Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, ARCHITECTURE

Dr. Ehsan Baharlou is an Assistant Professor of Architecture, Advanced Technologies, at UVA’s School of Architecture. His work focuses on integrating design computation and the process of materialization.


Education

Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D Engineering), Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), University of Stuttgart, Germany; 

M.Sc. Arch., Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Iran


Research Interests

Computational design, additive manufacturing, bio printing, bio manufacturing, upcycled plastics, living architecture, smart manufacturing, cyber-physical system, digital fabrication, robotic fabrication, biomaterials, bio-based materials, mycelium, soil, timber, recycled plastics, digital design, optimization tool, customization, composite architecture


Biography

Dr. Ehsan Baharlou is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. His work focuses on ecological construction to meet the challenges of climate change through research on sustainable materials and robotic construction. He explores novel design strategies to shift the design approach from material- and fabrication-centered design processes to multispecies design.

Dr. Baharlou’s research projects focus on utilizing additive manufacturing techniques to explore the emergence of computational tectonics through materiality. His research projects on the development of bioprinting involve using mycelium to engineer living materials for biomanufacturing. They also include developing innovative methods to embed greenery within 3D printed soil, especially in a way that integrates biomaterial with design and fabrication. In addition, he investigates techniques to upcycle waste materials, such as waste plastic, and the role that this might play in the future of construction.

His previous projects include developing a mobile robotic system for in situ additive manufacturing with soil-based material, devising a novel hybrid composite system, exploring possibilities in the robotic assembly of timber structures, and investigating adaptive additive manufacturing techniques.

Dr. Baharlou completed his postdoctoral associate in 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on the automated production of composite architecture. He earned his doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.) in 2017 under the supervision of Professor Achim Menges at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart. Dr. Baharlou’s doctoral research focused on the integration of fabrication and construction constraints into a computational model for the realization of informed form generation. His earlier teaching experiences include leading several international workshops on computational design and robotic fabrication, and teaching undergraduate/graduate students at ICD.


THESIS

Baharlou, E.: 2017, Generative Agent-Based Architectural Design Computation: behavioral strategies for integrating material, fabrication and construction characteristics in design processes, Doctoral Dissertation, Stuttgart: Institute for Computational Design and Construction. (ISBN: 978-3-9819457-0-6; DOI: 10.18419/opus-9752)

PEER REVIEWED PAPERS

Barnes, S., Kirssin, L., Needham, E., Baharlou, E., Carr, D. E., & Ma, J., 2022. 3D printing of ecologically active soil structures. Additive Manufacturing, 52, 102670. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2022.102670)

Duong, E., Vercoe, G., Baharlou, E., 2020. Engelbart - An Agent-Based Interface for Exploring Beyond the Social Media Filter Bubble. in Slocum, B., Ago, V., Doyle, S., Marcus, A., Yablonina, M. and M. del Campo, M. (eds.), Distributed Proximities / Volume I: Technical Papers [Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ISBN 978-0-578-95213-0]. Online and Global., pp. 406-415.

Nan, M., Chen, Z., Liu, L. and Baharlou, E., 2020. Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade - A full-scale meteorosensitive shading system based on wood’s self-actuated hygroscopic behavior. in Werner, L and Koering, D (eds.), Anthropologic: Architecture and Fabrication in the cognitive age - Proceedings of the 38th eCAADe Conference - Volume 1, TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, pp. 133-142.

Giachini, P.A.G.S., Gupta, S.S., Wang, W., Wood, D., Yunusa, M., Baharlou, E., Sitti, M. and Menges, A., 2020. Additive manufacturing of cellulose-based materials with continuous, multidirectional stiffness gradients. Science advances, 6(8), p.eaay0929. (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay0929)

Goti, K., Katz, S., Baharlou, E., Vasey, L. and Menges, A.: 2019, Jamming Formations - Intuitive design and fabrication process through human-computer interaction, in Sousa, JP, Xavier, JP and Castro Henriques, G (eds.), Architecture in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution - Proceedings of the 37th eCAADe and 23rd SIGraDi Conference - Volume 1, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, pp. 669-680.

