Bonwetsch, T (2015) Robotically assembled brickwork: Manipulating assembly processes of discrete elements. DSc thesis, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract
Today, the advance of digital technologies, both on the side of conceptualisation of architecture and on the side of its production, enable information penetration across the whole process of making – from design to fabrication. This opens up new ways of thinking about architectural design and materialisation. Within the large family of computer controlled fabrication machines, industrial robots are especially well suited to be adopted for construction work, mainly because of their ability to perform variable assembly tasks. Although, so far applying robotic technologies in construction has mainly been viewed from an industrial engineering perspective, geared towards increasing productivity through automation without a link to the potentials for architectural design. In the present work, potentials inherent in robotically controlled assembly processes are investigated from an architectural perspective, specifically focusing on the interrelation of design and fabrication. This is exemplified by the means of brickwork, which was chosen, because the relative small size of the single brick module and their generic geometry is well suited for a robotic assembly process. Further, the layering of bricks resembles one of the fundamental assembly processes in architecture and can easily be singled out as a well-defined subdomain of construction. The robotic-based assembly processes and their corresponding design criteria are investigated through several physical experiments. The experiments combine both the design and engineering of a robotic fabrication process and, consequently, the application of the fabrication process on a design task. The aim is to define techniques and methodologies for robotic-based assembly processes of brickwork, where the architectural design evolves into the interplay between conceptual intention and the engineering of a robotic process. The work is built on the hypothesis that the synchronisation of design and making can instigate novel design solutions for brickwork and is essential to leveraging new architectural potentials.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | brickwork; architectural design; automation; fabrication; productivity; experiment |
| Index terms: | methodology, architectural design, digital technology, experiment, construction work, module, fabrication, penetration, automation, brickwork, geometry, productivity |
| Subjects: | management, design practice, mathematical modelling, data collection methods, computing systems, research methods, manufacturing engineering, architectural elements, automation and robotics, market analysis, operations management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Project Management, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here