Fabricate 2020

This event has passed.

image / University of Stuttgart, ICD, ITKE, FibR GmbH, Germany

black and white image of a machine milling a log

Robotic slicing of a curved log using the KUKA KR200/2 platform with a custom 5HP bandsaw. photo / Sasa Zivkovic

Window frame and undulating wood surface

HANNAH, Ashen Cabin, Ithaca, New York. photo / Andy Chen

a team of people installing a structure with netting and rope

Jenny Sabin and her team installing the knit fabric structure to the exoskeleton. photo / John Breche for Microsoft

a large structure with responsive digitally knit textiles processed through artificial intelligence algorithms and affective computing

Ada, view from above with reflection in glazed surface. photo / John Breche for Microsoft

Bio-Materiality

Synthesising Design and Production

Optimization for a Changing World

Polemical Performative Practice

FABRICATE 2020 is a peer-reviewed international online conference, and book, that addresses the design and making of resilient architecture.

Within the context of global challenges on sustainable access to and deployment of advanced technology, the event will explore the future of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) through Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) with a distinct emphasis on Design.

Established at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in 2011, and after tours to ETH Zurich in 2014 and ICD/ITKE Stuttgart in 2017, the fourth triennial FABRICATE conference is being held online from 09–12 September 2020. For its 2020 iteration, two UCL Faculties, The Bartlett and UCL Engineering, are hosting the conference and have joined forces with two co-organizers: Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Ithaca, New York; and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. FABRICATE 2020 is co-chaired by two world-leading experts in the fields of architecture and design; Associate Professor Jenny Sabin of Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; and Professor Jane Burry, Dean, Design, Swinburne University of Technology.

The conference week will run live across four consecutive days as pre-recorded Webinars and live Q&A, with one session each day repeated for East and West audiences. The 2020 conference includes twenty presentations divided equally across the following themes:

Wednesday, September 9: Bio-Materiality
Thursday, September 10: Synthesising Design and Production
Friday, September 11: Optimization for a Changing World
Saturday, September 12: Polemical Performative Practice

Thursday's schedule includes a presentation by AAP assistant professors of architecture Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic titled Making Form Work — Experiments along the Grain of Concrete and Timber. Jenny Sabin, Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and associate dean for design initiatives at AAP will present Embedded Architecture: Ada, Driven by Humans, Powered by AI on Saturday following AAP Dean Meejin Yoon's keynote lecture.

Embedded Architecture is coauthored by Associate Professor Jenny Sabin, John Hilla, Visiting Critic Dillon Pranger (M.Arch. '15), Clayton Binkley, and Jeremy Bilotti (B.Arch. '18).

FABRICATE 2020 will be hosted by Cornell on Zoom with interactive access for all existing tickets holders, presenters, partners, and hosts. And as tickets are no longer available, the event will also be live-streamed via Cornell’s Video On Demand platform to all guests who register.

For more details on the conference, recordings, and full schedule, please visit fabricate.org.

Fabricate 2020: Making Resilient Architecture, edited by Jane Burry, Jenny E. Sabin, Bob Sheil, and Marilena Skavara and published by UCL Press, is available for free download!