Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering PhD in Architectural Engineering and Urban Planning Curriculum Building Architecture Cycle XXIX Doctoral Dissertation Digitally Fabricated LOW-COST HOUSING Material, Joint and Prototype By: Kareem Elsayed Supervisor Professor Antonio Fioravanti June 2017 ii Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale Dottorato in Ingegneria dell'Architettura e dell'Urbanistica Curriculum Edile Architettura XXIX ciclo Dottorato di Ricerca Fabbricazione Digitale nella produzione di ALLOGGI A BASSO COSTO Materiale, giunto e prototipo Da: Kareem Elsayed Supervisore Professore Antonio Fioravanti Giugno 2017 iii iv Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................................ xi 1 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Problem definition ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research questions ........................................................................................................................................ 4 1.3 Aims and objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Scope .................................................................................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 1.6 Tools ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 1.7 Thesis structure ........................................................................................................................................... 11 2 CHAPTER 2 | Background .................................................................................................................. 15 2.1 Where we come from? ............................................................................................................................... 16 2.2 Fundamental concepts .............................................................................................................................. 17 2.3 Types of prefabricated housing ............................................................................................................. 26 2.4 Mass customisation .................................................................................................................................... 30 2.5 Early precedents of architect-led prefabricated housing ........................................................... 33 2.6 Early precedents of industry-led prefabricated housing ............................................................ 39 2.7 From prefabrication to digital fabrication ........................................................................................ 41 3 CHAPTER 3 | Digitally Fabricated Housing Trends .................................................................. 53 3.1 Trend 1: Socially driven ............................................................................................................................ 54 3.2 Trend 2: Efficiency driven ........................................................................................................................ 60 3.3 Trend 3: Process driven ............................................................................................................................ 67 3.4 Where shall we head – Outlook and vision ....................................................................................... 72 4 CHAPTER 4 | Housing System Propositions ............................................................................... 75 v 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 76 4.2 Critical design considerations ................................................................................................................ 76 4.3 Design strategies .......................................................................................................................................... 84 4.4 “Housing System 01” components ....................................................................................................... 87 4.5 Material selection ........................................................................................................................................ 99 4.6 Characterising the material ................................................................................................................... 100 4.7 Initial verification of design system ................................................................................................... 115 4.8 Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 119 5 CHAPTER 5 | Joinery Design ...........................................................................................................123 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 124 5.2 Wood joinery background ..................................................................................................................... 124 5.3 Jointing concept .......................................................................................................................................... 129 5.4 Detailed snap-fit joint design ................................................................................................................ 135 5.5 Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 143 6 CHAPTER 6 | Fabrication and Testing full scale assemblies...............................................145 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 146 6.2 Modeling the prototypes ........................................................................................................................ 146 6.3 Final milling ................................................................................................................................................. 150 6.4 Assembly sequence ................................................................................................................................... 152 6.5 Built prototypes ......................................................................................................................................... 153 6.6 Prototypes evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 155 7 CHAPTER 7 | Conclusions ................................................................................................................169 7.1 Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 170 7.2 Results ............................................................................................................................................................ 171 7.3 Future outlook ............................................................................................................................................ 173 8 Appendix A | Detailed Mechanical Tests ...................................................................................185 vi 8.1 Material mechanical properties........................................................................................................... 185 9 Appendix B | ECOboard Commercial Data sheet ....................................................................207 vii Acknowledgments To my supervisor Prof. Antonio Fioravanti, Your patient guidance, encouragement and advice have been critical and indispensable throughout my time as your student. I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work. In the downs before the ups, you were always there. To Professors Franco Bontempi and Salvatore Perno, This work could not have been done without your very generous help, dedication and close guidance throughout the mechanical and structural lab testing phase of the research. I would like also to extend my thanks to the staff of the Material Testing Lab of the department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering of La Sapienza. To my colleagues: Francesco Rossini and Francesco Squasi, I highly appreciate and value your help and availability. Your comments and feedback were always eye-openers and helped evolve the research further. To all my colleagues, Your presence