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conCreate
Project details
Programme
Cluster
RC4
conCreate’s goal is rethinking community housing towards affordable, sustainable and inclusive living. Using recycled concrete, an automated design process and a user platform, conCreate encourages a relationship between community, architecture and environment.
Starting from concrete buildings used as quarries, conCreate resurrects all those building elements which would otherwise be wasted during the traditional demolition process. Reconstructing a new building is the mission of automated architecture, which conCreate adopts as part of its agenda.
Despite users not being a part of the design process of their community building, they are essential to the life of the building itself. Through the conCreate app, they are able to live sustainably and feel part of a community.
Goal
The project brings about many benefits: social; providing affordable housing to neighbourhoods in need; economic; guaranteeing a long-term return to the government; and lastly, environmental, recycling a material that is typically wasted.
Quarries
Quarries
Starting from the reclaiming process of our material, we catalogued a series of concrete buildings and differentiated them into three main families according to their structure.
Construction In Reverse
Starting from an existing building, we deconstruct and re-use its elements in order to build a new one.
After collecting and customising the extracted components from the building, our aggregator tool reconstructs a new building.
01
Deconstruction Process
De-constructor
De-constructor
The de-constructor creates a voxel grid around the building and differentiates elements of the building according to their function. This process results in a catalogue of elements, each with its own likelihood to be recycled and reused.
Cutting Sequence
Cutting Sequence
Buildings are disassembled in a way that recovers the maximum amount of materials in a safe, environmentally conscious and cost-effective manner.
On-Site Extraction
The illustrated process of conCreate acting on a concrete building. From the cutting process, we obtain our library of raw materials, including any sort of element whose structural features are known and recorded.
Library of Raw Materials
Library of Raw Materials
Building elements from our quarries were categorised according to their structural system. Their dimensions are scanned and recorded, resulting in a list of crowd-sourced concrete elements which can be further customised.
Factory Process
These components are then transported to the factory, where they are scanned, cut and refined, before being prepared for post-tensioning. They are then catalogued based on their features.
02
Computation Aided Design Process
The Site
The Site
After the selection of the site, the software generates a bounding box of the final building considering neighbouring constraints, orientation and sunlight. This bounding box is voxelised and ready for the next step of conCreate’s design process.
Wave Function Collapse
Wave Function Collapse
conCreate’s spaces are computationally arranged through the use of wave function collapse. Starting from tiles input with declared adjacencies, the algorithm procedurally generates our entire floor plan. The tiles correspond to our 4x4m rooms.
Army of Buildings
Army of Buildings
conCreate’s methodical approach is versatile and bespoke to every site.
Tiles Permutation and Structural System
Tiles Permutation and Structural System
The set of tiles we used for the wave function collapse algorithm act as templates for spaces, which can be filled with conCreate’s components in various permutations. In order to stitch all the tiles together, conCreate uses post-tensioning.
Aggregations
The aggregator recognises the exterior walls of the future building. The L-system algorithm works axis by axis on the walls in order to generate our building's façade. Once the exterior walls are filled, the aggregation of the interior walls starts.
03
Platform
The App
The App
Residents get access to private units and common areas. Service are available via the conCreate platform. A points-based system encourages tenants to take part in the community by being rewarded with points used to book services and unlock spaces.
The Bartlett
B-Pro Show 2022
27 September – 7 October
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