Bits and

Gilles Retsin

Pieces

Gilles Retsin Architecture, The Diamonds House consists of volumetric aggregations of serialised timber
Diamonds House, elements that are hollow on the inside. The project is no longer geometrical,
Wemmel, Belgium, nor does it have any fixed types. There is only one kind of element that bundles
2016 together and defines both functions and spaces.

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Digital Assemblies:
From Craft
to Automation

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Could automation turn architecture into a
more accessible, mass-produceable cultural
project? Guest-Editor Gilles Retsin recounts
some experiments in this direction from the
B-Pro Research Cluster 4 that he co-directs at
the Bartlett School of Architecture, University
College London, as well as from his private
practice. Customisation here occurs in the
assembly rather than in the building blocks
themselves, with building syntax reduced
to a small number of distinct elements, and
resolution varying widely between projects.
Design, rather than robotics, remains key.
We have probably all seen the images of Amazon’s vast Fast forward two decades: when we now compare Henry
warehouses at some point. Thousands of cardboard boxes, Ford’s assembly line with the Amazon warehouse, we discover
arranged in no apparent order, where only on close inspection that there is at least a certain ambiguity in the difference
a few humans can be seen. The Amazon warehouse is the between the two systems. They are both different and
physical manifestation of our digital economy – the automated remarkably similar. Both are defined by seriality, repetition
system of production that has come to define the 21st century. and discreteness. However, the big difference is not in the
Driven by computational power, the digital economy as a formal appearance of the Amazon warehouse, but in the logics
system of production is fundamentally different from what behind this strange assembly of piles of cardboard boxes.
we knew before. In the Amazon warehouse, machine-learning The Amazon warehouse is about the mass customisation
algorithms collide with banal cardboard boxes and the of logistics, not of form. What we see in the warehouse is a
consequences of automation clash with workers’ rights. In global, automated system of distribution based on just-in-time
the 1990s, architects often used another system of production delivery, flexible, efficient and adaptive. It tells us what digital
to debate changes in architectural paradigms – in this case, it production really is: merely a capitalist technique for ultimate
was Henry Ford’s Highland Park Plant in Michigan. The Fordist efficiency, a fully automated system of production. While this
assembly line was used by architects newly interested in may sound gloomy, theorists such as Nick Srnick point out
the digital to critique the old paradigm of serialised mass- that ultimately this striving for efficiency could also lead to a
production and assembly. This was soon to be replaced with democratisation of production.1 In making production chains
mass customisation: the idea that digital machines could shorter and shorter, the means of production become more
produce every object differently, at no additional cost. This and more accessible as they require less and less capital.
new industrial model was exemplified by the Nike iD shoe From this brief discussion and given the pressure of the
that consumers could customise on a website (although later current global housing crisis and the accelerated automation
it turned out this only concerned the colours of the shoelaces of millions of jobs, it is clear that today the question
and a limited choice of soles). Robots and other computer- of architecture is not first and foremost one of formal
controlled machines alike could be used to differentiate form differentiation or a return to craft – digital or not. Rather, it
and craft unique objects that no longer relied on the notion of concerns the potential of automation to lift architecture out
assembly and parts. of its niche into a qualitative cultural project that is accessible
and reproducible on a massive scale.

