From Lab to Site Exhibition

HANNAH exhibits at the From Lab to Site: Innovation on Concrete symposium exhibition at the Taubman College of College of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan. The symposium is organized by Tsz Yan Ng and Wes McGee.

“From the climate imperatives to make the built environment carbon positive to novel material forming techniques such as 3D printing, concrete is undergoing a transformation along different fronts in the building industry. As computational design and digital fabrication technologies become mainstream in the AEC industries, scaling up to address construction level challenges, concrete holds tremendous promise for the future, not only in shaping our built environment but also in how we build, our ethos and aspirations. Yet, there are many hurdles to overcome. With traditional building processes steeped in protocols and regulations, moving R+D to the building sector requires an awareness of the different players, institutions, and contingencies that shape the contours of concrete innovation.

What approaches contribute to a smooth transfer of innovations to the building sector? Given new modes of manufacturing, what are the new codes and standards that will govern the path toward implementation? What cross-platform systems will need to be in place in order to facilitate automation and construction productivity? What are the new technologies and associated expertise that will emerge to redefine architectural practice and the building industry, especially to navigate and manage the increasingly multi-disciplinary teams?

This symposium, rather than a survey of contemporary concrete architecture, brings researchers and industry experts together from diverse disciplinary fields and areas of production – history & theory, engineering, construction technology, material science, design, and manufacturing – for a timely discussion centered on concrete as a building material with enormous potential for innovation. The symposium aims to foster and identify trajectories for advancing concrete research and align potential collaborative exchanges.”

More information on the symposium here.