Made by Robots

In the next decade or so, the widespread adoption of robotics isset to transform the construction industry: building techniqueswill become increasingly automated both on- and off-site,dispensing with manual labour and enabling greater cost andoperational efficiencies. What unique opportunities, however, doesrobotics afford beyond operational effectiveness explicitly for thepractice of architecture? What is the potential for the serialproduction of non-standard elements as well as for variedconstruction processes? In order to scale up and advance theapplication of robotics, for both prefabrication and on-siteconstruction, there needs to be an understanding of the differentcapabilities, and these should be considered right from the startof the design and planning process. This issue of ADshowcases the findings of the Architecture and Digital Fabricationresearch module at the ETH Zurich Future Cities Laboratory inSingapore, directed by Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, whichexplores the possibilities of robotic construction processes forarchitecture and their large-scale application to the design andconstruction of high-rise buildings. Together with othercontributors, such as Philippe Morel, Neri Oxman, FrançoisRoche and Antoine Picon, they also look at the far-reachingtransformations starting to occur within automated fabrication: interms of liberation of labour, entrepreneurship, the changing shapeof building sites, in-situ fabrication and, most significantly,design.
Contributors: Thomas Bock, Jelle Feringa, Philippe Morel, NeriOxman, Antoine Picon and François Roche.
ETH Zurich contributors: Michael Budig, Norman Hack, Willi Lauerand Jason Lim and Raffael Petrovic (Future Cities Laboratory),Volker Helm, Silke Langenberg and Jan Willmann.
Featured entrepreneurs: Greyshed, Machineous, Odico FormworkRobotics, RoboFold and ROB Technologies.