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Automation as Design Project
It is crucial to realise that the question of automation in
architecture is in the first place a question of design and not
one of robots. Merely automating the existing, analogue
syntax of buildings does not make much sense. As a building
consists on average of more than 7,000 different parts, any
attempt to automate these many different processes is futile.
However, if the syntax of a building can be reduced to just
a few elements, automating their assembly becomes more
feasible. This approach to automation is also prevalent in the
robotics research of leading institutes such as the Center for
Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biological
Engineering. Here, robotic research is paired with the design
of simple operations and building blocks and also suggests
that the customisation is in the assembly rather than in
the assembled element. Neil Gershenfeld, founder of the
Center for Bits and Atoms, argues that to speak about digital
fabrication, the fabrication process needs to operate on a
material that in itself is digital. A so-called ‘digital material’ is
an assembly of discrete elements that have a limited set of
connection possibilities, as opposed to an analogue material,
which has continuously differentiated connections.2 Think
Lego blocks versus toothpaste. Digital materials are efficient
for robotic assembly and have structural properties that
outclass normal, analogue materials.
In a similar way, attempts to automate architecture should
start with the syntax of the building and its basic building
blocks or elements. The challenge then becomes how to
design this digital syntax? Discrete architecture develops
design strategies for serially repeating, recombinable sets
of generic discrete elements that can be assembled into
fully functional and complex buildings. It is this abstract
notion of ‘discreteness’ – the generic unit or bit that pre-exist
design – that has become the most defining aspect for a new Zoey Tan, Claudia Tanskanen,
Qianyi Li and Xiaolin Yin,
generation of emerging architects working with computation, INT robotically assembled chair,
robotics and digital design. This is the subject of a long-term B-Pro Research Cluster 4,
Bartlett School of Architecture,
research agenda undertaken as part of the Research Cluster University College London (UCL),
4 postgraduate B-Pro programme at the Bartlett School of London,
2016
Architecture, University College London (UCL). Here, projects
The INT chair uses an industrial robot to assemble
such as the INT robotically assembled chair (2016) make use serialised timber building blocks into a variety of
of industrial robots to assemble timber building blocks into a structures. Rather than first computing an overall
form, in this case every design and fabrication
variety of functional objects. decision is computed only at the moment the
On a larger scale, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale robot picks up an element.

Pavilion (2017) is one of the first built prototypes for Discrete

architecture. Similar to Le Corbusier’s Maison Dom-ino
(1914–15), it is an abstract fragment of a larger whole, a
demonstration of a new system of production with radical
architectural implications. It is effectively also a research
Discrete architecture
project on automation, testing the design of discrete building
blocks that act as large-scale digital materials. Off-the-shelf
develops design strategies for
standardised plywood sheets are CNC-milled into a kit serially repeating, recombinable
of parts that can be combined into a lightweight building
block able to perform in a variety of loading conditions. sets of generic discrete elements
Elements are not optimised to perform in a unique condition,
but respond through their iterative accumulation and
that can be assembled into fully
recombination to different conditions. The elements can
be cheaply mass produced and enable an open system of
functional and complex
design and production. buildings.

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Gilles Retsin Architecture,
Tallinn Architecture Biennale Pavilion,
Tallinn, Estonia,
2017

Testing the feasibility of discrete assembly strategies at

the 1:1 scale, the pavilion makes use of plywood building
blocks that exist independent of the whole and can be
used to assemble a variety of small structures.

The pavilion articulates a horizontal, slab-like unit

derived from a design for a large housing block. In
this, the pavilion is more like an abstract prototype
for a system of production.

Generic timber building blocks are clustered together

to form a loadbearing column, while the same
element is used as a beam in the floor and ceiling
planes. The assembly of the elements does not follow
rigid geometrical notions and remains open so that it
can be further adapted at any moment.

This side of the pavilion is more informal and

demonstrates the notions of an unfinished, open
whole defined by jagged, open edges.

