Publications
Carbon Sequestration in Lumber Columns
Facilitating the Reuse of Lumber Waste for Prefabrication through Computational Design and Augmented Fabrication
Wibranek B. Carbon Sequestration in Lumber Columns: Facilitating the Reuse of Lumber Waste for Prefabrication through Computational Design and Augmented Fabrication. Green Building & Construction Economics [Internet]. 2023 May 18 [cited 2023 Jul. 3];4(1):90-103.
Industrial prefabrication brings benefits such as higher productivity and reduced waste production. However, waste, cut-offs, and failures cannot be prevented even in a prefabrication setting. Yet, most processes for utilizing scrap materials promote downgrading. This research presents a construction framework to facilitate the reuse and salvaging of lumber waste from a lumber construction company using a computational design (CD) and augmented reality (AR) setup. Specifically, we explore the design of columns based on an inventory of scrap materials and propose a high level of automation (LoA) prefabrication for reusing lumber waste for structural parts. The design and AR framework support the extension of the matching skillset through the integration of existing materials and the automation of creating an assembly plan for AR, improving the reusability of cut-off lumber blocks. It features a design tool for placing existing lumber scrap blocks and an integrated AR application for assembling these blocks into wood columns. The setup is demonstrated through column prototypes, resulting in six columns, each 10 feet high. The proposed methods extend the opportunities for designers to reuse lumber scraps for prefabrication and simplify assembly instructions for craftspeople, providing valuable tools to enable a resource-efficient workflow for lumber scrap.
PRINT!Architecture
The book presents and discusses additive manufacturing in architecture and its history, technology design, and process integration. The topics are illustrated by 40 international projects, including work by researchers and designers such as Gramazio Kohler, WASP, Philippe Block, Mamou-Mani and many others.
Order your copy for 44€ from AADR
Transforming ideas into successful and breakthrough technologies is a highly contextual process. Place, time, resources, and parallel innovations in adjacent domains must come together to spark innovation. This book describes one such moment when additive manufacturing (AM) made the leap from product design to the scale of entire buildings. Within a few years, AM matured from basic research to industrial applications in the built environment.
While the projects presented in this book are witnesses to their times, they also form nodes in a more extensive network that spans time, place, disciplines, technologies, and the demands of a broader socioeconomic context. It is time for AM to penetrate and transform architecture, engineering, and construction. This book tells the stories and presents the demonstrators, prototypes, and ultimately the projects that paved the way for an idea that has evolved into a technology.
AUGMENTED REUSE
A mobile app to acquire and provide information about reusable building components for the early design phase
Wibranek, B., Tessmann, O. (2023). Augmented Reuse. In: Gengnagel, C., Baverel, O., Betti, G., Popescu, M., Thomsen, M.R., Wurm, J. (eds) Towards Radical Regeneration. DMS 2022. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13249-0_33
Construction materials are one of the main contributors to global waste production. Compared to other industries, the reusability of building materials and components is hard to implement due to each project's individual properties and the difficulty of sharing information across the various stakeholders. In order to foster the reuse of building components, the gap between the existing building stock and the design phase of new buildings has to be minimised by bringing suppliers' data about the existing stock closer to the designers. This research illuminates how to provide relevant information from material passports and integrate them into the design environment. We compared nine passports and extracted relevant variables for the early design phase. Additionally, an augmented reality measurement app enables quick capturing and data exchange of materials and components from existing buildings. Finally, a compression-only de-sign scheme is proposed to simplify the load capacities of the reused concrete components from an existing building. By providing information about existing materials and components in the strategically important role of the designer, reuse could be enhanced for a more sustainable built environment based on circular construction.
Using Materially Computed Geometry in a Man-Machine Collaborative Environment
Wibranek, B. (2019). Using Materially Computed Geometry in a Man-Machine collaborative Environment. ArchiDOCT, 6 (February).
In this research, we interweaved real-world geometry with computational tools for a man-machine collaborative assembly process. Current research for robotics in architecture aims to bridge the gap between digital design and fabrication, but rarely considers the manipulation of real-world geometry by human actors. In contrast, we utilized material computed geometry as a physical interface. 3D scanned wooden lamellas served as input for computational tools to finalize a design and create toolpaths for the robotic placement of rods. The research combines methods of machine vision, physical interfaces and man-machine collaboration to restructure workflows in the process of design and construction. Consequently, real-world geometry was used as input to start the design process. The designer engaged with wooden lamellas and a computational tool to build a demonstrator, illustrating a clear division of tasks in a man-machine collaboration. Moving from parametric design tools directly to physical interfaces using real-world geometry, our research proposes stronger participation of human actors within digital fabrication environments.
Digital Rubble
Wibranek, B., & Tessmann, O. (2019). Digital Rubble - Compression-Only Structures with Irregular Rock and 3D Printed Connectors. In Proceedings of the IASS Annual Symposium 2019 – Structural Membranes 2019.
