@PHDTHESIS{20.500.11850-387856, author = {Rusenova, Gergana}, year = {2019-11-18}, publisher = {ETH Zurich}, address = {Zurich}, copyright = {In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted}, size = {209 p.}, language = {en}, abstract = {In the last two decades an increasing number of professionals and researchers have attempted to minimise the harmful impact of the building industry on the environment by taking advantage of ongoing technological progress. Computational design and digital fabrication technology are combined to realise geometrically or functionally complex architectural artefacts. As a result, optimised material use can be achieved. Nevertheless, in the context of the current advancements in the field, one key research strand has remained rather underdeveloped — recycling, which is considered essential for preventing overconsumption of materials and, in this way, foster environmental sustainability. In this regard, this doctoral research investigated a non-standard material system that firstly, was made of locally-obtained ingredients and secondly could be used to fabricate architectural elements without the use of formwork and ultimately facilitated a fully reversible construction process. The building elements discussed here are called Jammed Architectural Structures (JAS) and consisted of unbound crushed stones confined by textile string. These largely-available bulk materials were shaped into full-scale architectural artefacts through a robotic fabrication process that did not require moulds during construction. The absence of a binding matrix between the stones and the string resulted in their complete separation during deconstruction and thus complete recycling. However, to investigate the material system's capacity to act as an effective building material and to study its design and application potential, it was crucial to explore the material system's properties. The thesis explored the material system's applicability for architectural purposes through the analysis of its structural behaviour under loading conditions. In this way, the possibility of using the string-confined crushed stones for the construction of structurally-sound building components was tested. Additionally, the design space of the material system was explored by developing material-informed and fabrication-aware computational methods that integrated the collected knowledge of the specific material properties and the constraints imposed by the robotic fabrication process. Ultimately, the work targeted the realisation of full-scale load-bearing architectural structures to validate the techniques developed and to demonstrate the architectural potential of the investigated material system at large. In general, the results outlined aimed to contribute to the existing studies on possible applications of granular matter for architecture — a still immature branch in the realm of construction which explores the possibility for recycling of full-scale architectural elements through reversible construction logic. Moreover, due to the application of locally-obtained and largely-available materials, this work is placed in the context of vernacular architecture and, as such, is considered a relevant part of the overall research on environmentally sustainable solutions for the built environment.}, keywords = {Jammed Architectural Structures; DIGITAL FABRICATION IN ARCHITECTURE; COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ARCHITECTURE; COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN; COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING, CIM (PRODUCTION); Granular matter; Material properties; LOAD-BEARING STRUCTURES + STRUCTURAL PARTS (STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING); Material design}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, DOI = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000387856}, title = {Material- and Fabrication-informed Design of Structurally-sound Jammed Architectural Structures}, school = {ETH Zurich} }

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@PHDTHESIS{20.500.11850/453808, copyright = {In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted}, year = {2020-11}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, author = {Szabo, Anna}, size = {185 p.}, language = {en}, address = {Zurich}, publisher = {ETH Zurich}, DOI = {10.3929/ethz-b-000453808}, title = {Design and Fabrication of Thin Folded Members with Digital Concrete Processes}, school = {ETH Zurich} }

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@PHDTHESIS{20.500.11850/478068, copyright = {In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted}, year = {2020}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, institution = {SNF}, author = {Gandia, Augusto}, size = {129 p.}, abstract = {The development of computational design technologies and prefabricationsystems have enabled the construction of bespoke long-span spatial structures. However, the construction of such structures still relies on wastefulmilling processes for the production of custom parts and labor-intensiveprocesses for their manual assembly. Building upon prefabrication systems,several institutions investigated robotic processes for the automatic construction of bespoke spatial structures. However, the new challenges introducedby these complex processes have been only handled through inefficient andproject-specifc fabrication strategies that lead to constrained designs.This thesis investigates computational design methods to tackle two of themost relevant challenges of robotically assembling spatial structures, whichinclude the generation of collision-free robot paths and the handling of tolerance build-up. The two methods enable the computational rationalization of spatial structures, meaning that they allow verifying input designson their buildability. Such verification is pursued through two complementary strategies. The first strategy is computational post-rationalization andallows verifying a design after it is defined. The second strategy is computational co-rationalization and allows re-adjusting a design while verifying itsbuildability.The ultimate goal of this thesis is to extend the range of spatial structuresthat can be robotically fabricated through efficient and less wasteful construction processes. An additional goal is to enable the computational rationalization of the structure ahead of the construction phase to explore awider range of spatial structures. The investigation complements the investigation of other research projects, by integrating the methods researchedby this thesis within the design workflow of these projects. This integrationallows validating the methods through the computational rationalization oflarge-scale spatial structures and their realization in the Robotic FabricationLaboratory at ETH Zurich.}, keywords = {Architecture; Robotic fabrication; Computational design and digital fabrication}, language = {en}, address = {Zurich}, publisher = {ETH Zurich}, DOI = {10.3929/ethz-b-000478068}, title = {Robotic Fabrication Simulation. A Computational Method for the Design of Fabrication-aware Spatial Structures}, school = {ETH Zurich}

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@PHDTHESIS{20.500.11850/439443, copyright = {In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted}, year = {2020}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, author = {Adel Ahmadian, Arash}, size = {153 p.}, language = {en}, address = {Zurich}, publisher = {ETH Zurich}, DOI = {10.3929/ethz-b-000439443}, title = {Computational Design for Cooperative Robotic Assembly of Nonstandard Timber Frame Buildings}, school = {ETH Zurich} }

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