Self-assembly - that is the spontaneous association or formation of molecules into organized structures under a defined condition - is a key scientific principle of disciplines such as nanotechnology. The fascinating idea of applying the self-assembly concept to other fields, structures and materials is currently being investigated by a dedicated experimental unit, the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Part of MIT’s Center for International Design, the Lab, founded and led by architect, designer, computer scientist and artist Skylar Tibbits, reunites a variety of professionals from multi-disciplinary environments, all focusing on analizying the possibilities offered by self-assembling structures on different scales. This is actually the most revolutionary aspect of Tibbits' research, creating self-constructing and manufacturing systems for large-scale applications or transformable and reconfigurable structures that could improve our lives.
Tibbits developed projects revolving around three principles - programmable components, simple design sequences and energy. Working with molecular biologist Arthur Olson and in collaboration with Autodesk Inc. and experimenting with 3D printing and embedded magnets, Tibbits created molecular structures trapped into glass flasks that would self-assemble when energy was added by shaking the flask (Chiral Self-Assembly project at Autodesk University 2012, Las Vegas, NV).
The same principle was applied to "The Self-Assembly Line", a large-scale and interactive installation activated by stochastic rotation presented at the 2012 TED Conference in Long Beach, CA.
Further exciting projects focused on transformable 3D shapes and self-foldable 4D printed surfaces. 4D printing, developed in a collaboration between Stratasys’ Education and R&D departments and MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, explores the pure programmability of materials and the possibility of embedding transformation from one shape to another, using only water as its activation energy.
While certain aspects of forming unique structures with programmable self-assembly systems still need to be investigated, it is exciting to think about how they may revolutionize certain industries. It is even more intriguing to think that self-assembling furniture or buildings may be a future - but not so distant - reality and that a new and self-assembling world is not only possible, but may be soon at hand.
How did you come up with the concept of self-assembling structures in the first place?
Skylar Tibbits: Self-assembly is a fundamental principle in many different disciplines, from physics to biology, chemistry, material science, computer science and robotics and many other people came to this topic from the biology side, I came instead from an architecture background. Then I came to MIT and did Design Computation and Computer Science, so I came to the world of self-assembly and programmable materials through the computer science and robotics side.
Can you introduce us to the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT?
Skylar Tibbits: I set up this research laboratory that falls within the architecture department. The goal of the laboratory is to study the principles of self-assembly and programmable materials in a cross-disciplinary environment, understanding the fundamental knowledge, pushing that forward and discovering new scales of application, while working on applied research and collaborating with industry leading companies in various sectors, and scales. The people within the lab are very much cross-disciplinary people with various backgrounds - from mechanical engineering, computer science, architecture, design and media.
What's the most exciting aspect of working on these projects with professionals from different fields?
Skylar Tibbits: Each one brings a different experience to the table and they have different skill sets, but one of the things that we share and that crosses all the disciplines is the interest in these principles - utilizing self-assembly and programmable materials. They have become common interests in very different disciplines, trajectories and skill sets, but I think the collaboration works well for these reasons. The main collaborator on the biology side and molecular self-assembly work is molecular biologist, Arthur Olson, at the Scripps Research Institute, another one is Carlos Olguin, with his research group at Autodesk, that's more on the software side, and then we've been working with Marcus Quigley, a civil engineer at Geosyntec Consultants, on programmable water infrastructure systems.
What's the biggest challenge in these sort of projects?
Skylar Tibbits: Scaling up these technologies and getting them applied and distributed into real world applications. Part of the research consists of trying to understand how do these systems can become efficient and functional, how we can scale and apply them in industries to make really impactful changes on people's lives. Another problem, or rather ambition, is to make these systems as universal as possible with the 4D printing technologies so that we can really extend the palette of these adaptive programmable materials.
At the moment there is a lot of interest in the possibilities that 3D printing can give us, what is instead 4D printing?
Skylar Tibbits: The idea of 4D printing is to give the opportunity to materials to adapt and respond to how we are using them or how the environment changes around them. 4D printing is printing multiple materials that transform over time, and they can transform in shape or in properties. They could be conceived as customisable smart materials, that can be printed in any shape or configuration we want, so that they can go from one state to another state completely on their own. So while with 3D printing we are printing static objects, with 4D printing we are printing active materials.
Is it possible to create self-reconfiguring systems?
Skylar Tibbits: One possible application is self-repairing systems or systems that are much more adaptable. So for example one person who's much heavier than someone who is lighter sits on a chair or you lie down rather than sitting on a chair, and that material may respond and be more resilient and break less. I think there are many applications, one of them is that, responding to the user and have it interacting with the system. Another one is self-reconfiguring applications, so if you flat pack something and have it shipped then you have active energy that transforms it in other structures or you could have one product transforming into something else when you need it or when you want it to be something else. So there are a lot of scenarios from re-configurability to construction, assembly, deployment or self-repairing.
In which kind of fields would you like to see the applications you're researching being employed?
Skylar Tibbits: I'm really interested in some of the product applications, like sportswear, or responsive materials, products that could be in the consumer marketplace and that could be highly adaptive. Most of our products today have a very fixed capacity, they have one function and one lifespan and that's it. But we can imagine highly performing systems that transform as we evolve or as we have different demands.
So far what kind of materials have you employed?
Skylar Tibbits: Before we did the 4D printing work, we were using every kind of material, from metal to foam and plastic or wood. We actually tried to use as many materials as possible. We can try to use a lot of different materials, it's not like we must use a high tech material, it's more about how the material responds to energy. In terms of 4D, we've been collaborating with Stratasys, the leader in 3D printing, they have a multi-material printer called the Connex and they have been developing new materials such as a synthetic polymer that extends 150% in water.
Could this be considered as a new industrial revolution?
Skylar Tibbits: There is a lot of talk and research focused on these topics and many people have published articles claiming that this is a new industrial revolution. I'm not sure if I'll go all the way to say that, but there are definitely a lot of things happening at the same time in different fields and there is a lot of talk about additive manufacturing, new possibilities for customisation, and smart materials. All these things together may lead to this new industrial revolution, but, from my point of view, the focus is on how we collaborate with materials, how we can program them, how they can be smarter and assemble, reconfigure, and even replicate themselves.
Would you like to introduce your projects at international events such as the Venice Art or Architecture Biennale?
Skylar Tibbits: Yes, definitely. We haven't been invited so far to the Biennale, but we come to Europe all the time to do workshops, give lectures and do collaborations. We try to look at all the different spectrums, from design to engineering, computer science, molecular biology and the art side as well, so we embrace all these disciplines.
Do you feel that the profession of the future will somehow be a combination of different disciplines together?
Skylar Tibbits: I certainly think that there is a disciplinary convergence happening between some topics, specifically self-assembling and programmable materials, in some cases some disciplines seem to be merging - computer science is looking more like synthetic biology, which is looking a lot more like design or engineering. So there is a sort of fluctuation between them, the difference only stands at the scalar limits, but the principles and the topics are very similar across the disciplines. I think the interesting thing is crossing between all these disciplines that is allowing new opportunities to collaborate, and that's really exciting.
Image credits:
4D Printing: Multi-Material Shape Change
A collaboration between:
Skylar Tibbits, The Self-Assembly Lab, MIT
Shelly Linor & Daniel Dikovsky, Education & Research & Development, Stratasys
Carlos Olguin, Bio/Nano Programmable Matter Research Group, Autodesk
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