Prefabrication experiments - 223 - AI and information technology - 04 - Zero House for zero energy living

The disparity between how architects envision prefabricated dwelling systems and the operational way the manufactured housing sector has developed was highlighted by numerous experiments throughout the twentieth century. Architects stacked and assembled rectangular prisms in varying and imaginative ways demonstrating how simple steel, timber or concrete manufactured boxes would become the basic kernel of an evolving urbanism. Paul Rudolf’s Masonic Gardens in New Haven Connecticut defined this specifically architectural view of mass production sourcing simple single-wides as the modular unit in a type of dwelling masonry. Since demolished, Rudolf’s vision of composing single-wides into a community exemplifies architectural prefab. 

While architects visualized mass production applied to building, the manufactured housing sector realized the longstanding dream of uniting industry with housing. Debatable in matters of architectural quality and connoting questionable material quality, the single-wide remains a commercial success while being unsustainable in terms of land use. 

Architects continue their experimental approach toward prefabrication to represent their visions for better housing which responds to contemporary needs. Designed by Sprecht architects,  ZeroHouse is a prototype for zero energy housing. The massing is based on two 12-foot x 36-foot prefabricated volumes which are stacked and intersected perpendicularly to shape a symmetrical cross plan. The cross plan is basic but constructs an interconnected spatial dynamic with views in every direction. The stacking also creates an interesting mass to void relationship generating covered spaces on the ground floor and elevated roof terraces on the upper floor. This modest rotation of a prism over another is a very effective spatial device. The house was designed as a research project without a client and as an exhibit piece for showcasing energy technologies for zero carbon living. The proposed photovoltaic roof acts as a water collection device and is the powerhouse of the off-grid dwelling. Demonstrating an array of proposed technologies from grey water recycling to composting black water, the house is an inventory of available expertise and equipment. 

The basic idea of the Zerohouse while an interesting prototype continues to present prefabrication through the idealized eyes of architects: spatially interesting, materially innovative and technologically advanced. This conceptual distance to current manufactured housing standards remains the basic problem of the dream of the factory-made house.

Zero House cross section through the prefabricated volumes (from architects website) 

Prefabrication experiments - 222 - AI and information technology - 03 - From Shotcrete to «dronecrete» ?

As information technology and building construction merge, they are cross-pollinating a pursuit for newness both in matters of architectural design and project delivery methods. Twentieth century prefabrication, now supplanted by the notion of off-site construction, is again being touted as a solution for solving construction’s lagging productivity. The articulation between building construction, industrialisation and digital tools is disrupting the traditional on or off-site debate automating tedious and time-consuming tasks on-site.  Even within this chase for innovation, facilitating on-site fabrication is not a new strategy and is often piggy-backed over twentieth century experiments making their inventiveness relative. 

Varied strategies for casting reinforced concrete are particularly evocative examples of on-site mechanization. Studied by many during the 1800s concrete became a streamlined material valued for its fire resistance and malleability. A derivative of reinforced concrete, Shotcrete is a dry or wet mixture of concrete that is sprayed at a high velocity through a tube onto any surface. Wallace Neff’s bubble houses (1941) proposed sprayed concrete over air-formed formwork to quickly and potentially mass produce dwellings on-site.  

As information technology progresses products like Shotcrete could be numerically controlled to deliver concrete in more complex shapes. A research project at Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia initiated by Stephanie Chaltiel is exploring digitally produced dwellings with a different take on shotcrete. The approach is fairly simple, a mixture of concrete or earth-based muds is sprayed through a hose onto a vault or dome to shape a basic shelter (basically shotcrete). The digital difference:  a similar type of hosing or tubing used to deliver Shotcrete is attached to a hovering drone numerically controlled, programmed and commanded to spray material uniformly onto a curved surface. The domed roofs are not streamlined 21st century dwellings, but one could imagine the technology being used to deposit concrete onto the interior faces of hard to reach spaces or complex forms. The ideological link to Wallace Neff’s bubble houses is not expressly defined by the researches but makes a notable case study into how technology, information technology and industrial processes evolve or defined as new in an immensely diverse and industrialized building culture.  

drone spraying concrete mixture over a dome

Prefabrication experiments - 221 - AI and information technology - 02 - Complex joinery

In the history of construction, intricate joinery is normally associated with timber. Complex joints highlight the craftsmanship of legendary Japanese master carpenters who mastered methodical, social and historic knowledge of their local resources for building.  Displaying the properties of softwoods and hardwoods, the ingenuous assemblies used timber’s anisotropic properties for the basis of a great number of joints fitting and straining harmoniously while representing particular genealogies and guilds. 

