Nominee | Research | 2021
CoDeFa: Collaborative Design of Prefabricated Façade Systems
The design of building facades is one of the tasks to which especially ambitious architects like to devote themselves. However, efforts to find individual solutions beyond the standard are often doomed to failure due to high or unpredictable construction costs. This should not be the case. A design tool that on the one hand enables individual solutions and on the other hand determines the associated production effort, or in other words: that combines creation and production, would certainly be helpful in such a situation. The development of such a tool was the focus of the 2019/20 joint research project CoDeFa (Collaborative Design of Prefabricated Facade Systems), in which the Institute of Integrative Design / School of Design and Art FHNW and ERNE AG Holzbau were involved. In collaboration with designers, architects, robotic specialists, and timber constructors, it was possible to link parametric design and robotic - following the established artisans workflow - production to generate individual, prefabricated timber facades. As demonstrated by concrete implementations, such an integrated design and fabrication system enables the rational production of varied, well-finished and at the same time cost-efficient wooden facades. Along the way, the project promotes building with wood, a material known to be particularly sustainable.
Comments of the nominators
The results of this design-driven and in its implementation exemplary cooperative research project are a valuable contribution to the topic of digitalization in the construction industry. The sample solutions presented appear aesthetically and technologically ambitious. They illustrate the potential of digital tools that combine creation and production.
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