Convert a model from digital design to a one-to-one prototype? The students in master architecture and rose to this challenge. In the 2021/2022 winter semester, they began to draw up designs for a research pavilion under the direction of TH Lübeck Professors Michael Hermann and Benjamin Spaeth. Focus topics are the circular economy in construction and digital process chains – i.e. a digital chain that links all steps in the construction process. When developing their concepts, the students concentrated on innovative computer-based design and simulation methods in order to design efficient and therefore sustainable constructions.
A total of seven projects were created in this context. The second vice president of Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Architects and Engineers, Reinhold Wuttke, the management of the NordBau trade fair, the professors and students then awarded three designs. These three projects will be carried out in the summer semester 2022 in cooperation with students from the Master’s degree in civil engineering further developed under the guidance of Professors Günther Schall and Frank Kemper.
Building with recycled concrete, biopolymer, flax and waste wood
Nele Görtzen and Tomke Bock show a special way of recycling concrete. Their “Layered concrete” project represents a new way of extending the life cycle of reinforced concrete floor slabs. “The concrete ceiling elements from the prefabricated building are dismantled as a whole and given a new shape using special cutting techniques with a water jet cutter. A computer-generated pattern helps us minimize waste and maximize material yield,” says Nele Görtzen.
Students Dalila Torres and Anna Prell will focus on developing a sustainable material system for 3D printing with a robot. “We focused on three aspects in our design. Sustainability, modularity and flexibility. We develop a printed component from sustainable biopolymers and natural flax fibers. It is robust and can take on almost any shape when combined with individual segments,” says Dalila Torres.
The primary construction of the XCube pavilion by Jan Bassen and Falk Kluck consists of old wood from demolished buildings. “These are, for example, dismantled beams and construction timber. We cut them into thin squared timbers, which are assembled into modules. We obtain raw materials from a cycle and design the construction in such a way that the elements can also be changed in a different context depending on the requirements of the users,” explains Falk Kluck.
From the digital model to the one-to-one prototype
In the interdisciplinary team, the students answer questions about design, construction and costs through to robotic production. “The result of our two-semester course is a one-to-one prototype that clearly visualizes the aspects of digital construction and will be exhibited as a research pavilion at Nordbau,” says Prof. Benjamin Spaeth on the focus on digital construction in the new architecture curriculum at Lübeck University of Applied Sciences.
The research pavilion at NordBau 2022 is intended to show the potential of digitizing planning and production in the construction industry. “In the future, a closed digital process chain will help to build free geometries, avoid errors and produce more cost-effectively. Aspects of sustainability and the circular economy are taken into account in the digital model right from the start!” concludes Michael Herrmann.