Inclined Assembly: An Integrated Approach Towards Hillside Building Design and Site Infrastructure for Automated Construction

Abstract

In many cities under urbanisation pressures, sloping topographies tend to be under-utilised due to complex designs and difficult access/navigation on-site, resulting in low construction productivity and high cost. Research has recently been conducted on increasing productivity in the building industry through automation. A similarly prolific area of research from the 1970s and 80s is aimed at hillside dwellings; however, these were mostly high-end individual houses. This research combines concepts for automated and prefabricated construction with hillside dwelling design and proposes a method of design that integrates both aspects and, through a multi-phase process, generates innovative, site-specific design outcomes. The aim is to develop a parametric framework of design that produces an optimised and site-responsive design, and in which the site infrastructure for automated construction on hillsides is integrated. Analysis of design typologies for hillside housing and research into automated construction allows for development of dwelling structures suited for serial, automation-assisted construction, with the topography as a design-generator. The design method is tested and refined on a case-study site in Wellington, New Zealand. Investigation into the geometric implications of automated construction on hillside sites allows for architects to design so that such processes are incorporated into the settlement from the start.