Synergising Natural Material Complexity and Low-Impact Automation

The construction industry is considered one of the world’s largest raw materials consumers. It is contributing towards global resource depletion which is exacerbated by increasing demographic demands thus making the industrialisation of innovative sustainable technology crucial. Digital fabrication offers solutions by enabling higher material efficiency as well as the use of renewable bio-based materials. It is not limited to complex processes employing robotic arms to create finely graded building components but can also include facile, cost-effective and low-impact approaches. These can involve unique features to deal with materials less prominent in the construction repertoire due to their inhomogeneity. Customised low-cost and low impact solutions may aid the democratisation of specialised digital fabrication workflows by enabling easier transportability and accessibility, in addition to bypassing the dependence on special skills for operation. To showcase the application potential of these perspectives, this paper focuses on the evolution of a tailored Cartesian coordinate robot that - within the context of a semi-automated fabrication process - enabled the development of a novel construction system made of willow-earth hybrid building components. ... mehrThe evolution of this willow processing machine followed principles of low environmental impact and cost efficiency as its unique features were iteratively developed to deal with the intricate variations inherent to the raw material. The feasibility of the fabrication process was validated through multiple projects along its evolution, most recently the project ‘ReGrow Willow’ where 63 willow-earth components were prefabricated and installed to be exhibited at the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Gardening Show) in Mannheim in 2023.