Irregular materials such as unprocessed rocks and wooden branches are currently rarely used in contemporary architectural construction due to the high cost of skilled labor required for preparation. This project investigates methods of graphic statics in combination with technologies such as photogrammetry and 3D printing to build structures from natural reusable building materials. We developed a method for dry-stacking unprocessed rock. We implemented an algorithm to produce 3D printed parts that connect digitized stones in the plane normal to the thrust line. A manually designed input curve is recalculated according to the weights of the objects to generate a compression-only arch. We employed evolutionary optimization to calculate optimal orientation of digitized stones along the thrust-line. Different stone arrangements and 3D printed connectors were tested. The manual assembly is done using a mixed reality setup. Unprocessed or rubble rock is a massive resource of cheap building material with very low embodied energy that might see a revival through digital technologies.
Robotic architectural assembly with tactile skills: Simulation and optimization
Belousov, B., Wibranek, B., Schneider, J., Schneider, T., Chalvatzaki, G., Peters, J., & Tessmann, O. (2022). Robotic architectural assembly with tactile skills: Simulation and optimization. Automation in Construction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.104006
Construction is an industry that could benefit significantly from automation yet still relies heavily on manual human labour. Thus, we investigate how a robotic arm can be used to assemble a structure from predefined discrete building blocks autonomously. Since assembling structures is a challenging task that involves complex contact dynamics, we propose to use a combination of reinforcement learning and planning for this task. In this work, we take the first step towards autonomous construction by training a controller to place a single building block in simulation. Our evaluations show that trial-and-error algorithms that have minimal prior knowledge about the problem to be solved, so called model-free deep reinforcement learning algorithms, can be successfully employed. We conclude that the achieved results, albeit imperfect, serve as a proof of concept and indicate the directions for further research to enable more complex assemblies involving multiple building elements.
Interfacing Architecture and Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning for Architectural Design and Fabrication
Wibranek, Bastian and Tessmann, Oliver (authors). As, Imdat ; Basu, Prithwish (eds.) 2021. Interfacing Architecture and Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning for Architectural Design and Fabrication. In: The Routledge Companion to Artificial Intelligence in Architecture, pp. 380-393, London, Routledge, ISBN 9780367424589
Providing the most comprehensive source available, this book surveys the state of the art in artificial intelligence (AI) as it relates to architecture. This book is organized in four parts: theoretical foundations, tools and techniques, AI in research, and AI in architectural practice. It provides a framework for the issues surrounding AI and offers a variety of perspectives. It contains 24 consistently illustrated contributions examining seminal work on AI from around the world, including the United States, Europe, and Asia. It articulates current theoretical and practical methods, offers critical views on tools and techniques, and suggests future directions for meaningful uses of AI technology. Architects and educators who are concerned with the advent of AI and its ramifications for the design industry will find this book an essential reference.
BE-AM 2020: BUILT ENVIRONMENT - ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Wibranek, Bastian ; Tessmann, Oliver ; Knaack, Ulrich (Hrsg.) (2020). BE-AM 2020: Built Environment - Additive Manufacturing. Darmstadt, Independently published, ISBN 979-8561621192
BE-AM | Built Environment – Additive Manufacturing 2020 brings together international experts from research and industry. Since the first BE-AM Symposium in 2015, Additive Manufacturing has gone through tremendous development at a breathtaking speed. A large variety of construction materials have been tested for additive processes in research and practice worldwide. Buildings have been printed in Europe, Asia, and the USA. This years’ BE-AM 2020 invites authors and readers to speculate and extrapolate how AM will change the construction industry in the coming years and decades. Furthermore, we want to exemplify and discuss strategies of integrating AM and 3D Printing into more extensive and more complex process chains. Within architecture and the building sector. Be-AM 2020 seeks to cover the full range from 3D scanning existing contexts to novel forms of ideation and design methodologies that fully exploit the newly gained potentials to finally materializing innovative constructions.
Robotic Digital Reassembly: Towards physical editing of dry joined architectural aggregations
The accelerating changes in how people use and occupy buildings, coupled with humanity’s growing consciousness towards the climate impact of construction, impose reconsideration of existing patterns in the built environment. Most buildings today are planned to resemble a fixed shape, binding their material into a static assemblage. In contrast, computerization in many fields of everyday life shifts our imagination to an editable world. While the digital world is constantly evolving and changes can be instantly programmed, changes in the physical world require immense labor, manpower, and machinery. However, the fast technological advances in digital design and fabrication are challenging the economies of the static composition of buildings. Digital design tools offer access to the broad space of design alternatives on all scales, from building topologies to the single building element. By changing a few parameters, designers can reconfigure a design almost automatically. In Robotic Digital Reassembly, materialization and production of architecture are not a one-off process. They rather become a series of instances shifting and adapting into an ever-unfolding future.