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Students, researchers and staff of the University of Sydney will showcase the potential of robotics in architecture and design applications at a new exhibition for Sydney Design 2015.

Hosted by the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, the four-day exhibition, Fabricating Futures: Robots. Research. Design. will explore the latest trends in robotics and digital technology that are driving innovation.

Robots and digital fabrication are increasingly being used in exciting new ways in the fields of architecture and design, presenting great prospects for the future of these creative industries.

The University’s fabrication facilities in the Design, Modelling and Fabrication Lab (DMaF Lab), one of the most advanced labs of any architecture and design school in Australia, will be a focal point of the four-day event. Fabricating Futures will be exhibited throughout the DMaF Lab, alongside working laser cutters, CNC routers and 3D printers that are used to fabricate models, prototypes and full-scale projects.

Marjo Niemelä, Fabricating Futures curator and Manager of the DMaF Lab at the University of Sydney explained that their facilities will be opened during the exhibition to allow visitors to see up close the creative-making process in action, which is still very much at the heart of architecture and design teaching.

The exhibition features the work of more than one hundred postgraduate students from the Master of Architecture and Master of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts programs, as well as researchers in architecture, architectural science and interaction design that are experimenting with new ideas and using pioneering technology.

Hundreds of complex architectural models, digitally-developed interactive prototypes, lighting and object designs, robotic ideas and innovative research will be on show, providing a glimpse of current ideas and industry potential.

A Sydney Ideas discussion panel facilitated by television and radio presenter Fenella Kernebone on Saturday 12 September, will hear four leading robotic experts – Dr Dagmar Reinhardt (University of Sydney), Marjo Niemelä (University of Sydney), Dr Matthias Haeusler (University of NSW) and Associate Professor Jon McCormack (Monash University) – discuss the current challenges of integrating robotics into architecture and design, the latest advances and industry outlook.

Fabricating Futures is a precursor event to the international ROB|Arch 2016 conference that will be hosted by the University of Sydney in March next year.

Fabricating Futures: Robots. Research. Design. will be held 10-13 September at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, Wilkinson Building, 148 City Road, University of Sydney.