DEVIN
LOHMAN

M.ARCH   -   LEED AP BD+C   -   WELL AP





LinkedIn
CV








DIGITAL
FABRICATOR

DESIGNER AT
ALL SCALES

ARCHITECTURAL
ROBOTICIST



ALL 
WORK

DIGITAL
FABRICATION

STUDIO 
WORK

My work aims always to strike a balance between what has come before and what must come next. 

I greatly admire both the traditional and technological sides of craft, and I look to figures such as Wharton Esherick and Gramazio + Kohler as I strive to reconcile these two disparate worlds in any project I am a part of.

The following works are just the highlights; behind every completed project are a score of unsuccessful attempts.

 

                  SYLVAN
   SWELL






Built

Winter 2023

An experiment in mixed reality fabrication, Sylvan Swell is a sculptural pavilion on Georgia Tech’s campus fabricated using Fologram and Hololens Mixed Reality technology. With over 450 unique elements, the workflow for such a sculpture would have been cumbersome and overly-involved without the use of MR technologies.

Utilizing over 1800 linear feet of 1.5 in by 3 in upcycled scrap pine members, (waste from a previous Georgia Tech studio) the sculpture attempts to imply an amorphous shape while respecting both a rigid underlying grid and an entirely orthogonal system of structural elements.

Economy of material, time, and energy make the form and its MR fabrication method inseparable.  At end of life, the sculpture is entirely deconstructable, and the simple tectonic method is such that the members retain enough strength to be donated back to the Georgia Tech Digital Fabrication Lab for use in future projects. 


Winner of the 2024 Architecture Masterprize Best of Best Award for Student Small Architecture


Group Build with John Wilson and Joseph L’Heureux


6506 Materials and Fabrications:
Chris Simon

       


ROUND-   TIMBER
ECODUCT





Speculative

Fall
2022

Designed as part of research to create an optimized balance between embodied carbon and operational carbon, the Roundtimber Eco-Duct is a structurally experimental welcome center for prospective Georgia Tech students. Designed as a research studio project into low embodied carbon structural systems, the structural system takes inspiration from a thesis by Dr. Aurimas Bukauskas of MIT, who acted as a consultant on the design.

Expanding on the work done by Dr. Bukauskas, variations on roundtimber compound columns that geometrically solved the issue of racking, were the driving force of spatial layout as well as the overall structural grid design, and digitally fabricated roundtimber models give experimental credence to the hypothetical embodied carbon calculations.

Cove.tool analysis shows a projected final EUI of -2.98, owing to the large scale insulative and habitat regenerative turf roof, as well as digitally fabricated roundtimber solar carports offsetting energy needs.


Winner of 2023 GT College of Architecture Best Graduate Model

Advanced Studio I:
Howard Wertheimer, FAIA





   THE HUMAN     END
EFFECTOR



Built

Spring 2024

 The goal of this project was to reorient the balance of power within Human Computer Interaction for the purpose of drawing attention to the possibilities of an alternative robotic future.

The setup is simple: the KUKA KR-20 holds a stretched piece of fabric and maintains a consistent orientation while tracing out a parametrically designed pattern. The human being, on the other hand, acts as the end effector. Using a 1909 Singer treadle sewing machine, the physical labor is provided directly from the muscles of the human being.

Envisioned as performance art, and with the process made into a short film, this work brings to life a glimpse of what could happen if humanity is not intentional about how it implements advanced technologies such as robotics and AI.


8803 Craft and Technology: 
Dr. Christina Shivers

                                   PARATAXIS






Built

Spring 2024

 The inherent constitution of a book is one of flatpacking; pages are efficiently arranged to create a manageable, mobile form while not in use. The exclusively planar components comprising this shelf can act as either an open or closed book; closed when packed, open when assembled, holding the very items the shelf takes inspiration from.

Parataxis aims to house a stout book collection without requiring a visually stout shelf, and the 1/4" plasma cut steel gives the piece immense strength with minimal depth. The load bearing components are cut from a single 48" by 48" sheet of mild steel, and the quartersawn white oak bridges the gap between wall studs.

Oblique angles throughout the piece allow for material efficiency and geometrically nest within one another on the cut sheet, while giving the shelf a unique dynamism and poise. The elements can be placed side by side to whatever extent the user desires, given a long or short enough plank of connecting oak.
   







WELL
  TEMPERED
BEZIER




Built

Summer 2023

This project acts as a means to experiment with upcycling and reusing a distressed and abandoned piano. This Baldwin upright was found on the side of the street and was missing a top cover. In addition, noise was a factor given my roommate situation at the time, so a cover was needed to protect the strings and hammers, lower the volume of the piano, and provide a music stand.

The stand was eventually fabricated as a CNC milled lamination of 13 ply Baltic birch plywood. The form is meant to be fluvial and evocative of the mathematically rising and falling tones of baroque music such as Bach’s, who inspired the title of the piece.

The curves provide both a visually stunning centerpiece for the room, as well as an integrated music stand and shelf space, and the volume of the piano drops dramatically , allowing the piano to be played when others are busy in other parts of the home.


