Innovation

Marines 3D-print concrete footbridge in field Marines from the 1st Marine Logistics Group at Camp Pendleton in California have completed construction of a usable, 3D-printed concrete footbridge as part of a field exercise. This was the first time in the Western Hemisphere that a bridge was 3D-printed onsite rather than in a controlled environment like a factory. The footbridge project, carried out with assistance from the Marine Corps Systems Command Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell (AMOC) and the Army Corps of Engineers, was part of the Marines’ annual Steel Knight Exercise. During the course of construction, Marines were trained on how to...

First free-form 3D-printed house could be completed this year Dive Brief: Tennessee construction tech firm Branch Technology expects to break ground soon on what it claims is the world’s first free-form, 3D-printed house and is planning to deliver the project before the end of the year, The Architect’s Newspaper reported.  Architectural firm Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo's Curve Appeal design won Branch's 2016 Freeform Home Design Challenge, which invited firms to submit proposals for a house made with Branch’s C-FAB (cellular fabrication) technology. Curve Appeal will be built on a lot in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and crews will use approximately 100 pieces of printed carbon-fiber-reinforced ABS...

How building information modeling is optimizing construction Building Information Modeling (BIM) has driven a multibillion dollar paradigm shift in construction strategies, allowing firms working in every sector of the industry to build more intelligently and more efficiently. As a result of BIM, design teams, contractors and clients are collaborating more than ever before, using the same sets of information to communicate more effectively and avoid confusion throughout construction. The technology has become widely adopted around the world. But how is BIM doing all of this, and what does it mean for data center construction? The billion-dollar question; what is BIM?...

Online building construction app iBuild launched in Kenya Kenya-based International Corporation, iBUILD, with global headquarters in Washington, DC, has launched its mobile- enabled construction platform in Kenya. The company, which began its first testing in the country in 2017, is now fully launching nationally into the open building and construction market. Kenya will be the first full market launch and iBUILD hopes that the country will demonstrate strong leadership in how civil society can address the dearth of affordable housing and lack of residential construction activity. This is achievable through providing an empowering marketplace with the ability for ‘fundis’ (masons) to...

Urban Mining & Recycling The Urban Mining & Recycling unit demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can go hand in hand with appealing architectural form. The project is underpinned by the proposition that all the resources required to construct a building must be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable.  This places life-cycle thinking at the forefront of the building design created by Werner Sobek in collaboration with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel: Instead of merely using and subsequently disposing of resources, they are borrowed from their technical and biological cycles for a certain amount of...