Laura Balangé

Zusammenfassung

Extending the existing building stocks is a principal task to meet the enormous demand for inner-city living, minimize the need for additional transport infrastructure, and reduce environmental pollution and land consumption. The Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) at the University of Stuttgart focuses on this topic through a co-design approach for integrating computational design, engineering, and robotic construction. To enable construction in existing buildings, a reliable representation of the as-built geometry of the building is needed. However, this data is often not available, but the design plans are available, which may not always match the current state of the building, or there may have been deviations already during construction. This paper brings forward a novel approach for the geometry representation, taking advantage of different geometry sources and their stochastic models, including floor plans, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Initially, the as-planned geometry was modeled digitally based on the floor plans and considering the stochastic information. In this contribution, the Building and Habitats object Model (BHoM) was utilized instead of data schemas like Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) since it fulfills the specific co-designing requirements. Secondly, the generated TLS and SLAM point clouds were processed, and stochastic models were attached. Finally, to generate a comprehensive geometry representation, the segmented geometric primitives from different sources were fused based on the respective approximated stochastic models. The results were integrated into the BHoM for expansion purposes.

Zusammenfassung

The advancement of digital fabrication technologies and computational design has expanded the possibilities in architecture and construction. These technologies enable the creation of innovative structures and the exploration of non-standard materials, resulting in a new understanding of the design process and the development of advanced digital tools. Among these innovations, coreless filament winding, a robotic fabrication process, has facilitated new applications of fiber-polymer composites in architecture over the past decade. Coreless wound structures are characterized by a sequential and emergent nature, where the final geometry is shaped by material behavior. As a result, these structures are inherently difficult to predict, requiring constant feedback between digital models and physical prototypes due to the limited availability of fast, accessible simulation methods. This paper presents a simulation method developed to address this gap by supporting the early design stage of coreless wound fiber structures. The method incorporates relevant design and fabrication parameters while maintaining a necessary level of abstraction to ensure efficiency and accessibility. A case study was conducted to evaluate the simulation’s accuracy and examine the influence of different parameters on the final geometry. The study benchmarks a set of digitally simulated fiber specimens against their physical counterparts. The physical behavior of the fiber elements was captured using a monitoring method that scans the structure after each fiber segment is wound, enabling the observation of material behavior throughout the process. The results demonstrate the method’s efficacy, showing an average displacement deviation of -20 mm and high precision in fiber interaction, with 73% of specimens achieving 100% accuracy in generating intersection points. Furthermore, the study assesses the influence of design and fabrication parameters on fiber behavior, enabling informed decisions in early-stage design. By introducing an accessible and computationally efficient simulation method, the research aims to contribute to the field by providing efficient, early-stage feedback and an initial understanding of material behavior in coreless filament winding, while also identifying current limitations and directions for future research.

Zusammenfassung

The Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) at the University of Stuttgart is working in an interdisciplinary environment on the development of processes in the field of manufacturing and construction. One of the cluster's goals is to create new solutions for the construction of lightweight fibre structures through coreless filament winding of lightweight fibre composite systems. The determination of the geometry of structural components is a fundamental aspect of the construction process, as any deviation may result in a modification to the structural design under specific conditions and changed load behaving capacity. In order to determine the complex geometries of these objects, the components are scanned using a terrestrial laser scanner. An algorithm has been developed to detect the individual fibre lines and their intersections in the resulting point clouds. In order to perform the line segmentation, a variety of point cloud processing methodologies are employed. The methodologies include iterative Hough-transform, orthogonal least squares adjustment, and RANSAC. Prior to the segmentation of lines, the point cloud will be subdivided into voxels and clustered using the k-means algorithm. The results of the algorithm are the coordinates of the intersections, the line parameters of the segmented fibres and their corresponding points. The result shows that lines and their intersections are almost always correctly detected. However, problems like a too low point density led to not detected fibres.

Zusammenfassung

The data set contains the point clouds of different construction stages of the of the building demonstrator 'livMatS Biomimetic Shell' during the manufacturing process, as well as a point cloud of the pavilion after construction of the shell. The data is named according to the numbering of the most recently built element, which does not necessarily correspond to chronological order.The first eight files, each with a two-digit number at the beginning of the file name, represent the ID of the cassette built for the respective scan. The FIT_gesamt file represents the final scan after all cassettes have been assembled.

