PixelFrame: Ongoing Research

Collaborators: Inge Donovan, Keith Lee, Pitipat Wongsittikan

MIT SA+P, Building Technology - Digital Structures Group 

Project Brief: 

The need to build for an ever growing and urbanizing population is in conflict with the significant contribution to global CO2 emissions from the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector. For decades, researchers and practitioners have focused on minimizing the embodied carbon associated with building materials through geometric optimization to reduce unnecessary mass. Recently, an alternative approach of reusing existing
building stock for new buildings has emerged. However, there is a conflict between these two approaches: geometrically optimized building elements are often designed for specific loads and boundary conditions, limiting its reconfigurability when reused, and the optimal reuse of existing structural elements is dependent on the availability of end-of-life buildings with demountable
components, which may not align perfectly with future demand. We propose an integrated precast concrete design solution that is designed for material efficiency, disassembly, and reconfigurability. By considering modularity at the scale of individual elements, the proposed system can be adapted to changing programming needs of future building users without
constraints of existing spans and boundary conditions.