B1: Group B - Schroeder
BIM:
I personally know very little about BIM and its uses, so I chose to stick with a basic application rather than a current project in the field. BIM, or Building Information Modeling, is an intelligent model-based process that allows the user to design, plan, and construct infrastructure. For example, in the field of transportation BIM was used to develop early design plans for a transportation route that includes constructing a new bridge using infrastructure workflows. Without BIM, it would have made the project much more costly to develop multiple alternatives. There are a plethora of uses of BIM and I am excited to learn more as this class progresses.
3D Printing:
In June 2015, a leading company in the field of 3D printing, WinSun Global, announced that they are planning to 3D print an entire office building in the heart of Dubai. The 2,000 square foot building, interior walls, and furniture will be printed on a 20-foot tall 3D printer which will be assembled on the build site. To fabricate the various intricacies of the structure, three main materials will be used: Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum (GRG), Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), and Special Reinforced Concrete (SRC). This differs from their other previous 3D printed apartment in China, as they will printing everything on-site rather than print single walls and shipping them to the build site. Through the use of 3D printing, it is expected to reduce labor costs by 50-80% and construction waste by 30-60%.
Structures:
PaperBridge is exactly what the name suggest: it is entirely constructed out of 22,000 sheets of paper without the use of glue or any other fixings in the Lake District area in England. This is a temporary piece of work created by artist Steve Messam which was open to the public until mid-May of last year. The overall design relies of the architectural principles most commonly used in dry-stone walls. The 4.5 tons of paper is sturdy enough to support the weight of any brave walkers and their four-legged companions across the 5 meters long bridge. Once the bridge is closed and dismantled, the paper will be pulped and recycled. Please see the third link listed below for all of the wonderful pictures of this structure.
Future/Summary:
The basics of BIM and the two structural examples above are just scratching the surface on the capabilities of technological innovation in our world. As a global community, we are constantly learning the opportunities that 3D printing and other technologies can do to make our work more efficient and less costly.
**EDIT: Comments for Group B posted on Cathlene's and Bryan's individual posts.
Works Referenced:
Danielle: I looked into the PaperBridge topic you discussed—very interesting and gorgeous! I know it is intended for art and not much else, but it still raises the question of what, if any, applicability might this have on the built environment? My first thought was how durable is it to weathering? Obviously it has withstood rain events, but is the structural integrity decreased each time? How long would it last if it wasn’t scheduled to be taken down? I also can’t imagine it’s a very efficient means of creating a bridge. It’s extremely material-dense for such a small structure, so my first concern is a worse than necessary ecological footprint. Still, it was great that they thought to use ink that won’t run and subsequently pollute the stream the bridge crosses.
ReplyDeleteDanielle: For the 3D printing section, that's a massive building they're making; at least relative to most current structural applications. It's interesting to read about the materials that are chosen in each situation. However, I haven't seen good estimates of the costs of materials like this. Research into applicable materials for 3D printing is often focused around stability and cost, but I can't imagine that the materials developed are cheaper than traditional steel or concrete building materials. So although labor and construction costs are reduced, I'd be interested to see how much cost increases for materials in situations like this.
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteThe 3D printing article was definitely interesting. It is amazing how far we have come with this technology in just a few years. One thing I could see hindering the progress of this project is the fact that there will only be one 3D printer available doing the construction and it will be built on site. This suggests that there are no other 3D printers like this one readily available which could prove to be a problem if the printer breaks down or malfunctions.
Perhaps this is a comment for sociology class. Despite the fact that construction costs can be reduced by the cited margin, I wonder why kind of economic and social impact 3D printing would have on society. I think that the strive to somewhat close to eliminate human labor is concerning. Does production justify the lost of jobs and employment? I think Marx would argue otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteBIM at present has evolved to an extent that it goes beyond the planning and design phase of the project, extending throughout the building life cycle as it incorporates construction management and facility operations i.e. design, build and maintenance of the structure. Using BIM software such as Revit by Autodesk, different phases of construction can be simulated beforehand, hence opportunities such as pre-fabrication or pre-assembling of certain systems can be done off-site which saves time and money.