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 For the Biennale, 83 building blocks were assembled into In the Diamonds House (2016), a multifamily residence
a fragment of a large-scale housing project, articulating in Belgium, for example, a wholly new, ironically almost
a horizontal direction that suggests an abstract housing ‘organic’ tectonic appears, where there is no more distinction
unit. Unlike a Modernist assembly, the building blocks are between structure and cladding, column or floor. A complex,
not predefined, geometric types – like columns or slabs functional whole is achieved as an emergent property of the
– that only operate for a specific function. And unlike a interaction of simple, serialised elements that pre-exist the
continuous, parametric design, these parts are not derived design. The Diamonds House can no longer be understood
from a predefined whole, but pre-exist the design and are as a defined super-form, delimited by archetypical geometry
open ended. This approach has significant consequences such as the line, plane or surface. Instead of a clear distinction
for computation. Rather than computing an overall system between solid and void, or figure and ground, we now have
from which the parts are derived, the parts themselves are an abstract volumetric space, a point cloud, within which
the basis for the computational process. The underlying elements, bits and pieces take a position, and through their
computational process is in this case not indexical to a recombination enable functional conditions for inhabitation.
natural process, but is based purely on the relations between This results in an open and blurry architecture that has a
parts, therefore bypassing the representational gap between certain resistance to the ‘image’ that has haunted architecture
the digital model and the physical reality as the parts that over past decades, from the Postmodern to BIG’s iconic
are computed are also the actual parts that construct the diagrams or parametric sculptural super-forms.
physical building. This is an important shift away from earlier Using similar elements to the Diamonds House, the
generations of computational design that were all too often 200-metre (650-foot) long Project for a Housing Block (London,
referential to natural processes, linearly derived from external 2018), although based on serialised, repeating elements,
environmental inputs or top-down optimisation criteria. demonstrates how each of the apartments is fundamentally
different and unique as a result of the recombination of
Digital Syntax generic building blocks. It shows that unlike Modernist
While the before dwelled on arguments of automation and housing projects, a Discrete design agenda can achieve
its political and social implications, it is important to point out differentiation at no extra cost. Moreover, this differentiation
that there are radically new architectural opportunities to be is not superficial or restricted to the cladding as is often the
explored in the shift to the Discrete, beyond mere logistics or case in a housing block based on an overall super-form.
efficiencies. Building elements understood as hierarchically This is a deep differentiation, where every apartment has
equal, generic units have no function or meaning prior a unique spatial layout defined by the recombination of
to assembly. Meaning and function become an emergent generic elements. Just as in the Tallinn Architecture Biennale
property of the interaction between parts. Unlike Modernism Pavilion, this differentiation is not inaccessible or expensive.
or the early digital work, Discrete architecture is therefore no The serialised elements are prefabricated, and it is only their
longer defined by strict hierarchies between predefined parts, placement that is differentiated, which in an automated and
but becomes free, open and adaptable. digital workflow is not more expensive.

Gilles Retsin Architecture, This project for a 200-metre (650-foot) long housing block makes an argument for the
Project for a Housing Block, shift from mass customisation of parts to mass customisation of assemblies. A repeating,
London, serialised element is positioned in a voxel grid and combines with neighbouring parts to
2018 produce a functional structure. The organisation of the building is therefore continuously
differentiated in every instance while only making use of repeating elements.

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Low Resolution Hall (2018), a competition proposal in collaboration with
Once it is established that architecture is no longer about architect Stephan Albrecht, provocatively explores this tension
defining an overall super-form, but about the relations of resolution and abstraction. The project consists of a greatly
between the parts, the resolution or quantity of these reduced number of extra-large, prefabricated cross-laminated
parts does not necessarily matter. The same approach timber elements that are populated in a voxel space. Despite
could run on a resolution of thousands of elements or just the lower resolution, the syntax of this building remains
five; fundamentally, the relations between the parts are equally radical: there are no columns or slabs, just one
not different. The proposal for the Suncheon Art Platform repeating element that defines an almost organic, monolithic
(2016), a museum in South Korea, further explores a lower structure. The assembly of these elements results in what
resolution, working with just a few extra-large elements seems like a perfect box. However, ontologically speaking
ranging from 10 to 15 metres (30 to 50 feet) long. The there is no super-form box, only an assembly of hierarchically
extreme large scale of the elements here assigns an even equal parts. The Nuremberg Concert Hall project explores
stronger importance to the parts than in the more high- the limits of resolution and differentiation and is most critical
resolution Diamonds House. Increasing the size of the parts of the expectations that have driven the last two decades of
results in an architecture that is less blurry and cloud-like, digital research. Using Rem Koolhaas’s words in this context,
reintroducing a strong and clear figure while remaining it has ‘a high tolerance for repetition and an even higher
diffused and open at the same time. The Nuremberg Concert tolerance for excitement’.3

Gilles Retsin Architecture and

Studio Stephan Markus Albrecht,
Nuremberg Concert Hall,
Nuremberg, Germany,
2018

This proposal for the new Nuremberg Concert

Hall is based on a voxel space where every
voxel contains a notional V-shaped element.
These are then digitally assembled into larger,
repeating L-shaped sections and physically
translated into cross-laminated timber
sections. The entire building is defined by
one material process, therefore shortcutting
the production chain.

