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.
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| drone spraying concrete mixture over a dome |
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