Columbia Building Intelligence Project has been generously underwritten by Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope™

Columbia University hosts “Building Intelligence Project” Think Tank in Tokyo

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) will present the Columbia Building Intelligence Project (C-BIP) Tokyo Think Tank on November 3, 2010, at the Roppongi Academyhills, in The Mori Building. Leading architects, engineers, contractors, fabricators and industry experts from various countries including Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States will gather to explore solutions that could change the building industry for the better as part of the Columbia Building Intelligence Project (C-BIP). The event is intended to create a conversation that is collaborative at its core simultaneously pushing today’s industry leaders to think differently and transform how the next generation of professionals are educated. The Columbia Building Intelligence Project is made possible by the generous support of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope™.

The Tokyo Think Tank on November 3, 2010, is open to the public, by reservation, and will run from 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm in the Academyhills (Tower Hall)-Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 49F- 6-10-1 Roppongi Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-6149 (+81 03-6406-6248). Participants have been asked to rethink the future of the building industry in three 60-minute sessions including short presentations and roundtable discussions. Participants will address how insights and practices in the automation of information and material flows in architectural construction will be critical to improving the efficiency and fluidity of a globalized building industry. With implications ranging from supply chains and inventorying, through design and engineering, and culminating in the fabrication and assembly of building systems, a discussion on automation can inform any audience with a vested interest in improving how buildings are constructed. Japan's history of robotic development, automated assembly lines, and efficient construction elucidates how wide-ranging concepts and theories on automation can be applied to a discourse of Building Integrated Modeling, Digital Fabrication, and Intelligent Building Systems.

Factory Automation, Field Automation, and Components Automation will be the themes of discussion. The panel on Factory Automation will cover ideas and practices concerning the manufacturing and fabrication of building components and systems, the design of pre-fabricated elements, and the means of delivering pre-engineered and mass-customized solutions to construction sites. The second panel on Field Automation will discuss the way in which construction site efficiency, through mechanized automated systems of delivery, inventorying, and assembly, interacts with the digital and manual realms of architecture and engineering. The third panel on Component Automation will address how ideas on automation are applied to intelligent systems including actuated components, automated facilities management, and the computational control of architectural structures. Through a discussion of these topics, the Think Tank will develop an intellectual framework for integrating current and future technologies of automation into global building industries.

The theme of automation as an area of study will be expanded upon by the GSAAP’s upcoming C-BIP design studio in Spring 2011. The goal of the studio is to enrich the contemporary discourse on automation and building construction by way of academic research and cutting-edge design. Computational technologies in design and engineering as well as in manufacturing and assembly have improved the control and efficiency of building. As a pioneer of digital design and one of the leaders in contemporary thought and application in architectural education, Columbia University is dedicated to fostering current and future ideas about the building industry through academic research and professional instruction in order to develop the next generation of architects. Studying automation in construction as a means of reengaging industry will lead to a renewed connection between future designers and builders.

“The Columbia Building Intelligence Project supports a series of integrated studios and public conversations devoted to advancing the dialogue about the building industry. The aim of the project is to change the very nature of the conversation from one that is highly adversarial to one that is collaborative and to explore new relationships that have the potential to transform the building industry” says Mark Wigley, Dean, GSAPP. C-BIP runs on a three-semester cycle that began in the fall of 2009 with a Think Tank in New York followed by one in London in June 2010. The Think Tanks are intended to act as catalysts for this new model of Design Studios and will address how GSAPP can initiate an investigation into questions raised through methods of education and interaction with industry.

Schedule

For further information on the Columbia Building Intelligence Project, please visit http://www.arch.columbia.edu/school/c-bip/
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