MOBIE – House of the Future. Robotically Hot-Wired Cut ,Customisable Furniture UKCW.

This project designs , develops and fabricates a set of robotically hot-wired cut furniture.

R-Ex was invited to design and fabricate the furniture for a living area and a bedroom. The furniture was exhibited during the UK Construction Week 2019 as part of the MOBIE house fo the future. The house of the future will be touring the UK to showcase new approaches to housing. The initiative is a collaboration with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and the Construction Innovation Hub.

The aim of this project was to showcase the positive impact of new technologies in the construction industry. By designing and fabricating the furniture, R-Ex demonstrated a customisable, adaptable, modular design system that can result in evocative and beautiful furniture. Geometries that are efficient in their material usage, comfortable and easy to transport. The realisation of the project within very tight time, space and budget constraints is thus a demonstration of the rapid evolution and adaptation of digital design and fabrication to the challenges faced by the building industry.

In collaboration with:

R-Ex & students of the AADRL

Architectural Association- Design Research Laboratory (AADRL)
Architecture Extrapolated (R-Ex)

Full credits

Design

ZHCODE: Filippo Nassetti, David Reeves, Marko Margeta, Shajay Bhooshan, Patrik Schumacher

BRG: Mariana Popescu, Matthias Rippmann, Tom Van Mele, Philippe Block

KnitCrete technology

BRG: Mariana Popescu, Tom Van Mele, Philippe Block

Chair of Physical Chemistry of Building Materials, ETH Zurich: Lex Reiter, Robert Flatt

Fabrication and construction

BRG: Mariana Popescu, Matthias Rippmann, Alessandro Dell’Endice, Cristian Calvo Barentin, Nora Ravanidou
R-Ex: Alicia Nahmad Vazquez, Horacio Bibiano Vargas, Jose Manuel Diaz Sanchez, Asunción Zúñiga, Agustín Lozano Álvarez, Migue Juárez Antonio, Filiberto Juárez Antonio, Daniel Piña, Daniel Celin, Carlos Axel Pérez Cano, José Luis Naranjo Olivares, Everardo Hernández, Ramiro Tena.

Structural engineering

BRG: Andrew Liew, Tom Van Mele

Concrete development

Holcim Mexico: Jose Alfredo Rodriguez, Carlos Eduardo Juarez, Delia Peregrina Rizo

Site construction coordination

R-Ex: Alicia Nahmad Vazquez

Sponsors

COMEX
ETH Zurich
NCCR Digital Fabrication
Zaha Hadid Architects
Steiger Participations SA
Holcim Mexico
Imerys Aluminates
Boston Consulting Group

Special thanks

Grupo Altiva
UNAM Arquitectura

Specification

KnitCrete

KnitCrete is a novel, material-saving, labour-reducing and cost-effective formwork system for the casting of doubly curved geometries in concrete. The KnitCrete technology is being developed at ETH Zurich by the Block Research Group in collaboration with the Chair for Physical Chemistry of Building Materials, as part of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Digital Fabrication.

KnitCrete formworks use a custom, 3D-knitted, technical textile as a lightweight, stay-in-place shuttering, coated with a special cement paste to create a rigid mould, and supported by additional falsework elements such as a tensioned cable-net or bending-active splines. Compared to conventional weaving, knitting minimises the need for cutting patterns to create spatial surfaces, allows for the directional variation of material properties, and simplifies the integration of channels and openings, for example, for the insertion of additional formwork elements, insulation, reinforcements, electrical components and technical systems for heating and cooling.

The hybrid and ultra-lightweight KnitCrete formworks are thus easily transportable, reduce the need for additional supporting structure and scaffolding, and simplify the logistics on the construction site.

KnitCandela

The 50 m2 of textile shuttering of the formwork for KnitCandela is made up of four long strips ranging from 15 m to 26 m in length. Each of the four pieces is a seamless, double-layered textile produced in one go. The two layers of the textile fulfill different tasks. The visible inside is an aesthetic surface that displays a colourful pattern and reveals traces of the supporting cable-net falsework system. The backside fulfils technical needs by including features for inserting, guiding and controlling the position of additional formwork elements.

The pockets created between the two layers as part of the spatial knitting process are inflated using standard modeling balloons. These inflated pockets become cavities in the cast concrete, forming a structurally efficient waffle shell without the need for a complex, wasteful formwork. On the technical side of the textile, the pockets have different knit densities to control the inflated shape and openings for the insertion of the balloons, such that differently sized cavities can be created with one standard balloon size.

The interplay between the soft, warm, colourful fabric on the inside of the shell and its hard, cold concrete exterior is visible from all viewing angles. The stripe pattern visualises the short rows typical of the knitting fabrication process and expresses the radial symmetry of the shape. The pattern along with the simultaneous visibility of the soft inside and the hard outside of the shell, enhances the spatial experience of the curvatures of the shape and the space it defines.

Fact sheet

– Global dimensions shell: 5.8m x 5.8m x 4.1m
– Surface area of concrete: 47.5 m2
– Weight concrete: 5 tonnes
– Weight formwork: 30 kg (cable net) + 25 kg (knit)
– Total length yarn: 350 km (= approximately the width of Switzerland)
– Type of yarn: Polyester (PES)
– Total amount of loops: 14’660’028
– Knitting time: 36 hours
– Modelling balloons used: 1000
– Design and Construction period: June 25 – Oct 15, 2018

Location

Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City 19°18’52.7″N 99°11’07.4″W