October 31 – November 1, 2019
Organizers: Tsz Yan Ng + Wes McGee, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
Co-organizer: Jerry Lynch, College and Environmental Engineering
From the environmental imperatives to make concrete carbon position to novel forming techniques such as 3D printing – concrete as a material is being transformed along different fronts in the building industry. As computational design and digital fabrication matures beyond the lab, scaling up to address construction level challenges, concrete holds tremendous promise for the future, not only in shaping our built environment but also in how we build, our ethos and aspirations. Yet, there are many hurdles to overcome. With traditional building processes steeped in protocols and regulations, moving R+D to the building sector requires an awareness of the different players and institutions involved, even political and economic contingencies, that shape the contours of concrete innovation. As academia assume the role of R+D more and more, how do we envision a smooth transfer of innovations to the building sector? Given new modes of manufacturing, what are the new codes and standards that will govern innovations to move toward implementation? What cross-platform systems, such as design to manufacturing or manufacturing to construction, will need to be in place in order to facilitate automation and construction productivity? What are the new technologies and associated expertise that will emerge to redefined architectural practice and construction, especially to navigate and manage multi-disciplinary teams?
This symposium, rather than a survey of contemporary concrete architecture, brings researchers and industry experts together from diverse disciplinary fields and areas of production – history & theory, engineering, construction technology, material science, design, and manufacturing – for a timely discussion centered on concrete as a building material with enormous potential for innovation. The symposium aimed to foster and identify trajectories for advancing concrete research and align potential collaborative exchanges.
Co-organized with the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the symposium launched with an evening keynote lecture the night before, followed by a full day symposium at Taubman College. The symposium closed with an exhibition opening/reception downtown at the Liberty Research Annex Gallery, highlighting some of the work produced by participants, with a performance by Brandon Clifford and Davide Zampini of Cemex.
From Lab to Site: Innovation in Concrete was organized in collaborative between the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the University of Michigan Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, with additional support provided by the University of Michigan Global CO2 Initiative. The symposium was generously sponsored by Walbridge.
Participants include:
Keynotes
Sarah Billington, Ph.D., Chair and Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
Mark Burry, Architect, lead for the construction of Sagrada Familia, Founding Director, Swinburne University of Technology’s Smart Cities Research Institute and Professor of Urban Futures, Melbourne (waiting on confirmation)
Paired Presentations
Standards, Codes, and Risks
Sasa Zivkovic, Assistant Prof., Architecture, Cornell University
Scott Jones, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Chair of ACI 3DP of Cementitious Materials, Director of Metrology of Additive Construction by Extrusion Consortium (MACE)
Industry + Labor
Maria Gonzalez Pendas, Ph.D., Assist. Prof. Architecture, Rice University
Sarah Nichols, ETH Architecture
100 years of Reinforced Concrete
Lucia Allais, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Princeton University
Forrest Meggers, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Architecture _ Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Director CHAOS research lab, Princeton University
Climate Change and Concrete Construction
Victor Li, Ph.D., Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, and Macromolecular Science Engineering, UM
Brian Ellis, Ph.D., Ass. Prof, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UM
3D Printing + Outer Space
Shadi Nazarin, Associate Prof., Architecture, Penn State University
Mike Fiske, Ph.D. Jacob Space Exploration Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Robotic Construction
Vineet Kamat, Ph.D. Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering, UM
Barton Malow Construction
Industry Collaboration – research + design
Davide Zampini, Ph.D. Head of R+D, Cemex
Brandon Clifford, Assistant Professor, Architecture, MIT
Industry Collaboration – design + manufacturing
Andrew Kudless, Associate Prof. Architecture, CCA
Joshua Zabel, Kreysler & Associates
Panel Discussion
Wanda Lau, moderator, Technology + Innovation Editor, Architect Magazine
Jonathan Massey, Dean, Taubman College, UM
Jerry Lynch, Chair and Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering, UM
Sarah Billington, Ph.D., Chair and Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
Exhibition / Performance (Liberty Research Annex Gallery)
Patty & Jan, Brandon Clifford + Davide Zampini
Edited by Mehrdad Hadighi, Marc J. Neveu, and Tsz Yan Ng
ACTAR Publishers, New York, Barcelona, 2018
Similar to the design process of Lafayette 148, the organization of the book is intentionally non-linear. The five topics – mass-crafting, carving, sculpting, glazing, and modulating – all verbs, contain descriptions of the building process. Interwoven are a series of essays that present distinct but interrelated responses to the many questions that arise when building a garment factory facility in contemporary China. Issues addressed range from the architectural import of the building typology, to the ecological footprint of a factory, to social concerns regarding labor as well as construction practices, to the ethics and aesthetics of factory building. Clear tensions exist between the global and the local, with respect to issues such as material economies, labor relations, working conditions, and company branding. In all of this, what is the role of design? For what can the architect be held responsible in contemporary praxis? Is it ultimately possible to address the social inequalities produced by global garment manufacturing through design?
