Digital Origami by Gregory Epps – Material Xperience 2015
Gregory Epps is an international speaker on the topic of digital fabrication and the emergence of robotics in architecture and design. He specialises in a unique form of robot folded digital origami that will be on display at Material Xperience 2015. In addition, Epps will deliver a lecture at this event titled ‘New Robotic Manufacture’ on February 11, 2015 (13.00-13.45).
From a childhood love of origami, Gregory Epps moved from folding paper to folding metal, eventually founding the company RoboFold. Through RoboFold – which specialises in the digitally controlled folding of complex metal facades and objects by robots – Epps has collaborated with, among others, Zaha Hadid, Joris Laarman and Andrew Saunders in the creation of large, tactile, folded metal surfaces. His lecture ‘New Robotic Manufacture’ sheds light on digital fabrication in architecture and design, start-up culture, the nature of innovation, the impact of new production technologies on society and new applications for robotics in design.
Engaging The Five Senses: New techniques such as those developed by Robofold are interesting not only because of their technical possibilities, but also because they offer a new aesthetic. The beauty of origami structures, their natural and mathematical configurations and resulting light and shadow effects are now also possible for large facade and wall surfaces.
Drawing from his experiences developing RoboFold technology, Epps will look at other similarly placed technologies such as 3D printing, exploring the lessons we can learn from innovations and anticipating the surprises we can expect in the future based on current emerging trends in technology and the new breed of entrepreneurs in this area.
Background: British designer and RoboFold founder Gregory Epps spent the last decade obsessing about bending metals. He even completed a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art that focused on the tools and algorithms that would best shape metal materials.
All the training and tinkering paid off. With RoboFold, designers can fill a room with rippling metal sculptures or futuristic furniture that would be nearly impossible to make by hand or too costly with traditional production processes. Designers just specify their preferred shape via Rhino CAD and the bot jumps into action, carefully working the material into anything from a fashionable coffee table to an angular building facade.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to register for a free ticket and learn more about this exciting new area of design.