CV

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Architecture and Planning

Department:   Architecture

Education:
           
School                                                  Degree                                     Date
Pratt Institute                                        B.Arch.                                    1990
Massachusetts Institute of Technology   S.M.Arch. S.                            1994
Massachusetts Institute of Technology   Ph.D.                                       2000

Principal Fields of Interest:

Digital Fabrication,
Rapid Prototyping
CAD/CAM
Shape Grammars
Design Methods

Professional Experience
Hirsch Danois Associates          Intern                                       June 1988        June 1991
Swartz Silver                            Intern                                        Jan 1993          March 1993
Payette Associates                    Designer                                   June 1995        Sept 1997
Shepley Bulfinch                       Project Architect                       July 2000         August 2001

Projects:
FRONT + BACK:  Investigating a Renaissance Drawing
Exhibition: MIT Compton Gallery
September 29, 2006 – December 22, 2006

Papers in Refereed Journals: 
Sass, L., “A wood frame grammar: A generative system for digital fabrication,” International Journal of Architectural Computing, Vol. 04, Issue 01, pp.51-67, 2005.

Casalegno, F., Sass, L “Connecting Distant Communities through Video Communication Technologies in Design Studio Workshops,” International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distant Learning, Vol. 03, No.03, pp.71-84, 2005.

Sass, L., Botha, M., “Instant House: A Model of Design Production with Digital Fabrication,” International Journal of Architectural Computing, Vol. 04, Issue 04, pp.109-123, 2006.

Sass, L., “Synthesis of design production with integrated digital fabrication,” Automation in Construction, Vol. 16, No.03, pp. 298-310, June 2007.

Sass, L, “A Palladian construction grammar: design reasoning with shape grammars and rapid prototyping,” Environment and Planning B, Vol. 37, Issue 01, pp. 87-106, 2007.

Sass, L, “Physical Design Grammar, A Production System for Layered Manufacturing Machines,” Automation in Construction (Accepted).

Sass, L., Shea, K., Powell, M., “Free Form Design Production with Rapid Prototyping,” Automation in Construction (In Review).

Sass, L, Michaud, D., Popescu, G., “Large Scale Rapidly Manufactured Structures,” Construction and Automation (In Progress).

Sass, L., Griffith, K., “Rapid Prototyping for Non-Uniform Interlocking Components” CAD (In Progress).

Sass, L., "Materialized; Digital Production Space between Design and Construction," (In Progress).

Knight, T.,  Sass, L., "Looks Count:  Computing and Constructing Visually Expressive Mass Customized Housing," (In Progress).

Other Major Publication
Sass, L and Oxman, R., “Materializing design: the implications of rapid prototyping in digital design,” Design Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 325-355, 2005

Papers in Refereed Conference Proceedings: 
Sass, L., Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas: A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design and construction process:, Reinventing the Discourse - How Digital Tools Help Bridge and Transform Research, Education and Practice in Architecture [Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture/ ISBN 1-880250-10-1] Buffalo (New York) 11-14 October 2001, pp. 212-226.

Sass, L., Rule Based Rapid Prototyping of Palladio’s Villa Detail,Digital Design, [21th eCAADe Conference Proceedings// ISBN 0-9541183-1-6] Graz (Austria) 17-20 September 2003, pp. 649-652.

Sass, L., Rapid prototyping techniques for building program study, CAADRIA 2004 [Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia// ISBN 89-7141-648-3] Seoul Korea 28-30 April 2004, pp. 655-670.

Sass, L., Design for Self Assembly of Building Components using Rapid Prototyping, Architecture in the Network Society [22nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-2-4] Copenhagen (Denmark) 15-18 September 2004, pp. 95-104.

Loukissas, Y., Sass, L.,Rule Building: 3d printing: operators, constraints, scripts, Fabrication: Examining the Digital Practice of Architecture [Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture and the 2004 Conference of the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice Knowledge Community / ISBN 0-9696665-2-7] Cambridge (Ontario) 8-14 November, 2004, 176-185.

Sass, L., A Wood Frame Grammar, Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2005 [Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / ISBN 1-4020-3460-1] Vienna (Austria) 20–22 June 2005, pp. 383-392.