Zusammenfassung

Segmented timber shells present a novel building system that utilizes modular, planar building components to create lightweight free-form structures in architecture. Recent advancements in the research field of segmented timber shells pursue, among others, two fundamentally opposing research objectives. 1. The modularity of their building components facilitates the reuse of such structures in response to a changing built environment. 2. Advanced developments aim at establishing segmented timber shells as permanent building structures for sustainable architecture. This paper addresses the first research objective through the successful relocation of the BUGA Wood Pavilion in the context of the proposed methodology of Co-Design for circular construction. The methods and results involve integrative design and engineering processes and advanced quality assessment methods, including structural, geodetic, and physical properties for modular timber constructions. The BUGA Wood Pavilion serves as a building demonstrator for the presented research on segmented shells as lightweight, reusable, and durable timber structures.

Zusammenfassung

Fiber-reinforced composites offer innovative solutions for architectural applications with high strength and low weight. Coreless filament winding extends industrial processes, reduces formwork, and allows for tailoring of fiber layups to specific requirements. A previously developed computational co-design framework for coreless filament winding is extended toward the integration of reciprocal design feedback to maximize design flexibility and inform design decisions throughout the process. A multi-scalar design representation is introduced, representing fiber structures at different levels of detail to generate feedback between computational design, engineering, and fabrication. Design methods for global, component, and material systems are outlined and feedback generation is explained. Structural and fabrication feedback are classified, and their integration is described in detail. This paper demonstrates how reciprocal feedback allows for co-evolution of domains of expertise and extends the existing co-design framework toward design problems. The developed methods are shown in two case studies at a global and component scale.

Zusammenfassung

The linear design workflow for structural systems, involving a multitude of iterative loops and specialists, obstructs disruptive innovations. During design iterations, vast amounts of data in different reference systems, origins, and significance are generated. This data is often not directly comparable or is not collected at all, which implies a great unused potential for advancements in the process. In this paper, a novel workflow to process and analyse the data sets in a unified reference frame is proposed. From this, differently sophisticated iteration loops can be derived. The developed methods are presented within a case study using coreless filament winding as an exemplary fabrication process within an architectural context. This additive manufacturing process, using fiber-reinforced plastics, exhibits great potential for efficient structures when its intrinsic parameter variations can be minimized. The presented method aims to make data sets comparable by identifying the steps each data set needs to undergo (acquisition, pre-processing, mapping, post-processing, analysis, and evaluation). These processes are imperative to provide the means to find domain interrelations, which in the future can provide quantitative results that will help to inform the design process, making it more reliable, and allowing for the reduction of safety factors. The results of the case study demonstrate the data set processes, proving the necessity of these methods for the comprehensive inter-domain data comparison.

Zusammenfassung

This paper describes a holistic quality model (HQM) and assessment to support decision-making processes in construction. A graded concrete slab serves as an example to illustrate how to consider technical, environmental, and social quality criteria and their interrelations. The evaluation of the design and production process of the graded concrete component shows that it has advantages compared to a conventional solid slab, especially in terms of environmental performance. At the same time, the holistic quality model identifies potential improvements for the technology of graded concrete. It will be shown that the holistic quality model can be used to (a) consider the whole life cycle in decision-making in the early phases and, thus, make the complexity of construction processes manageable for quality and sustainability assessments and (b) make visible interdependencies between different quality and sustainability criteria, to help designers make better-informed decisions regarding the overall quality. The results show how different quality aspects can be assessed and trade-offs are also possible through the understanding of the relationships among characteristics. For this purpose, in addition to the quality assessment of graded concrete, an overview of the interrelations of different quality characteristics is provided. While this article demonstrates how a HQM can support decision-making in design, the validity of the presented evaluation is limited by the data availability and methodological challenges, specifically regarding the quantification of interrelations.

