The structure, FLEX, is included at UK Construction Week at the Birmingham NEC from the 3 – 5 October 2023. The AA DLAB Visiting School 2023 explored the potentials of active bending through the robotic bundling and twisting of rattan canes. In construction, the practice of bundling and utilising friction-based structures has been employed for centuries within both, prehistoric and traditional architectures. The increased load-bearing capacity of bundled poles, compared to the mere summation of individual poles, creates a highly efficient system. The structure of FLEX is robotically fabricated in part, through construction and assembly techniques.

The DLAB Visiting School is led by Dr Elif Erdine and Dr Milad Showkatbakhsh, with tutors Alexander Krolak and Angel Lara Moreira, and teaching assistant Chengxuan Li.

The students involved in building FLEX are: Laya Al Ibadi, Aeshah Alani, Yusuf Alperen Bayir, Rim Cherkaoui, Heloisa de Santis Alfredo, Ahmed Gewaily, Jiyeong Kim, Soki Kimura, Anna Kloos, Amalia Konstantinou, Luis Leon Escoda, Samanta Martinez, Ahmed Mitwally, Netra Mundada, Sudaksh Nigotiya, Zahra Parhizi, Yiru Wang and Hanqi Zhang.

Image by Samanta Martinez