Sass, L., Shea, K., Powell, M., Design Production: Constructing Free Form Designs with Rapid Prototyping, Digital Design: The Quest for New Paradigms [23nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-2-4] Lisbon (Portugal) 21-24 September 2005, pp. 261-268.

Griffith, K., Sass, L., Computing & materializing non-uniform shapes: An evolutionary approach to generate and digitally fabricate non-uniform masonry walls, CAADRIA 2006 [Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Kumamoto (Japan) March 30th - April 2nd 2006, 227-235.

Botha, M., Sass, L., Instant House: Design and digital fabrication of housing for developing environments, CAADRIA 2006 [Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Kumamoto (Japan) March 30th - April 2, 2006, 209-216.

Sass, L.,Towards a Design Science of Design and Fabrication and with Rapid Prototyping, The First International Colloquium of Free Form Design, University of Delft, Sept 28-29 2006, pp. 84-88.

Sass, L., Botha, M., The Instant House: A production system for construction with digital fabrication,Digital Fabrication 2006,[Proceedings of the First International Conference on Digital Fabrication/ ISBN: 0-89208-246-X] Denver, Colorado September 17-22, 2006 pp.176-179.

Griffith, K., Sass, L., Michaud, D., A strategy for complex-curved building design: Design structure with Bi-lateral contouring as integrally connected ribs,SIGraDi 2006 [Proceedings of the 10th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Santiago de Chile, Chile 21-23 November 2006, pp. 465-469.

Sass, L., Materializing a Design with Plywood, ECAADE, Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 2007.

Cardoso, D., Michaud, D., Sass, L., Soft Façade: Steps into the definition of a Friction-Joined System for a Responsive ETFE Façade for High-rise Buildings, ECAADE, Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 2007.

Invited Lectures and Seminars:

November 2002, “Fabricating Curved Surfaces of Ceramics”, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, Portugal.

September 2003, “Digital Fabrication of Self Assembled Building Components”, Building Blocks for Design & Manufacturing, panel discussion conducted at the annual sponsors meeting for Things That Think, Media Lab, MIT - William J. Mitchell (Moderator).

October 2003, “The Palladian Workshop, Seminaro Palladio  E O Neoclassicismo,” Facuidade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Italy, with Celani, Gabriela.

November 2003, “Digital Fabrication of Complex Architecture”, Avogadro-Scale Engineering: Form and Function Center for Bits and Atoms, Media Lab, MIT, Neil Gershenfeld (Moderator).

November 2004, “Fabrication Software in the Age of Digital Fabrication,” Education Summit ACADIA, Annual Conference, British Columbia, Canada.

April 2005, “Design with Rapid Prototyping and CAD CAM,” Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles.
           
April 2005, “FABWARE: Development of Fabrication Software Systems” AIA national Convention: Technology in Architectural Practice, Las Vegas, NV.
           
June 2005, “FABWARE, Development of Fabrication Software Systems”: AIANY Technology in Architectural Practice, New York, NY.

June 2005 “PREFAB NOW: The Instant House” (Featured Speaker) Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, LA.
           
November 2005 “Digital Fabrication and Design” AEC/Information Systems Round Table, Boston, MA.

Jan 2006 “Digital Fabrication in Architectural Practice”, SWMW Architects, San Francisco, CA.
           
February 2006, “Affordable Housing with Digital Fabrication” Housing Within Reach Conference, Amherst MA.

May 2006, “Digital Fabrication Workshop”, Delft School of Design, Delft Technical University.

June 2006, “Fabricating Houses with Digital Fabrication” Center for Bits and Atoms Annual Conference, CSIR, Johannesburg, South Africa.

February 2007, “Modular Construction Panel,” Boston, MA.

Nov 2007 “Design Fabrication Workshop” Guatamala

Articles about Lawrence Sass
April 2003, “Architecture Professor Says Drawings are Passe,” Tech Talk, MIT.
May 2003, “Rapid Prototyping Branches Out,” Cadence.
November 2003, “Planning with no Pixels,” Chronicle of Higher Education.
May 2005, “Paperless Architecture,” Technology Review.
November 2005, Neil Gershenfeld, “FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop:
From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication;” Chapter 3, Basic Books, 2005