RAW – Computation for a New Age of Resource Aware Architecture

RAW – COMPUTATION FOR A NEW AGE OF RESOURCE AWARE ARCHITECTURE:
WASTE-SOURCED AND FAST-GROWING BIO-BASED MATERIALS

RAW proposes a breakthrough digital resource model for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) fostering a steep change in all areas of the triad of design, fabrication and materials as presented in the Pathfinder Challenge for AEC. The transformation of AEC into a net-zero and circular industry based on renewable and green materials can only be achieved if the inherent complexity of this material class, the variability in quality and availability due to climatic, seasonal and local conditions, can be interfaced with design to become part of architectural design thinking and technology.

This project addresses this through a new resource model that is extendable and can enrich parallel digitalisation efforts in the European industry. With a central focus on the alternative materials of waste-sourced and fast-growing bio-based materials, this project will develop a holistic approach that innovates material practice across disciplinary boundaries with digital technologies by (1) characterising waste-sourced and fast-growing bio-based materials in a non-destructive and, at best, inline methods and predict their individual properties relevant to AEC, (2) developing an open design model and semantic data model that provides architects and engineers means to design and specify with the variability of the actual resource streams, and (3) creating an adaptive fabrication model that can instrumentalise the developed model. 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
Institute for Building Construction and Structural Design (ITKE), University of Stuttgart

Tenure-Track Prof. Dr. Thomas Wortmann
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD/CA), University of Stuttgart

RESEARCHERS

Dr.-Ing. Axel Körner (ITKE)
Zuardin Akbar (ICD/CA)
Fabian Eidner (ITKE)

PARTNERS

Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA), Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation (KADK), Copenhagen, Denmark

The Danish Polymer Centre, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Copenhagen, Denmark

Research Institute of Textile Chemistry/Physics, Technological University Innsbruck (UIBK), Austria

Division of Wood Science and Engineering, Luleå Technological University (LTU), Sweden

Department of Industrial Ecology, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Netherland

Omtre AS, Buskerud, Norway

FUNDING

Horizon Europe HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01 (“RAW”), project ID 101161441.