Last Wednesday afternoon, traffic briefly stopped at the main entrance to the University of Michigan’s North Campus as 12 of us hauled a stark white blob the size of a jet ski up hills and across intersections. Curious and confused onlookers watched us as we carried what must have seemed like an unidentifiable object towards the small pond located behind the School of Music. Despite the cold and the rain, the workshop group prepared the form for its maiden voyage, and watched as its water ballast was filled, allowing the foam blob to slowly position itself into a floating megalith. Throughout this trek the workshop’s leader, MIT Assistant Professor Brandon Clifford, walked alongside answering questions. For Brandon, this procession towards the water was not just a familiar aspect of his research in megalithic constructions, but instead an essential element of the history and significance of volumetric design.

Two days earlier, Brandon began his ACADIA workshop session by telling the myth of the Moai on the Pacific island of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island), who were said to have walked themselves into their final resting spots. According to Clifford, it wasn’t until 2012 that archaeologists determined these stone figures had indeed walked across the island, as their sculptors ceremonially rocked them with ropes from side to side. While this discovery answered questions that had plagued archaeologists since the Moai’s discovery in 1722, Brandon explained how this recent discovery suggests that at some point in time knowledge of volumetric design and construction strategies had been lost. By creating megaliths, Clifford hopes to not only draw attention to the preference given to the surface (as opposed to volume) in digital design environments, but also to reintroduce physics-based modeling practices into the architectural vocabulary.

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Working directly with experts in the field of computer-aided design during the ACADIA workshops was an undeniably beneficial experience. What was especially memorable though, was the effect these experts had on my own understanding of Michigan’s FabLab, and how I could use it as a MS student. Given that the school’s workshop consumes almost the entire lower level of the architecture side of our building, I had always assumed that I would not be able to see every tool in action within the short duration of my MS program. During the workshops, I was excited to see some of our most powerful (and often dormant) tools come to life, as visitors such as Brandon Clifford jumped on the opportunity to use equipment which is not as readily accessible to them at their own school’s facilities. But what was even more surprising were the tools and equipment that seemed to emerge from the shadows, as temporary classrooms were set up and new hands began to operate in these spaces. Within the course of three days I watched as our workshop was rearranged to reveal retired tools hiding in the corners, as powerful end-effectors were pulled out of storage, and as innocuous questions about random FabLab installations revealed the remnants of an entire research project. By the end of the third day in the ACADIA workshops, I found myself more excited than I had been the entire semester about the work I could produce as student.