Perspectives November 30, 2018

Turning Imagined Designs into Constructed Reality with Robots

By Perkins&Will

Looking to leverage its research into mass timber and robotic fabrication, Perkins&Will’s Building Technology Lab combined talents from across the firm over the course of a year to design, program, and implement a robotically built structure. The robot, equipped with suction grippers, drills, saws, and nail guns, can manipulate generic 2×4 lumber into complex geometries with industrial precision. Hakim Hasan, a researcher at Perkins&Will’s Boston studio, and Anish Reddy, an architect from the Los Angeles studio, oversaw the pavilion fabrication in modules at Autodesk’s BUILD Space in Boston. It was then shipped to Chicago and assembled at Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, where it stole the show with its curved geometry and massive scale.

This technology has the potential to drastically improve the sustainability, quality, cost, and time of construction.

Click below for a closer look: