UBC Students Participate in the 2025 Robot Made Workshop

As part of the course on Performative Wood, co-taught by James Huemoeller, his class participated in the 2025 Robot Made Workshop.

The five-day intensive workshop brought together the Design+Build team and other architects, designers, engineers, educators, and innovators to explore the integration of computational design, FEM engineering, and robotic fabrication in timber construction. Here, the students gained hands-on experience designing and building a full-scale architectural timber installation using UBC’s eight-axis industrial robotic arm, which will inform their designs for the pavilion projects.

Led by the Design+Build co-instructor, AnnaLisa Meyboom (UBC), as well as Nicholas Hoban (University of Toronto), and Aryan Rad (University of Toronto), the workshop blended theory with practice—offering lectures on design for robotic fabrication alongside live prototyping and assembly. For the students involved, the current course will ultimately serve as their Graduate Project, to be completed in the Spring.

The intention of the Graduate Project format is to combine design+build with the architectural research agenda of our faculty, in this case, Annalisa. This allows students to engage with a topic within the scope of the research area, contribute to the group of students, and make a larger contribution through their collective action. In this way, a more ambitious outcome can be achieved than that within a solo project.

This Design+Build focuses on Performative Wood: pushing the possibilities of what can be done with this sustainable material by engaging all the technologies and advancements in design and fabrication, as well as new material knowledge and ecologies. The underlying value of the topic is to investigate the opportunities these technologies offer to address urgent issues such as climate change and the more sustainable use of materials.