Concrete Symposium — Tsz Yan Ng

Symposium on Research + Building Innovation – Concrete

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