The Turkish architectural practice Melike Altınışık Architects (MAA) has won the international bid for the Robot Science Museum in Seoul (South Korea). The city’s local government called for museum concepts raising public awareness and interest in robotics and robots. The museum will be connected to the Photography Museum next door. Both buildings are situated in a new district of the city, which with its modern architecture is mainly a cultural centre.

Architecture and robotics

Melike Altınışık, responsible for the architectural design, explains: “The new Robot Science Museum (RSM), which plays a catalytic role in advancing and promoting science, technology and innovation in society, will be exhibiting robots, as well as using robots in the design, manufacture, construction and services. In other words, the RSM will start its ‘first exhibition’ with ‘its own construction’ by robots on site.” Passers-by will therefore be able to experience live how architecture is formed using robots.

The construction process as an exhibition

The design proposal focusses on the development of an architectural language using modern manufacturing technologies and robotic construction methods. It should allow connections to exist between robots used in construction, robots deployed in operation, exhibited robots and visitors. A team of robots will, for example, construct the curved metal façade of the museum and use Building Information Modelling (BIM) to form, assemble, weld and polish the metal plates for the outer shell. A different team of robots will print 3D concrete. The work is due to start at the beginning of 2020 and is due for completion by the end of 2022. We can't wait to see the architecture developed by robotics.

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