High Tech / Low Tech: Tectonic Machines, Earth-Built Traditions, and Constructing The Exigent City

With continuous advancements in the performance and economics of mobile/remote technologies and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems comes an increase in the plausibility of semi-autonomous construction devices for deployment in response to large-scale humanitarian disasters. Robotic building-making machines capable of continuously and safely erecting replacement housing, urbanistic architecture required for resettlement economies, and semi-permanent “emergency cities”, represent our enormous technological potential to better the lives of people currently living in Refugee/Internally Displaced Person (IDP) status around the world (estimates range from 33 to 175 million people). In addition to producing homes and marketplaces, these Tectonic Machines act as digital-mechanical extensions of our human sensibilities with regards to architecture. They must be designed to address the cultural and communal alienation of displaced populations through extreme accommodation in systematically producing a variety of vernacular building types using traditional/local materials. This paper will report on the development of a specific type/model of Tectonic Machine being designed for disaster preparedness and response. The Shokushu Machines are mobile, robotically variable formwork/falsework for use in ‘molding’ buildings, specifically where low-tech/no-fire ceramic construction traditions (such as cast earth or sun-baked mud) coincide with large-scale humanitarian relief operations. Globally, this is a geographic operations area that includes Mexico and Central America, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Currently, the world’s largest IDP camp--located in Northern Kenya--holds 290,000 displaced people in a 50 sq km environment entirely hand- built of mud. Challenges include: cultural adaptation and technological systems interface, maneuverability, auto- configuration, and renewable power sources.