At Sekisui Heim in Tokyo-Kurohama, Japan, a worldwide leader in automated robot-driven house assembly, Thomas Spiegelhalter (Associate Professor and Co-Director of the FIU Structures and Environmental Technologies Lab) launched the book Post-Parametric Automation in Design and Construction (Artech House, 2014) co-authored with Alfredo Andia, Associate Professor. The event was attended by eighteen FIU architecture students, who went on a one-day welcome tour at the fully Automated Fabrication and Robot Assembly of Sekisui Heim.
The fully automated house planning and factory tour at Sekisui Heim in Tokyo-Kurohama took place after the official handover of Professors Spiegelhalter and Andia’s co-authored book to the directors of Sekisui. The book has a designated chapter on “Automated Fabrication and Assembly: Sekisui Heim, Tokyo, Japan” (co-authored by Sekisui scientists Jun Furuse and Masayuki Katano).
Eighteen Japan Abroad Summer Studio students participated in the official handover and in the half-day Automation and Robot Assembly Factory tour, which was conducted by the factory directors and scientists Jun Furuse and Masayuki Katano of Sekisui Heim. Sekisui produces around 13,000 energy-efficient, customized, and prefabricated homes per year, which range from one to three stories. Each day, Sekisui outputs approximately ten three-story houses per automation and robot assembly. The houses are then transported to the job site and assembled in only one day.
In Japan, most prefabricated houses are manufactured by using automation, service robotics, and other advanced assistance technologies. The steady success of the main players in Japan’s prefabrication industry like Sekisui Heim, Daiwa House, and Toyota Production System (TPS) demonstrate decades of reliable products and services in the mass customized housing kit industry. Sekisui has one of the world’s most advanced 3-D-/4-D BIM allowing more than 90% of all generic or individual designs and parts-related information to be directly translated into production and assembly operations. To learn more about Sekisui Heim, click here. (Source: Sekisui Heim)
Image: Sekisui Heim officials Jun Furuse, Masayuki Katano, and FIU Associate Professor Thomas Spiegelhalter with eighteen Japan Abroad Students (Image courtesy, SEKUSUI, 2015)
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