urbanLab Magazin 2021 - Transformation

drilling, etc. automatically without the
need of human interaction. On a scientific
level, further fabrication specific
investigations can be found regarding
the use of robots and augmented reality
during production. Augmented
reality seems to be a very interesting
topic in façade business since it has
the power to improve the quality level
and safety during production. Robots
might be a next step on the way to free
human workers from dirty, dull and
dangerous jobs and to improve quality
of the products by reducing errors.
Nevertheless, this would necessitate
a rethinking in product development
with a consideration of robot specific
production principles and a change of
working environments that are, at the
moment, not suitable for robot automation.
FAÇADE INSTALLATION
The façade installation is one of the
most critical process steps in the façade
life-cycle that has huge influences
on the performance quality of the end
product. As the façade installers are
not involved in the first life-cycle phases,
a clear and unequivocal transfer of
installation knowledge must be provided.
This gets even more important in
times of globalization where a façade
that is designed for a project in e.g.
Asia might be developed in central Europe.
Due to this, modern companies
change their product documentation
from very complex fabrication and installation
drawings, overloaded with
written explanations, into easy, understandable
and language independent
video documentation. Another problem
in the installation phase occurs
when unexpected tolerances (i.e. of
the building shell) are recognized too
late, and the corresponding adjustments
during fabrication are no longer
possible. A continuous monitoring of
the construction progress with modern
monitoring devices like 3D-scanners
or drones, followed by an instant
comparison with the originally planned
data and a clash alert if unexpected tolerances
are recognized seems to be a
digital solution. These issues in façade
installation show the importance of
data connection throughout the fabrication
and installation phase reason
why some companies in façade business
start to develop cloud based project
management platforms. Their aim
is to save data through the entire façade
design process to be able to provide
data when and where is needed. This
should help the involved parties in
façade business to minimize risks and
to achieve goals in terms of time, cost
and quality (PlanToBuild, 2019).
FAÇADE OPERATION
This process step is a very important
one as it has the highest influence on
the user-satisfaction. To meet the expectations
on the so called “smart-home”
concept, products are designed
as so called “cognitive active systems”
(Strube, 1998). A cognitive active system
in façade business can be defined
as a mechanical system with an adaptive
and indirect connected motor
and sensor interface (Figure 3). The
sensor interface gets stimulated by
an external influence, this stimuli gets
recognized, analyzed and gives an adapted
impulse to the motor interface
that initiates an action. A good example
for such a cognitive active system
is the research called “Acoustic
Fig. 3: The use of cognitive active systems enlarges the
potential for innovations in façade business
W. Heusler
DATA DRIVEN DESIGN
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