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Convective Concrete: additive manufacturing to facilitate activation of thermal mass
Full text linkConvective Concrete is about a research-driven design process of an innovative thermal mass concept. The goal is to improve building energy efficiency and comfort levels by addressing some of the shortcomings of conventional building slabs with high thermal storage capacity. Such heavyweight constructions tend to have a slow response time and do not make use of the available thermal mass effectively. Convective Concrete explores new ways of using thermal mass in buildings more intelligently. To accomplish this ondemand charging of thermal mass, a network of ducts and fans is embedded in the concrete wall element. This is done by developing customized formwork elements in combination with advanced concrete mixtures. To achieve an efficient airflow rate, the embedded lost formwork and the concrete itself function like a lung
Double curved concrete printing: printing on non-planar surfaces
Full text linkIt is no secret that there have been some great advances in the realm of concrete additive manufacturing. However, one of the major drawbacks of this fabrication technique is that the elements must be self-supporting during printing. While most other additive manufacturing materials can overcome this by using a secondary printed support structure, alternative strategies have to be developed for materials such as concrete.
This 4TU project explores the possibilities of combining concrete additive manufacturing with a temporary support surface. By printing on a free-form surface, more intricate geometries can be realized. A number of potential applications have been outlined, however the principle focus is combining concrete additive manufacturing and casting. The end result is a partially-printed pavilion using a completely digital design-tofabrication workflow
Fibrous smart material: adaptive, low–energy, real–time responsive interior environments
Full text linkThe project is an inter-disciplinary initiative for the ‘designed engineering’ of heterogeneous fibres with variable material behaviors to create real-time responsive interior environments (furniture systems). These smart furniture systems will embody properties of real-time adaptive temperature control, real-time structural adaptability and real-time physiological support of the human body. These properties shall be fully self-regulated (devoid of external power sources) via engineering multi-layered fibre compositions, which can sense the forces exerted by the human body and accordingly alter their physical properties. The scale of operation is chosen deliberately, considering the time-span of one year within which we will produce a fully operational 1:1 physical prototype and scientific material-research guidelines. A research through design approach with 3 iterations shall be adopted in this research: working on the yarn (U Twente + EURECAT), textile (TUE) and product (TUD). Each iteration will consist of the development of a prototype, the creation of future usage scenarios + business possibilities, and a workshop to envision future requirements. In this project, prototypes and material output will be co-designed with material scientists, architects, textile and industrial designers and will be used to assess 1) design challenges, 2) business opportunities, and 3) technical feasibility of scalable multi-performative interior systems for applications such as healthcare and future office environments
Optimizing 3D concrete printing: exploring potentials and limitations of materials and production
Full text linkThe application of new Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), digital fabrication and additive manufacturing techniques in the construction industries is expected to bring major change to these industries. Driven by a foreseen reduction of construction time and labor cost, simplification of logistics and an increase of constructible geometrical freedom, many experiments are performed both at academia and in practice.
Beyond these economical and architectural objectives, digital fabrication in construction can be used to reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. The increased level of control offered by digital fabrication enables the use of advanced computational optimisation techniques. With these optimisation techniques buildings can be designed which, for instance, combine an optimal thermal performance with a minimum use of materials, while still complying with all codes and standards.
