Among current adoptions of standard industrial robotic arms for automation and mass customisation in the building industry, robotic fabrication is of interest for bespoke manufacturing and advancing mobile and onsite construction processes. The use of robotic arms can be of significance particularly where access and site conditions limit further construction of building elements to be inserted in an existing architectural fabric. This paper introduces research and development of robotic carbonfibre winding of an integrated ceiling structure to support open and flexible workspaces scenarios. The project Systems Reef 1.0 explores the potential and viability for an integrated infrastructure that expands standard office-ceiling grid systems to support flexible workspace scenario and the agency of networked, dynamic and self-organising teams. To this extent, multiple soffit-hung, rotational and retractable data booms provide fibre-optic data, electrical cabling and integrated lighting. Through geometrically complex, fibre-reinforced building elements that are robotically manufactured onsite, a new distribution system for data and light can be provided to support individual and multi-group collaborations in a contemporary open-plan office for maximum flexibility. In this paper, we discuss research into the development of robotic carbon-fibre threading sequences and physical demonstrators for an integrated ceiling structure that takes into account local ceiling constraints. Using a KUKA KR10 industrial robot and mobile platform, carbon-fibre threading prototypes were integrated with onsite conditions and synthesised in four physical demonstrators that support data provision for flexible desking in open-plan office environment where prefabrication of large-sized building modules is restricted due to access constraints. The paper discusses challenges in integrating robotic carbon-fibre threading, data-driven occupancy, structural performance and results for workspace flexibility, and concludes with an outlook towards future potentials.

This research investigates the integrated design, robotic fabrication and materialisation of novel air-distribution systems for contemporary office environments. Specifically, the research focuses on the integration of computational design, multiobjective optimisation and the development of novel approaches and techniques for large-scale 3D printed module systems for low embodied-energy air-ducts in the context of a pilot study for an open office environment. By investigating the interrelationship of polymer extrusion, material behaviour, computational design, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation and multi-objective optimisation, the research leverages the capacities of each of these methods in order to create highlydetailed geometries that are optimised for air distribution in order to create locally differentiated thermal comfort. The paper contributes to and further extends existing research in the domain of large-scale 3D printing by presenting a series of developed novel approaches and techniques combining the diverse methods above to address the plural performance demands of low embodied-energy air distribution systems. It presents empirical research towards air simulation, geometry optimisation and bespoke fabrication for a high-quality, customised and resilient air-distribution system to support the flexibility of contemporary office environments and reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities through increased resource-use efficiency and substantial waste and embodied energy reduction.

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