Awards & Honors

Professor Frank Melendez has been awarded a 2020 New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) Grant, through the sponsorship and support of the Van Alen Institute. He is one of five recipients in the 2020 NYSCA Architecture + Design, Independent Projects category, and the sole recipient sponsored by Van Alen. This funding will go towards the development of a manuscript and publication of a new book titled, Soft Robotic Architectures. The book highlights recent architectural research projects that include the integration of computation, automation, soft materials, and pneumatics. Soft Robotic Architectures will examine the use soft robotic technologies to create novel architectural forms, spaces, membranes wearable devices, and interfaces, that engage the human body and environment through adaptive feedback and haptic interactions. These methods open up new possibilities for creating innovative architectural systems that expand, bend, twist, and move to create quasi‐intelligent, corporeal, and dynamic architectures.