Prof. Dr.-Ing. Julian Lienhard and TWE research associate Mobin Moussavi will present some projects under title of “From collaborative design and engineering workflow towards remote-controlled robotic fabrication strategies” in the Connect! Conference, which is Speckle's conference for engineers, designers, BIM managers, hackers, and anyone interested in modern solutions, open-source, and data-driven processes for the AEC industry. Over three online days, leading startups, experts, and vendors in the space will provide insights on how to bring your workflows to the 21st century and run hands-on workshops.
This presentation briefly demonstrates the challenge of creating a collaborative design, engineering and fabrication workflow in educational projects. The parametric workflow was setup to allow a large number of students with different backgrounds to divide into expert groups while working on one single and central information model.
In the first case study, a collaborative workflow template was set up, which equally addressed complex analysis as well as the need for continuous geometric adjustment to achieve a model which interactively functioned on a design, structural and material level. The expert groups covered the fields of design, form-finding, structural analysis, material testing, detailing, manufacturing and project management. The presentation will discuss the workflow models, including the principles that allowed the iterative development of the initial and final form-finding, detail design and fabrication planning, as well as material testing across different computational design platforms. It will also provide an overview of the development process through a design narrative. In order to critically discuss the key methods supporting communication between architects and engineers within computational design methodologies, a productive learning environment for all members involved was established.
The second project was an online workshop as a collaboration between TWE and IAAC which focuses on the use of a computational design algorithm in combination with robotic fabrication and sensing to augment the design and construction process for non-standardised material. Although reusing reclaimed material can significantly reduce the environmental impact in building construction, current design processes are not set up for this shift in thinking. Contrary to conventional practices, designing within the constraints of available material means that geometry and topology cannot be fully pre-determined. This workshop focused on the design and fabrication of 2D non-standardised elements, offering the opportunity to develop experience on working with robotic sensor data and integrate the data into the computational design. During the workshop, students explored different design intentions through the definition of performance criteria parameters, which are constantly evaluated and adjusted in real-time.
In order to achieve this uninterrupted digital process the platform speckle was used to establish a collaborative workflow based on the principals presented in the first case study.
