Dübendorf ZH – The construction robot In situ Fabricator is now being used to build a new unit in the NEST research building. The visionary architecture project was digitally designed and planned – and it will now be digitally built.
In situ Fabricator took a symbolic act last week when it created the first weld for dfab house. The dfab house project is the next unit for NEST, the modular research and innovation building of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and the Aquatic Research Institute (Eawag) in Dübendorf.
Researchers will use dfab house to research how buildings can be digitally printed from bottom up. Other robots will be used alongside In situ Fabricator as well as large-scale 3D printers. In the coming weeks, the robot will start construction of a load-bearing, formwork-free concrete wall.
Once completed in the summer of 2018, dfab house will serve as a living and working space for visiting researchers of Empa and other NEST partners. The three-storey building will highlight new forms of digital control and communication, extending the smart home concept with advanced digital interconnectivity for the benefit of its inhabitants, explains Empa in a statement. At the ground-breaking ceremony, Balz Halter from digitalSTROM presented how dfab house can contribute to reducing energy consumption and improving the overall living experience for residents.