Alvarez, M., Martínez-Parachini, E., Baharlou, E., Krieg, O., Schwinn, T., Vasey, L., et al.: 2019, Tailored Structures, Robotic Sewing of Wooden Shells, in Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2018, pp.405-420. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92294-2_31 )

Forestiero, D., Xenos, N., Wood, D., Baharlou, E.: 2018, Low-tech Shape-Shifting Space Frames, in IASS – Creativity in Structural Design [Proceedings of the IASS Symposium 2018], Cambridge, MA.

Yablonina, M., Prado, M., Baharlou, E. , Schwinn, T., and Menges, A.: 2017, Mobile Robotic Fabrication System for Filament Structures, in Fabricate – Rethinking Design and Construction [Proceedings of the Fabricate Conference 2017], Stuttgart, pp. 202–209. (ISBN: 978 1 78735 001 4; JSTORE: j.ctt1n7qkg7.32)

Brugnaro, G., Baharlou, E., Vasey, L., and Menges, A.: 2016, Robotic Softness: An Adaptive Robotic Fabrication Process for Woven Structures, in POSTHUMAN FRONTIERS: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines [Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), University of Michigan Taubman College | Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp. 154-163. (ISBN 978-0-692-77095-5)

Rusenova, G., Dierichs, K., Baharlou, E., and Menges, A.: 2016, Feedback- and Data-driven Design for Aggregate Architectures: Analyses of Data Collections for Physical and Numerical Prototypes of Designed Granular Material, in POSTHUMAN FRONTIERS: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines [Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), University of Michigan Taubman College | Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp. 62-72.(ISBN 978-0-692-77095-5)

Poinet, P., Baharlou, E., Schwinn, T., and Menges, A.: 2016, Adaptive Pneumatic Shell Structures: Feedback-driven robotic stiffening of inflated extensible membranes and further rigidification for architectural applications, in Herneoja, A., Österlund , T. and Markkanen, P. (eds.), Complexity and Simplicity – Proceedings of the 34th eCAADe Conference – Volume 1, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, pp. 549-558.

Baharlou, E. and Menges, A.: 2015, Toward a Behavioral Design System: An Agent-Based Approach for Polygonal Surfaces Structures, in Combs, L. and Perry, C. (eds.), Computational ecologies: Design in the anthropocene, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH, pp. 161–172. (ISBN 978-0-69253-726-8)

Vasey, L., Baharlou, E., Dörstelmann, M., Koslowski, V., Prado, M., Schieber, G., Menges, A., and Knippers, J.: 2015, Behavioral Design and Adaptive Robotic Fabrication of a Fiber Composite Compression Shell with Pneumatic Formwork, in Combs, L. and Perry, C. (eds.), Computational ecologies: Design in the anthropocene, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH, pp. 297–309. (ISBN 978-0-69253-726-8)

Baharlou, E. and Menges, A.: 2013, Behavioural prototyping: an approach to agent-based computational design driven by fabrication characteristics and material constraints, in Gengnagel, C., Kilian, A., Nembrini, J., Scheurer, F. (eds.), Rethinking Prototyping, Proceedings of the Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2013, Verlag der Universität der Künste Berlin. pp. 291-303. (ISBN 978-3-89462-243-5)

Baharlou, E. and Menges, A.: 2013, Generative agent-based design computation: Integrating material formation and construction constraints, in Stouffs, R., Sariyildiz S. (eds.), Computation and Performance – Proceedings of the 31th eCAADe Conference, Vol. 2, Technical University of Delft, pp. 165-174. (ISBN 978-94-91207-05-1)

Parascho, S., Baur, M., Baharlou, E., Knippers, J., and Menges, A.: 2013, Agent Based Model for the Development of Integrative Design Tools, in Beesley, P., Del Barrio, A., Khan, O., Stacey, M., van Overbeeke, E. (eds.), Adaptive Architecture, Proceedings of the 33nd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), Waterloo, pp. 429-430. (ISBN 978-1-926724-22-5)

Busch, B., Ladurner, G., Baharlou, E., and Menges, A.: 2011, Adaptive Structure: A Modular System for Generative Architecture, in Soddu, C. (eds.), XIV Generative Art – Proceedings of GA2011 International Conference. Rome, Italy: Politecnico di Milano, pp. 88-98. (ISBN 978-88- 96610-14-5)

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