   

       


FUNICULAR
  FORMWORK



Prototyped

Fall 2023

The transition from 3D modeling data to 2D vector data for many digital fabrication operations require large amounts of specific clean up operations that parametric tools are not made to tackle. Shape Machine, a Georgia Tech created, shape grammars based software, can take the faces of a 3D model and output 2D cut files, alter the tolerances to create functional and buildable products, and finally detail these vectors  in bulk based on further requirements.

Funicular Formwork uses as its example a topologically interlocking funicular pavilion constructed with zero mortar and 1,300 precast concrete elements. Using Shape Machine, each of these elements is rapidly detailed into immediately useable CNC cut files to create formwork, with edits possible afterward.

2024 Georgia AIA Awards 
Faculty Nominee


Design and Research Studio I: 
Dr. Athanassios Economou

   
MEDUSAI



Built

Summer 2023

 In my position at Formations Studio, I was given the opportunity to work on the fabrication team for MedusAI, a kinetic, musical sculpture based on the myth of Medusa that responds to the human motion detected around it by altering the motion of the attached UFactory xArm industrial robots and musical tempo.

As a member of the build team, I helped construct the steel body using hundreds of unique CNC plasma cut pieces of 10 gauge mild steel, as well as an internal steel frame supporting the robotic arms which act as Medusa’s ‘hair of snakes’ and pluck strings as well as drum on the steel body, which resonates differently depending on the size of the facet that is struck.

In the words of Robotics Lead Amit Rogel, “The MedusAI project is an attempt to capture and reflect on the good intentions and promises of AI on one hand and the risks and dangers on the other.” The sculpture manages to strike a balance between the inspirational and the eerie with its observation and movement based on the movements of the humans surrounding it.


Designer: Tristan Al Haddad
Project Leads: Amit Rogel, Gil Weinberg


   










 ATLANTA
SCHREBERGARTEN





Speculative

Spring
2024

Andrew Bruno’s Design and Research studio, titled “The Homelike City,” aimd to create interventions to Atlanta’s “Pittsburgh” neighborhood to improve the housing stock in a way that did not exclude family types that weren’t a traditional nuclear family. 

The site I was given was on a heavily polluted freight railroad edge, and as such I chose to begin the design with a 5 year bioremediation plan using windrows to slowly and naturally minimise soil contamination. These double as landart and noise reduction rows for the surrounding housing.

At the end of these 5 years, rather than plant housing uncomfortably close to a rail line, this project took inspiration from schrebergartens around Europe to give the nearby public access to an outdoor ammenity.

The land is redistributed into schrebergarten plots, each to be rented out to a local family for a minimal price that covers the tax on the land and the small amount of communal maintenance necessary. Profit is not the goal.

The plots would each have on them a small hut, designed and built by the occupents themselves, and the architectural aspect of this studio is an exploration into the typology of hut, meant as a nod to “One House per Day,” Andrew Bruno’s well known Instagram account and book.


Design and Research Studio II:
Andrew Bruno


   

   MARKENS
GRØDE



Built

Ongoing

This experimental project is one piece of a larger personal learning journey surrounding additive manufacturing and tool path generation. Myriad products and tools exist for ceramic 3d printing and simple G-code creation, but Markens Grøde was my process of building from scratch a printing setup and scripts to create the geometry and code; this intensive process taught me far more about the complexities of kinematics and scripting than any pre-baked approach would have.

The printer I ended up building uses delta kinematics and 2 separate motors for clay extrusion. The grasshopper script is able to create geometry from scratch, slice existing geometry, or a combination of the two, and is fully customisable in terms of bases, closed vs. open curves, and ramping.

The geometry for this specific collection is based on the roots and lower trunk of the Maclura pomifera tree, native to my birthplace in the South-Central United States, and is a tree species that I have found geometrically compelling since my youth.








 About
   Devin






Contact:



770.825.6493

devinlohman@gmail.com




 I am an architectural designer and digital fabricator working in the Fabrication Center at IIT's College of Architecture. In my position I focus on managing digital aspects of student and faculty fabrication work and assist with research projects focusing on digital and robotic workflows.

I hold a B.S.Arch and M.Arch from the Georgia Institute of Technology, specifically focusing my studies on robotic construction and CNC workflows. I am extremely passionate about digital fabrication and have experience producing both small scale and large scale, inhabitable installations.

In my time as a design and fabrication intern at Formations Studio, the creative practice of Tristan Al-Haddad, I was exposed to numerous innovative digital fabrication methods as I assisted with the construction of multiple large scale spatial installations as well as producing construction drawings, concept drawings, and client presentations. In my position as Graduate Fabrication Assistant at Georgia Tech's Digital Fabrication Lab I was able to assist with students and faculty at the cutting edge of computer assisted construction as well as improve my own digital fabrication skills in the school's state-of-the-art design lab.

I aim to use my knowledge of fabrication to minimize waste and material usage in my projects, as I believe sustainability and protecting our future is vital. I am a LEED Accredited Professional as well as a WELL Accredited Professional, having used knowledge and concepts from these rating systems to improve both my personal projects as well as my studio and professional work in terms of sustainability.  

In my free time, I enjoy bar trivia, carving wooden spoons, improving my Irish Gaelic language skills, long distance thru-hiking, and reading novels (Knut Hamsun and Kurt Vonnegut, preferably). I have put my bar trivia knowledge to the test as a contestant on Jeopardy! three times, winning once, and I used my winnings to fund a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Summer of 2024 with friends from Grad School.