August 18, 2021

Siteless House: DFD Precast Concrete House

August 18, 2021/ r s-s

SITELESS HOUSE: DFD PRECAST CONCRETE HOUSE
Advanced robotic fabrication and design-computation for precast self-compacting concrete
Collaborating Partner: Cemex Global R&D

Siteless House explores an alternative approach to relocatable housing through the development of a new type of Design-For-Disassembly (DFD) light-weight precast concrete tectonic that operates as a structural building envelope with integrated floor and foundations. A design-computation and fabrication method for robot hot-wire cutting of expanded polystyrene (EPS foam) was developed to enable the design and engineering of light-weight high-strength loose-fibre reinforced precast concrete building component parts. Each part is able to be produced with variable geometrical form and surface articulation in order to further increase the material efficiency of each part, while exploring scale-free modes of architectural design expression. The research is on-going with a 1:1 prototype house planned for construction in the 2021-2 academic year.

Lead Research Professors: Robert Stuart-Smith and Masoud Akbarzadeh
Researchers: Mariana Righi, David Forero, Bowen Qin, Riley Studebaker, Yi Dazhong, Yuxuan Wang, Jiangson Yuan, Emma Peng, Musab Badahdah, Ian Pangburn

AML-PENN

Autonomous Manufacturing Lab Weitzman School of Design | University of Pennsylvania
Autonomous Manufacturing Lab (AML-PENN) explores the integration of design and production within robotic processes of building manufacturing. The interdisciplinary AML lab aims to develop innovative methods of autonomous and semi-autonomous bespoke fabrication that leverage real-time robotics, computation, sensor and computer vision technologies within generative design processes for architectural design. AML-PENNDesign is part of PennDesign's Advanced Research and Innovation Lab (ARI).

Advanced Research & Innovation Lab & PennDesign Robotics Lab
The Advanced Research & Innovation Lab (ARI) brings together the combined expertise of PennDesign faculty members with state-of-the art fabrication, measurement and modeling technologies. ARI is led by Professor and Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam and comprises a wide variety of research groups: the Autonomous Manufacturing Lab (Assistant Professor of Architecture Robert Stuart-Smith), the Polyhedral Structures Lab or PSL (Assistant Professor of Architecture Masoud Akbarzadeh), and the Baroque Topologies Lab (Associate Professor of Architecture Andrew Saunders), with additional initiatives in development. As part of multi-year plan to provide additional tools and facilities to support the scholarship of PennDesign faculty and students, ARI opens up vast new territories for innovation and places the School at the forefront of applied and speculative research in several domains.

University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
The Weitzman School of Design prepares students to address complex sociocultural and environmental issues through thoughtful inquiry, creative expression, and innovation. As a diverse community of scholars and practitioners, we are committed to advancing the public good–both locally and globally–through art, design, planning, and preservation.

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