Domenico.cc at AIARG2015 Conference, Dublin

The “barn raising” carried out in Amish communities in USA or the social housing initiatives promoted by Lewisham Council in London during the 80’s are good examples of how collective self-build can be a powerful social mechanism for strengthening communities.

Fab Lab Limerick from the School of Architecture at UL in collaboration with the Spanish design agency Colaborativa.eu is researching about the potential of digital fabrication and open source methodologies to generate low-cost construction systems. These systems are adequate for distributed manufacturing methods and can be used by the communities to self-build temporary collective spaces. By doing so, the construction system presented in this paper not only provides a pragmatic solution while a more permanent collective space is pursued, but it also become a useful instrument for social engagement and collective work.

The last iteration of this research is a geodesic dome construction system based on low cost materials and digital fabrication manufacturing. The design offers a great resistance to wind and snow loads and can span up to 14 meters using very small and light elements. The system consists in a continuous tension, discontinuous compression structure of cardboard tubes connected by CNC cut plywood hubs which were developed in a fast iterative design process using laser cutting.

We believe that full-scale structural systems using domestic digital fabrication for both rapid prototyping and manufacturing can open up innovation in building technology to communities all around the world.

Transcript

1. DOMENICO.CC AN OPEN-SOURCE & DIGITALLY 
 FABRICATED GEODESIC DOME SYSTEM AIARG2015 CONFERENCE, NCAD DUBLIN
2. JAVIER BURÓN FAB LAB LIMERICK DIRECTOR
 SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, UL MAGDA SÁNCHEZ COLABORATIVA.EU
 CÓRDOBA, SPAIN
3. SELF-BUILD
 AS SOCIAL MECHANISM FOR 
 STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES
4. Photo of Barn raisin Barn raising in rural North America. 19th Century
5. Walter Segal, Terry and Rose Phillips at Forest Hill site, Lewisham. 1979
6. SELF-BUILDING TEMPORARY COLLECTIVE 
 STRUCTURES FOR STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS COULD 
 PARTICIPATE ON THESE PROCESSES
7. FAB LABS
 AS COMMUNITY 
 INNOVATION HUBS
10. EDUCATION CULTURE RESEARCH
11. GEODESIC DOMES
 AS TEMPORARY SELF-BUILD 
 CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
12. The grow dome project, Dublin. 2014
13. 2013 FIRST PROTOTYPE BAMBOO AND 3D PRINTER
16. 2014 SECOND PROTOTYPE CARDBOARD AND CNC ROUTER
20. MANUFACTURING STEPHEN BOURKE, JACK BYRNE, 
 AOIFE MARNANE AND JENNIFER O’RIORDAN ASSEMBLY AT ELECTRIC PICNIC MICHAEL MCLAUGHLIN, 
 AIDAN BYRNE, STEPHEN BOURKE, JACK BYRNE, 
 AOIFE MARNANE AND JENNIFER O’RIORDAN ACKNOWLEDGMENTS GLOBAL GREEN, 
 WECREATE AND ELECTRIC PICNIC 2014
21. 2015 DOMENICO.CC ONLINE PLATFORM
22. @FABLABLIMERICK
 WWW.FABLAB.SAUL.IE @COLABORATIVAEU
 WWW.COLABORATIVA.EU