Bock
and Langenberg’s article describes the history of industrialization in the
building process in order to anticipate the use of robots in future construction.
The authors begin by stating that the use of new technologies in construction has
always been at least a generation behind other areas of industry. Prefabricated
elements such as standardized beams, columns, and glass panes became more common
in the 20s and 30s. However, only a few buildings sites such as Ernst Neufert’s
Hausbaumachine tried to respond to this new construction technique through
their design. It was not until the 60s and 70s that the emphasis turned to the
construction process of prefabricated buildings, rather than the design.
By the mid-1970s,
single-task construction robots were introduced onto sites as an alternative to
pre-fab elements. However, these robots were manually operated and required
stringent safety standards, and they did not improve the overall efficiency of
construction. Integrated Automated Construction Sites were another technique of
using machines on site. This method can be likened to a vertical moving
factory, and has also been used successfully for demolition in Asia. However,
it is still difficult to use these methods in order to save significant money,
since each building site requires different considerations and it can be hard
to standardize.
The
authors once again point out that most changes to the construction process take
a generation or so after the technology is invented to really be put in place. They
believe that robots will become increasingly important to the construction
process in the future. However, just as industrialization totally changed the
building process instead of just reinventing the old, the use of robots in
architecture requires the same. Robots will only be used successfully on
building sites once design, engineering, and management take robots into account
from the outset.
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