Larry Sass
Larry Sass is a pioneer in digital fabrication for housing, whose ideas are expressed through computer modeling, 3D printing, and other digital fabrication techniques. He has developed innovative methods in design computing to explore the relationship between the hand, eye, and computation in design. His work is a non-standard geometric production of tiny homes, expressed as wooden and plastic structures in a range of sizes. The extent of his subjects relates to early forms of African American homemaking on plantations and to typologies found only in the Deep South.
Larry believes that computers should enable anyone to manufacture almost anything with machines/robots. The grand challenge addressed in his studies has been the rapid modeling, digital fabrication, and automated assembly of mega-sized products (greater than 3 m²).
The impact of his research has been the production of knowledge on computationally based, wood framed home construction. Larry's concept of computation focuses on learning more about the geometric decomposition of 3D forms into Lego-like, digital elements ready for 3D Printing and CNC manufacturing.
He was the first to publish the idea of geometric decomposition as a wooden housing in 2006 and exhibited another version of this idea at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008. The MoMA exhibition showcased many principal ways to construct a building digitally (Link). In particular, the idea of Snap Assembly building construction. A number of startups focused on digitally fabricated housing have emerged since his exhibition at MoMA.
Larry also developed the concept for scalable software operations for very large-scale fabrication in 2010. Afterward, he developed large-scale planar modeling software with his Singapore-based research partner Professor Lujie Chen. The idea was to discover a system that decomposes a 3D form into Snap Assembly elements. Together Larry & Lujie Co-founded LuBan3D a software system that applies the basic principles of object scaling for manufacturing by geometric decomposition. Thousands of people use LuBan 3D to build large scale 3D models with traditional 3D printers and laser cutters.
He earned his B.Arch at Pratt Institute ('90) in New York, a master’s ('94) and PhD ('00) at MIT and is a current MacVicar Faculty Fellow. His current focus is on expansion of digital fabrication by discovery of newAI and robotic systems that aid the enterprise of home production with computers.
