On 29 February 2024, Christoph Zechmeister defended his doctoral research titled "Computational Fiber Architecture – Co-Design of large-scale, load-adapted fiber composite building components for robotic pre-fabrication" in front of the doctoral committee.
The doctoral committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Christine Weber (IFAG) as chair, Prof. Achim Menges (ICD) as supervisor and first examiner, and Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers (ITKE) as second examiner.
Congratulations to Christoph Zechmeister on his outstanding achievement!
© IntCDC
Abstract Doctoral Research
The architecture, engineering, and construction sectors are encountering major challenges in delivering livable and affordable environments in light of current demographic shifts and environmental changes. Digital technologies provide promising solutions, disrupting the way to design, construct, and experience physical space. Their implementation demands rethinking design, evaluation, and materialization to leverage material capacities propelled by computational design and numerical manufacturing. Coreless filament winding extends industrial processes to produce lightweight, material-efficient building parts with minimal formwork. However, it creates additional complexity for design and engineering, as it derives its formative capacity from interacting fiber rovings. This research presents a consolidated methodology to co-design coreless wound fiber composite building components for robotic prefabrication based on four main methods. Concurrent design and evaluation of fiber components are investigated using a feedback-based computational method and implemented using multi-scalar digital-physical design and evaluation toolsets. To increase sustainability, methods and toolsets are extended allowing for the replacement of petrochemical materials with bio-based alternatives. To implement the methods at a larger scale, a computational co-design framework is introduced, reconsidering team compositions and integrating interdisciplinary experts deep into design and evaluation workflows. As Co-design relies on the concurrent evolution of involved disciplines, interdisciplinary data sets are analyzed and interrelated, serving as a base for reciprocal feedback between computational design, engineering, and fabrication to increase process reliability, enable future reduction of material safety factors, and further increase material efficiency and sustainability.
The methods are demonstrated by three full-scale building demonstrators, exhibiting different fibrous building systems. The BUGA Fiber Pavilion, Maison Fibre, and the livMatS Pavilion illustrate how concurrent multidisciplinary innovation challenges conventional ways of design and materialization. Computation acts as an interface between digital and physical realms, and material capacities become primary drivers in the generation of architectural form, paving the way for sustainable, material-efficient computational fiber architecture.
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC (Photo: Christoph Zechmeister)
Papers of which the dissertation consisted
Zechmeister, C., Gil Pérez, M., Knippers, J., Menges, A. Concurrent, computational design and modelling of structural, coreless-wound building components., Automation in Construction, Vol. 151, 104889, DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2023.104889.
Zechmeister, C., Gil Pérez, M., Dambrosio, N., Knippers, J., Menges, A. Extension of Computational Co-Design Methods for Modular, Prefabricated Composite Building Components Using Bio-Based Material Systems. Sustainability 2023, 15, 12189. DOI: 10.3390/su151612189
Gil Pérez, M.*, Zechmeister, C.*, Kannenberg, F., Mindermann, P., Balangé, L., Guo, Y., Hügle, S., Gienger, A., Forster, D., Bischoff, M., Tarín, C., Middendorf, P., Schwieger, V., Gresser, G. T., Menges, A., Knippers, J. (2022). Computational co-design framework for coreless wound fibre–polymer composite structures. Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 9(2), 310-329. DOI: 10.1093/jcde/qwab081
Gil Pérez, M.*, Mindermann, P.*, Zechmeister, C., Forster, D., Guo, Y., Hügle, S., Kannenberg, F., Balangé, L., Schwieger, V., Middendorf, P., Bischoff, M., Menges, A., Gresser, G. T., Knippers, J., (2023). Data processing, analysis, and evaluation methods for codesign of coreless filament-wound building systems. Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, qwad064, 2288-5048. DOI: 10.1093/jcde/qwad064
Zechmeister, C., Bodea, S., Dambrosio, N., Menges, A. (2020). Design for Long- Span Core-LessWound, Structural Composite Building Elements. In: Gengnagel, C., Baverel, O., Burry, J., Ramsgaard Thomsen, M.,Weinzierl, S. (eds) Impact: Design With All Senses. DMSB 2019. Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030- 29829-6_32
Bodea, S., Zechmeister, C., Dambrosio, N., Dörstelmann, M., Menges, A. (2021). Robotic coreless filament winding for hyperboloid tubular composite components in construction. Automation in Construction, Vol. 126, 103649, DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103649