In order to fully utilise this potential of digital fabrication, the capabilities and limitations of the manufacturing process need to be taken into account during optimisation. By combining the concrete 3D printing knowledge of Eindhoven University of Technology, the optimisation expertise of the BEMNext lab at Delft University of Technology and software development by White Lioness technologies, the ‘Optimising 3D concrete printing’ Lighthouse project has made the first steps towards more knowledge on integrated optimisation and manufacturing
Restorative glass: reversible, discreet restoration using structural glass components
Full text linkThe application of structural glass as the principal material in restoration and conservation practices is a distinguishable, yet discreet approach. The transparency of glass allows the simultaneous perception of the monument at both its original and present condition, preserving its historical and aesthetical integrity. Concurrently, the material’s unique mechanical properties enable the structural consolidation of the monument. As a proof of concept, the restoration of Lichtenberg Castle is proposed. Solid cast glass units are suggested to complete the missing parts, in respect to the existing construction technique and aesthetics of the original masonry. Aiming for a reversible system, the glass units are interlocking, ensuring the overall stability without necessitating permanent, adhesive connections. This results in an elegant and reversible intervention
Unleash the building bots: 3d printing structures with an autonomous robot swarm
Full text link3D printing techniques for the building industry are developing fast. Concepts like Contour printing, concrete printing concepts of the TU/E and D Shape are examples. Despite the range of techniques is broad (and vary from a large gantry system, to a supersized Delta printer for example), many of the developed 3D printing machines are constraint in their movement. Mobile 3D printers however show advantages in flexibility, as they can move outside the constraint of a large 3D printer and they can move in the highly unstructured and hazardous environment of the building site, which can be dangerous for people to work in. The Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia developed vehicles, which they call minibuilders, each designed for a special task in the building process, printing the foundation, printing a wall, smoothing the outer-wall etc. The minibuilders are used in succession according the building process. However they are still limited in their autonomy and capability. The minibuilders are tethered with a hose to a vehicle, which carries the concrete supply
Swarm Robotics, or: The Smartness of 'a bunch of cheap dumb things'
Full text linkNot only recent Science Fiction – e.g., Star Trek Beyond (USA 2016) – celebrates the capacities of robot collectives. Also RoboCup, an annual robot soccer competition, or Harvard University’s Kilobot Project show stunning examples of the central idea behind Swarm Robotics: »[U]sing swarms is the same as getting a bunch of small cheap dumb things to do the same job as an expensive smart thing« (Beni/Wang 1989). This article examines some crucial aspects of the techno-history of a research field which intertwines engineering and biological knowledge and whose applications deal with compelling questions about synchronization and self-organization in changing environments – on the ground, in the air, and under water
Inhabiting Adaptive Architecture
Full text linkAdaptive Architecture concerns buildings that are specifically designed to adapt to their inhabitants and to their environments. Work in this space has a very long history, with a number of adaptive buildings emerging during the modernist period, such as Rietveld’s Schröder house, Gaudi’s Casa Batlló and Chareau's Maison de Verre. Such early work included manual adaptivity, even if that was motor-assisted. Today, buildings have started to combine this with varying degrees of automation and designed-for adaptivity is commonplace in office buildings and eco homes, where lighting, air conditioning, access and energy generation respond to and influence the behaviour of people, and the internal and external climate
Robotic Building as Integration of Design-to-Robotic-Production & Operation
Full text linkWhile architecture and architectural production are increasingly incorporating aspects of non-human agency employing data, information, and knowledge contained within the (worldwide) network connecting electronic devices, the relevant question for the future is not whether robotic building will be implemented, but how robotic systems will be incorporated into building processes and physically built environments in order to serve and improve everyday life.
This issue of SPOOL aims to answer this question by critically reflecting on the achievements of the last decades in applications of robotics in architecture and furthermore outlining potential future developments and their societal implications. The focus is on robotic systems embedded in buildings and building processes implying that architecture is enabled to interact with its users and surroundings in real-time and corresponding design-to-production and –operation chains are (in part or as a whole) robotically driven. Such modes of production and operation involve agency of both humans and non-humans. Thus, agency is not located in one or another but in the heterogeneous associations between them and authorship is neither human or non-human but collective, hybrid, and diffuse
Why Make the World Move?
Full text linkThe next horizons of human-computer interaction promise a whirling world of digital bytes, physical bits, and their hybrids. Are human beings prepared to inhabit such cyber-physical, adaptive environments? Assuming an optimistic view, this chapter offers a reply, drawing from art and art history, environmental design, literature, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology, to identify wide-ranging motivations for the design of such “new places” of human-computer interaction. Moreover, the author makes a plea to researchers focused in the domain of adaptive environments to pause and take a longer, more comprehensive, more self-reflective view to see what we’re doing, to recognize where we are, and to possibly find ourselves and others within our designed artifacts and systems that make the world move.