IF7 Digital Condominium (1998)
DESCRIPTION: A medium density condominium project that has no fixed unit size. Units can vary from two modules, and expanded to any number of modules horizontally or vertically (with interior private stairways) as long as unoccupied slots in the support structure are available.

CLIENT: Plug-in Creations / Kajima / IMS joint project.

CONCEPT: The "IF7" projects falls under the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) research umbrella (project #96009), with the goal of establishing an intelligent field factory, which is a fully automated mass-production process for manufacturing large-scale building components. The purpose of the condominium project was to analyze the various subsystems in a building and divide them up into manageable components in a discrete kit-of-parts whose components can be manufactured through field factories and onsite automated assembly. The approach was to consider the various life expectancy of the building subsystems and provide an accessible means of adding and removing components during construction and during the entire lifetime of the building. Modules were based on the international shipping container standards.

DESIGN TEAM: Structure, mechanical, spatial design, planning, and module design were by A. Scott Howe, collaborating with Kajima and IMS participants who established specifications and conducted background industry research.

COST: None estimated.

DATE: 1998.

STATUS: Only conceptual design steps were taken for the purpose of supporting the IF7 intelligent field factory research.

Other images and animations:
robotic construction animation (2.7mb)
alternative lift mechanism
alternative lifting scenario
IF7 Digital Condo paper (PDF)

Technical papers and articles:
A.S. Howe (2003). Design Principles for Kinematic Architecture. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-II). 10-12 December, 2003, Hong Kong.

A.S. Howe; I. Ishii; T. Yoshida (1999). Kit-of-parts: A review of object-oriented construction techniques. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC16). 22-24 September 1999, Madrid, Spain. London: International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC).

Miyamoto, Ishii, Shibata, Dobashi, Howe, Yoshida, Takada, Ueno, Kunugi, Yagi, Nakata, Hatakeyama, Kigawada, Yomo, and Koga (1998). Study on assembly process for large-scale structures. Heisei 10 nendo IMS Kenkyu Seika Koen Ronbushu (1998 IMS Research Results), pp.119-122. Tokyo, Japan: Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Center.
A Scott Howe, PhD