The industrialisation of building components, nails, screws, bolts, and hangers has made carpentry more about quick and cheap assembly.  The Steel industry further standardized connections with rivets and later with nuts and bolts. Throughout the twentieth century wood and concrete were also standardized and their theories and connections normalized. Theses standards were only marginally challenged by integrated building systems looking to further facilitate assembly. Technology limited the possibilities of complex joinery as piecing materials together requires knowledge, precise tools and skilled craftsmen, which industrialization certainly tried to offset. 

Today, numeric cutting devices, digital controlled machinery and streamlined file to manufacture possibilities support the idea of designers as creative makers, pushing the envelope in terms of joinery and making building certainly more efficient. Using contemporary information technology, as an approach to design laboursaving structures ConXtech is an American manufacturer of steel frames, which is using digital processes and tools to develop friction, lower and lock connections for easier and safer site conditions. Their connections are precisely conceived and manufactured to significantly reduce errors during field assembly. Column to beam connections work on a type of mortise and tenon joint attached to each component. Almost toy like in its simplicity; the skeletal steel frame constituents include a library of various joint types for any size or shape frame. Joints begin as computer models. Their information is fed to robots and numeric cutters, which reproduce in detail every meticulous interaction. The interlocking joints are deigned for structural efficiency but also keep components in place acting like placeholders, templates, plumb and level check while workers simply tighten the nuts and bolts. These types of dry intelligent assemblies also make it easier to disassemble structures making it possible imagine each component’s long-term use in multiple lifecycles.  

Beam being lowered into place - from ConXtech website

Prefabrication experiments - 220 - AI and information technology - 01 - Autonomous construction equipment

Technology, techniques, new materials and manufacturing methods outline the progression of building construction. In the history of architecture and construction no period or era of growth redefined architecture and construction as profoundly as industrialization. Machines helped make, carry and assemble structures irrespective of their scope and size. Impressive and odd machines symbolised this capacity applied to construction. Robert Tournalayer’s invention, the Tournalayer, symbolizes this type of industrialized device that would streamline tasks like casting and formwork for mass-produced concrete dwellings. 

Today, another revolution in manufacturing methods is disrupting traditional trades. Information technology is taking its place at every level of construction from design to manufacturing and building management. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a specific area of progress where the processes being considered are perhaps as equally disrupting as Henry Grey’s continuous rolled beams were during the industrialization. AI is serving to advance all sorts of tools to organize, verify, inspect, control and document construction. From drones to co-bots to wall making automated masons, numerically controlled construction instruments are being imagined as probable solutions to construction’s often discussed lagging productivity.  

Already the subject of experimentation autonomous construction machines from excavators to bulldozers and other self-guided instruments are the basis of Built Robotics’, a burgeoning company founded in 2016, business model. The company is modifying and adapting existing construction heavy equipment and upgrading it with guidance systems rendering a driver and operator superfluous. Presently employed specifically for simple tasks like moving stuff, excavating, pushing and loading it is possible to imagine that repetitive tasks could be further defined and programmed to include other more demanding and precise missions.  AI combined with virtual reality could help set up buildings without anyone ever setting foot in the machines or on a dangerous sector of the building site. Defined by equal parts machine and coding, this new paradigm where buildings are assembled by robots is releasing a new wave of ethical questions for the construction industry, particularly for attributing responsibility. Who is responsible for a robot gone haywire, the coder, the builder, the architect, the contractor, the manufacturer ? What are building contracts or building specifications going to look like for framing AI devices ?

Self-guided excavator from Built Robotics