In a converted farmhouse in rural Buckinghamshire architects, artists and designers are using robotic arms and potter’s wheels to experiment with clay. Bartlett PhD graduate and MArch GAD tutor Dr Guan Lee and Slade artist and researcher Dr Eleanor Morgan work with local communities and research institutions, students and makers to identify ways in which robotic clay dispensers can work with traditional building methods. They explore the trial and error processes involved in creating new forms from an old material and the lively possibilities of clay. Through this communal and collaborative approach, the Grymsdyke Farm is a place where people can exchange ideas, working methods, interests and expertise.
As the follies, have accrued, so the workshops have expanded and they now include everything from a CNC milling machine to 3D-printers, water-jet cutters to ceramics kilns, laser-cutters to casting studios – and a gigantic robotic arm.
In 2014 Guan Lee and Eleanor Morgan, were awarded a prestigious RIBA Research Trust Award for their project «Clay Robotics: Sustainable practice in a digital world». A two-year practice-led research project will reconsider the extraction and use of local clay deposits by combining traditional expertise with robotic technologies. Focusing on the geological and cultural sites of clay beds in Buckinghamshire, the aim of the project is to advance sustainable and site-responsive architecture.