Gilles Retsin Architecture,

Suncheon Art Platform,
Suncheon,
South Korea,
2018

This competition entry for a new museum

makes use of extra-large timber elements
of up to 15 metres (50 feet) long. The
elements contain pre-installed building
services and can be combined into a
variety of functional structures. Here they
form a series of pavilion-like structures
around a network of courtyards.

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 To summarise the shift from continuity to discreteness, it is excessive and unique. Shifting from ‘digital design’ to
useful to refer to Greg Lynn’s spline diagram, first published automation, this is the context for a Discrete architecture.
in his seminal Animate Form in 1999. The diagram compares To form the basis for a complex and qualitative
a Modernist assembly to the continuous differentiation of the automated architecture, we need first to redefine its
NURBS curve, without parts.4 In his book The Mereological fundamental elements. 1
City (2016),5 Daniel Koehler describes a discretised ‘broken
curve’ as per Mario Carpo’s earlier, seminal text.6 In the same Notes
1. Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism
spirit, as a comparison, a voxel-based discretisation of a and a World Without Work, Verso (London), 2015.
curve can be added to Lynn’s original diagrams. Made of 2. Neil Gershenfeld et al, ‘Macrofabrication with Digital Materials:
Robotic Assembly’, in Achim Menges (ed), 2 Material Synthesis: Fusing
discrete building blocks, this digital ‘curve’ shares the notion the Physical and Computational, September/October (no 5), 2015, p 123.
of assembly with the Modernist curve Lynn originally referred 3. Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Vladimir Pozner at the Moscow
Urban Forum, 17 July 2018.
to. However, this form of assembly is no longer based on 4. Greg Lynn, Animate Form, Princeton Architectural Press (New York),
geometry and fixed types, but on a digital logic of generic 1999.
5. Daniel Koehler, The Mereological City: A Reading of the Works of
units. The initially Modernist understanding of architecture as Ludwig Hilberseimer, Transcript Verlag (Bielefeld), 2016.
an assemblage of prefabricated, discrete elements here enters 6. See Mario Carpo, ‘Breaking the Curve: Big Data and Design’, Artforum,
February 2014; www.artforum.com/print/201402/breaking-the-curve-
the new domain of the digital, resulting in an automated big-data-and-design-45013, and Mario Carpo, The Second Digital Turn:
architecture that is both efficient and mass produced, but also Design Beyond Intelligence, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2017.

The initially Modernist

understanding of architecture as
an assemblage of prefabricated,
discrete elements here enters the
new domain of the digital, resulting
in an automated architecture
that is both efficient and
mass produced

Gilles Retsin,
Digital curves (after Greg Lynn),
2016

Greg Lynn’s 1999 diagram (top) compares a Modernist

assembly of circle fragments to a curvilinear NURBS
curve (centre). The NURBS diagram rejects the notion
of parts and argues for a complete continuity. Here,
a new diagram is added below, based on a discrete,
computational notion of assembly, suggesting a
parallel with the Modernist notion of assembly, but
with parts that have a digital logic – generic units
detached from type, geometry or predefined meaning.

Text © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: pp 38–39,

41, 42(t), 43, 44(b) © Gilles Retsin; p 42(cl, cr & b) ©
Gilles Retsin, photos by Studio Naaro; p 44(t) © Gilles
Retsin and Stephan Markus Albrecht, rendering by
Filippo Bolognese; p 45 © Gilles Retsin. Top two parts
of diagram © Greg Lynn Form, 1999

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