MRAC01 25/26 Workshop 3.2: From Matter to Model: Materials Intelligence

The workshop explores the intersection of design processes and materiality, encouraging participants to understand material properties, crafting techniques and digitaltools that supportideation, development and fabrication. Participants will engage with both manual skills and digitaltechnologies to generate sustainable design concepts. Guided along an exemplary design process, participants will work with different materials and components such as wood, steel, and earth—to ideate and develop a digital and physical mock-up, culminating in a hybrid virtual-real exhibition. The program emphasizes responsible resource use, material informed methods and digital technology as supportive design tools.

Learning outcomes – Participants will learn the basics of:

• Integrated Team Dynamics: Demonstrate the ability to operate within interdisciplinary teams and incorporate diverse perspectives into a design strategy.
• Reality Capturing: Operate 3D scanning hardware and software to generate digital representations of physical objects.
• Computational Design Application: Using software tools for design and optimization of physical objects.
• Robotic Programming & Simulation: Demonstrate basic use of industrial robot arms and specific software (e.g., PRC)to simulate and program basic robotic tasks forfabrication
• Material Fundamentals: Basic insight into dealing with mechanical properties and parameters of materials (earth, wood, steel)to inform structural,functional and aesthetic design.
• Conscious Material Selection: Awareness ofthe responsible use of materials in individual design process.
• Methodological Translation and practical application: translation of conceptual designs into technical prototypes, bridging the gap between virtual modelling and physical realization.
• Visualization: Produce documentation and digitaltwins for representation in hybrid (virtual-real) exhibition environments.