Fab Pod 2.1

FabPod 2.1 is an extension of the 2012 and 2020 design of SIAL / RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology as a project that that investigates the need for privacy and speech optimisation in open work areas using sound diffusing properties of hyperbolic surfaces. In the 2025 iteration FabPod 2.1 Arch_Manu kept the design of the second iteration but altered the material selection and fabrication to circular materials to postulate and test that one can fabricate and built complex structures via recycled or bio-local low emission building materials.

The initial construction system developed as a lightweight thin modular steel metal structurewas replaced with tree branches and custom-made 3D printed PLA nodes. The hyperbolic surfaces and the double-layered ‘skin’ – fabricated via robotic CNC-milled cones and plywood was replaced by 3d printed ‘cone’ elements using recycled plastic. All elements can be disassembled and either reused or repurposed in other projects (branches) or in the case of the nodes and cones shredded and used for future 3D prints.

The project demonstrates that computationally augment circular design is feasible and functions now as a digital circular experimental design-built platform for Arch_Manu’s partner universities UNSW, Swinburne University of Technology and Adelaide University.