards specific performance criteria related to human activities and inhabitation.