Zusammenfassung

In coreless filament winding, resin-impregnated fibre filaments are wound around anchor points without an additional mould. The final geometry of the produced part results from the interaction of fibres in space and is initially undetermined. Therefore, the success of large-scale coreless wound fibre composite structures for architectural applications relies on the reciprocal collaboration of simulation, fabrication, quality evaluation, and data integration domains. The correlation of data from those domains enables the optimization of the design towards ideal performance and material efficiency. This paper elaborates on a computational co-design framework to enable new modes of collaboration for coreless wound fibre–polymer composite structures. It introduces the use of a shared object model acting as a central data repository that facilitates interdisciplinary data exchange and the investigation of correlations between domains. The application of the developed computational co-design framework is demonstrated in a case study in which the data are successfully mapped, linked, and analysed across the different fields of expertise. The results showcase the framework’s potential to gain a deeper understanding of large-scale coreless wound filament structures and their fabrication and geometrical implications for design optimization.

Zusammenfassung

In a world with a growing population, the development of new construction forms is becoming increasingly important. This development has to be accompanied by intense quality assessment. Within the framework of the Excellence Cluster IntCDC (Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture) of the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the University of Stuttgart, a Holistic Quality Model for building systems is to be developed. This model should consider social, environmental as well as technical aspects and thus enable a holistic quality assessment of the building. For the technical part of the model quality parameters and characteristics for many different disciplines like architecture, structural engineering, engineering geodesy, mechanical engineering and system engineering should be included. This definition of the critical parameters will take place in close alignment with the co-design-based development of building systems. In addition, the construction processes are modelled in order to allow quality propagation through the construction process. This contribution will deal with a first quality concept, a first quality model as well as exemplary quality characteristics and parameters gathered from concrete and timber constructions. Exemplary quality propagation possibilities will be highlighted based on previous work at the Institute of Engineering Geodesy (IIGS). The quality will be evaluated at different decision points during the building processes in the future.

Zusammenfassung

Computational design and robotic fabrication open up novel possibilities for more resource efficient timber structures. These methods enable the production of tailor-made and differentiated building components that integrate design intention, robotic fabrication, structural performance, assembly logics and functional aspects but require advanced strategies to achieve and control production quality. We present methods to assure the quality control of the fast-paced production of the BUGA Wood Pavilion – a 500m² segmented wood shell structure - that was erected within 13 months from commission to opening. In this project, 376 bespoke hollow wood cassettes were robotically assembled, glued and milled to shapes. In order to achieve structurally performative tight-fit joints, minimal tolerances in the fabrication process needed to be achieved. Furthermore, the quality of the gluing interface, its tolerances, individual pressing forces, process- and environmental factors needed to be respected for the design and operation of robotic gluing processes to meet building regulations. New challenges arise for the design, management and control of production quality when co-dependent and integrated innovations are brought forward in respect to both building system as well as fabrication automation on a per- project level. Novel frameworks will need to be established that dwell on digital technologies for faster and more reliable process and quality control in timber construction. Acting as a catalyst, such mechanisms are of fundamental importance to enable rapid and continuous advancements in socio-culturally rooted project-based robotic timber construction.

Zusammenfassung

Accepting the ecological necessity of a drastic reduction of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the building industry, the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart is developing graded concrete components with integrated concrete hollow spheres. These components weigh a fraction of usual conventional components while exhibiting the same performance. Throughout the production process of a component, the positions of the hollow spheres and the level of the fresh concrete have to be monitored with high accuracy and in close to real-time, so that the quality and structural performance of the component can be guaranteed. In this contribution, effective solutions of multiple sphere detection and concrete surface modeling based on the technology of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) during the casting process are proposed and realized by the Institute of Engineering Geodesy (IIGS). A complete monitoring concept is presented to acquire the point cloud data fast and with high-quality. The data processing method for multiple sphere segmentation based on the efficient combination of region growing and random sample consensus (RANSAC) exhibits great performance on computational efficiency and robustness. The feasibility and reliability of the proposed methods are verified and evaluated by an experiment monitoring the production of an exemplary graded concrete component. Some suggestions to improve the monitoring performance and relevant future work are given as well.