Contributions includes:
Mass-Crafting by Mehrdad Hadighi
Textiles, Machines, Flow and Factories, by Brian Carter
Carving by Mehrdad Hadighi
L-148, an East/West Vertical Urban Factory by Nina Rappaport
Sculpting by Mehrdad Hadighi
Twisted Image: This is the New Bruntal by Mark Linder
Glazing by Mehrdad Hadighi
Architecture/Clothing by Marc J. Neveu
Modulating by Mehrdad Hadighi
Concrete Twist on Labor by Tsz Yan Ng
Photographic credits
But-Sou Lai Photography
Cogy Goddard Photography
In collaboration with Wes McGee
Research Through Making 2017
Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning
Thermoplastic Concrete Casting explores molding techniques for glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) utilizing non-woven thermoplastic textiles. Generating complex geometries in concrete typically incurs a high cost in time, material, and labor to produce the molds. Given that concrete is one of the most ubiquitously used building materials in the world, this research seeks to develop novel ways of creating formwork that would eliminate heavy, rigid molds and scaffoldings for support. Rather than employing subtractive processes such as milling of EPS foam for molding techniques, the project attempts to create complex surfaces for large-scale GFRC casting with as little material as possible. Incorporating sartorial techniques of tailoring and patterning, the thermoplastic textile is cut, felted together (a process of needle punching where textile fibers are entangled together), heat stiffened, and surface finished, ready for GFRC casting.
We explored this technique at two scales: first, at object scale with the reproduction of Eames’s molded fiberglass armchair and Saarinen’s Womb Chair, and second, at architectural scale with the installation of an 11’ X 7’ wall composed of five modules with an adjoining table surface. Both scales were designed as prototypes to test the viability of this technique to efficiently and accurately produce complex curvatures. The full-scale wall was an opportunity to explore structural conditions related to joining discrete panels with minimally supported surfaces, as well as to understand spatial and experiential effects.
A key component of this research was to incorporate the use of physics-based design tools, such as the Kangaroo plugin for Rhino/Grasshopper. Utilizing a physics-based modeling approach enables designers to simulate material behaviors in real time, while simultaneously enforcing geometric constraints. In this case the technique was applied to enable modifications to the global form while enforcing the developability of the resulting textile patterns. These were then unrolled and modified parametrically to account for the shrink rate during the stiffening process, as well as allowances for the felted seams.
https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/research/research-through-making/2017/thermoplastic-concrete-casting
This project was made possible through the generous support from the Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, University of Michigan. Additional support was received through the University of Michigan Office of Research.
Design Team: Tsz Yan Ng and Wes McGee
Fabrication/Installation assistance: Kristen Gandy, Drew Bradford, Layth Adulameer M Mahadi, Scott Chriss, Asa Peller, Jaemoon Rhee, Andrew Thompson, and Simon Anton.
Year: 2017
Location: US
Type: Installation
Scale: Small