Designing (for) Decay: Parametric Material Distribution for Hierarchical Dissociation of Water-based Biopolymer Composites

We present a design-to-fabrication workflow enabling hierarchical dissociation of water-based biopolymer composites on architectural scales. We leverage a water-based fabrication platform enabling the production of large-scale, geometrically complex, structurally hierarchical, functionally graded, and environmentally responsive structures along with robotic material deposition of viscous water-based materials. The robotic fabrication of such materials enables the controllable dissociation of structures in water, where dissociation rates of digitally fabricated parts are functions of material density distributions across surface areas. We introduce a methodology for the design and digital fabrication of objects with locally controllable dissociation properties through the generation of two-dimensional patterns by custom toolpaths that enable differentiated material densities across multiple length scales, while maintaining smooth transitions imposed by the material and the fabrication system.