This paper investigates the thermal properties of 3D printed Cob, a monolithic earth construction technique based on robotically extruded subsoil and locally available organic fibres. The relevance of 3D printed earthen construction materials and the transition from vernacular construction towards a digitally-enabled process are critically discussed. The use of robotic manufacturing is outlined and the methodology to produce the necessary samples for thermal measurement is detailed. The results of the 3D printed samples are compared with traditionally-constructed Cob material of the same dimensions. The assessment has revealed strong potential for 3D printed cob as compared to its manually constructed counterparts in terms of thermal conductivity. Moreover, the testing process has helped in identifying several challenges in the 3D printing process of cob and the assessment of its thermal properties, which will ultimately bring the work closer to full-scale applications.

In architectural design, crafts are often portrayed as a source of ornamental, figurative or historical inspiration. In this paper, instead, craft is framed as an open-ended process of making and material negotiations, involving material properties, diverging modes of knowledge production and representation, emergent tectonic configurations and embodied interaction with technology. By developing this framework, the paper aims to situate the exploratory nature of craft in the context of robotic architectural production. To achieve this, the paper develops a theoretical approach comprising notions of craft (Pye 1968. The nature and art of workmanship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), architectural tectonics (Frampton 2001. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) and digital tectonics (Leach, Turnbull and Williams, 2004. Digital Tectonics. Wiley) in the context of robotic architectural production. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the ongoing project ‘Computing Craft’ is presented as a case study illustrating the proposed framework in the context of cob construction. Finally, the project ‘Computing Craft’ instantiates the proposed framework and helps determine its applicability, impact and limitations.

This paper presents a grounded theory study conceptualizing the socio-spatial relationships of residents with dementia diagnoses in two residential care homes in the United Kingdom. The study challenges generalizations and abstractions of occupants in the design the care home and prioritizes residents’ lived experiences and aspirations as rich sources of design knowledge to enabling articulation of new conceptual-spatial relationships between residents and their physical environment. Mixed qualitative methods were used to build knowledge and construct theory directly from participants in fieldwork and the constant comparison method was used to derive a grounded theory of the research context. A theory model is constructed that encompasses embodied spatial characteristics and discrepancies in the representation and realization of residential care homes. Moreover, the paper illustrates ethical and methodological approaches to architectural research fieldwork in environments with vulnerable people and suggests further research to address co-design methodologies and ethics in architectural research.

In recent years, the need to adopt materials that are partially or fully recyclable or biodegradable has grown significantly. This paper presents a study aiming to develop a physical and thermal characterization of post-harvest blocks (spent mushroom substrate) used in the production of the edible mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus in order to test its feasibility as an insulation material. For this purpose, culture blocks based on wheat straw residues were prepared using a wild strain of the fungus. After the mushroom harvest, the post-harvest blocks were evaluated for stability, thermal conductivity, moisture content, fire behavior, and surface analysis. The results showed that the post-harvest blocks had an average thermal conductivity of 0.032 W/mK, a density of 56.63 kg/m³, and a moisture content of 5.96%. They also exhibited high fire resistance. The culture blocks showed stable dimensional properties, reasonable productivity, low moisture, high density, and fire resistance. Therefore, results suggest that this material could be used as insulation in construction.