It is in our hands to establish the theoretical background, tools, and methods that will push forward and bring innovation in architecture. There seems to be an increasing interest in the less known crossroad of fields where architecture meets automation, the point in which architecture becomes a machine. This automation process is aimed to improve our desirable results – the performance of our built spaces. The motivation behind the efforts to implement soft-robotic technology into an architectural application has to do with the advantages of soft-robotics and its potentialities over traditional rigid robotics, more commonly used in architecture today.


This challenge is approached by firstly setting a foundation to the topic in a survey of the motivations and definitions that constitute Its disciplinary domain, and the prominent projects that set up the state-of-the-art ventures into soft-robotic architecture. This foundation is followed by the introduction of a designated design and manufacturing process of a specific kind of soft elastomeric actuator – the “PneuNets” bending actuator, and then culminating in a practical attempt to apply the covered knowledge in the form of a design proposal for an original soft-robotic, meteo-responsive building skin component, to harvest the advantages offered by the innovative technology.

Meteo-Responsive Soft-Robotic Pavilion – Bachelor Thesis (2016) by Ofir Albag (tutor: Ingrid Paoletti, Roberto Naboni)

in progress