OCTA.BOT
Alexis Rochas 
Los Angeles

Octa.Bot, a new universal building system from the Southern California Institute of Architecture professor Alexis Rochas, makes the traditional space frame look like a Rube Goldberg machine. Standard frames have fixed joints, which don’t allow for much design variation. Octa.Bot has lock-in-place swivel joints that free up connecting struts to take on nearly any shape at all. Instead of designing boring old bridges, architects can whip up complex pavilions, houses, and landscapes. What’s more, Rochas, 35, says, the system trims a structure’s mass by as much as 60 percent and slashes construction time in half, compared with conventional methods. “The Octa.Bot fitting greatly simplifies execution of complex assemblies by reducing the amount of geometrical information necessary,” he says. Three case studies of Octa.Bot were recently featured in an exhibit at SCI-Arc; a fourth will show this summer at the first Biennial of the Americas, in Denver. After that? “Octa.Bot,” Rochas says, “for everyone.”

http://www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/ng_story.php?article_id=4259