Inés Ariza, a graduate student in the Design and Computation Group in the Department of Architecture, has been awarded one of two 2016 QuarraMatter fellowships.

Ariza’s research focuses on developing digital workflows for fabrication and assembly-based construction details, building upon her previous research on robotic assembly and ruled-based discretization algorithms for precast concrete structures. Prior to coming to MIT, she practiced as an architect in Argentina, with particular involvement in the detail design and construction phases. Alongside her professional practice, Ariza has taught morphology and geometric representation at University of Buenos Aires and served as a teaching assistant at MIT for design and fabrication courses and shop monitor at the MIT Architecture Shops.

The second recipient of a 2016 QuarraMatter Fellowship is Shan Sutherland, a graduate student at the University of Michigan who is researching alternative material strategies for precast concrete molds.

The fellowships are awarded jointly by Matter Design and Quarra Stone to encourage research into the processing of stone through digital and computation methods. Matter Design is a Boston design firm co-founded by Brandon Clifford, a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at MIT. Based in Wisconsin, Quarra Stone fabricates and supplies architectural and interior stone for building projects. 

Reprinted with permission of MIT News