Digital Production Research Group

Worldwide, we use an enormous amount of raw materials every day, such as oil, gas, metals and wood. The demand for raw materials is only increasing, but meanwhile every day we throw away materials that are still perfectly usable. The Digital Production Research Group investigates how to prevent this by giving discarded materials a second life. The multidisciplinary team consists of architects, industrial design engineers, mechanical engineers, experts in mechatronics & robotics and IT.

Flexible production solutions

Working with circular materials requires a new way of designing and producing. This is because circular materials do not come in fixed quantities, dimensions or quality. As a consequence, the design of a product is no longer the central aspect driving production, but rather the available material from which it could be made. Therefore, creating products based on waste streams requires a flexible design process and customization, rather than mass production with homogeneous materials based on one standard design.

The research involves the development of tools and processes (hardware and software). This includes advanced parametric design tools, custom-designed equipment for the robots and the implementation of factory-like set-ups that integrate the latest technologies of 3D scanning, sensoring, machine vision, artificial intelligence, and more.

Tangible prototypes

Many projects deal with new applications for circular materials, such as waste and residual wood. Projects investigate design and production opportunities which - once upscaled and implemented - can make a real contribution for circular transitions. The team designs and produces tangible prototypes and installations using these materials. These ‘conversation pieces’ can be used as catalysts and demonstrators, to align research outcomes with industry, municipalities and other stakeholders.

About the associate professor

Marta Malé-Alemany is Associate professor Digital Production. She is specialized in the relationship and integration between design and digital production technologies. She graduated from ETSAB-UPC (Barcelona 1996), holds a Master Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University (New York, 1997), and a PhD from ESTAB-UPC (Barcelona, 2016). Her doctoral thesis explores the potential of large-scale Additive Manufacturing technologies to innovate design and building construction.

Education

The Digital Production Research Group has a strong focus on connecting education, research and practice. In the research, therefore, there is much collaboration with students from inside and outside the AUAS, from all kinds of backgrounds and educational levels. From Built Environment and Engineering to Technical Computing, Communication & Media Design and the Wood and Furnishings College. In the Robot Lab, students can experiment to their hearts' content and experience working with advanced technology (learning-by-doing). Together with researchers and practice partners, they work on societal issues, such as the circular transition.

Partners

The research is supported by technical partners and a broad network of public and private project partners. Partners range from knowledge institutions and government to housing corporations, the wood industry, hospitality industry, design firms and smart industry. Click here to see the full list.