The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry finds itself in an accelerating shift towards the use of more digital fabrication (DFAB) technologies. DFAB promises great advantages in AEC, but its adoption is so far lagging and there are few examples of building projects employing DFAB at scale. To facilitate DFAB adoption, we need to identify its challenges and opportunities of in the project context and understand its implications beyond project boundaries. To do this, this paper conducts a single case study on DFAB HOUSE, the first project to introduce several fundamentally new DFAB technologies to construct a fully functional building. Using Qualitative Content Analysis, we provide an overview of the challenges to consider and the strategies available to successfully adopt DFAB technologies in construction projects, establishing a socio-technical framework for DFAB adoption in AEC projects. We find that full-scale projects are an effective exploration method of DFAB in AEC, implementation at scale increases acceptance of DFAB in AEC, and projects are instrumental in establishing an emergent praxis of DFAB.

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Digital Fabrication (DFAB) is a systemic innovation with low adoption rates in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects. Managing requirements of a new design process is one major challenge for the increased DFAB adoption. For other types of innovations, practices such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) improve design management by integrating process, information and organisation in construction projects. In theory, BIM and ECI could improve design management and increase the adoption of DFAB. However, the relationship between DFAB, BIM and ECI has not yet been studied thoroughly. There is a need to understand new paradigms of DFAB design management in regard to process integration, information integration and organisational integration. This study undertakes a comparative study of four DFAB adoptions in AEC projects with varying levels of BIM and ECI implementation. The design processes of DFAB are traced using swimlane process diagrams. From this, relationships between DFAB, BIM, and ECI are derived using a quadripartite interrelationship diagram. This work illustrates the proposed relationships in DFAB adoption in design using a fishbone diagram. This work concludes with potential future research in design management for digital fabrication, including five takeaways for practitioners to adopt and manage DFAB in the design process of construction projects.

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This paper investigates how hospitals can achieve increased flexibility and adaptability using a modular adaptable hospital design (MAHD) methodology. MAHD can be used to improve hospital lifecycle operation, including a potential implementation strategy and feasibility analysis. Drawing from 27 semi-structured interviews and design review sessions with 19 international groups of healthcare, design, engineering, and construction experts, the paper proposes a MAHD Design Methodology framework. This includes an evaluation framework composed of five design categories and 23 sub-categories complemented with a set of design guidelines developed by the researchers. The resulting design guidelines explain the process of designing and building hospitals with new MAHD technologies. The paper concludes by identifying a future implementation pathway for MAHD with the ultimate goal of applying the new modular adaptable design and construction techniques in a real hospital project. The contribution is a methodological approach for designing and constructing hospitals that can achieve greater economic, social, and environmental benefits due to non-disruptive lifecycle adaptability.@en

Adoption of digital fabrication (dfab) in AEC promises great advantages in productivity, sustainability, and new design and delivery opportunities. Companies are interested in adopting dfab, but lack an overview of emerging dfab technologies and their use potential, as well as tools to evaluate their match with the own needs and business interests. Based on a qualitative analysis of five emerging dfab technologies, we developed an easy-to-use scoreboard to guide firms’ decision-making when adopting dfab technologies towards industrial implementation.

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Startups seeking scale often turn to venture capital (VC) for funding, gaining financial support, industry connections, and insights in exchange for equity. Transitioning from initial markets to mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, SPACs, or buyouts, startups face the dual potential for immense success or failure, a hallmark of the high-risk startup ecosystem. The construction industry, especially in the realm of technology startups like SaaS, is witnessing this trend. Unlike software-centric firms, construction robotics startups grapple with challenges posed by the need for physical, custom products, demand volatility, and lengthy development cycles. Venture capital funding is crucial for these 'deep tech' ventures. Still, it introduces the principal-agent issue, where aligning the entrepreneur's actions with the VC's interests is complicated by information asymmetry. VCs counter this through high-powered incentives, controlling rights, and staged investments. Despite the critical nature of this topic, academic research on VC impacts on hardware startups in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector is sparse. Our research aims to fill this gap. We conducted 127 semi-structured and open-ended interviews with 95 individuals across Europe, North America, and other regions in 2022 and 2023. The resulting data, comprising over 90 hours of interviews and field notes, was analyzed using abductive thematic analysis, categorizing 2998 data segments into nine categories within three major themes. This analysis revealed five dimensions of VC's influence on construction robotics startups, highlighting misalignments and dynamic interactions. In preparation for journal publication, this research complements a parallel, data-centric quantitative study, enriching our understanding of this complex subject. Preprints of this research may be available upon request.@en