Walking Assembly: A Method for Craneless Tilt-Up Construction

The mysterious knowledge surrounding the transportation and placement of megaliths used by ancient societies eludes contemporary building practices. The construction of massive elements in architecture, particularly tilt-up construction, is largely dominated by reliance on external structures and mechanisms such as cranes and tilting tables. This reliance has irreducible implications on costs and access to the potentials of massive construction. This paper taps into the potentials of innovative concrete technologies and ancient methods of transportation and assembly of megalithic architecture to inform contemporary practice by embedding intelligence into building elements to assemble without the aid of external lifting. The paper describes the development of massive concrete prototypes that walk and assemble with ease. It outlines the use of concrete densities and recursive solver computation in the design process to ensure the safe and stable movement of the massive elements. The computation surrounds two key geometries—the form of the element and the center of mass (COM). The forms of the elements are constrained by the need to rotate for transportation, to rest for stabilization, and to interlock for assembly. The solver leverages the potentials of varying densities of concrete to drive the geometric COM to a new target position, thus ensuring the calculated movements. This multi-variable calculation is verified with three built prototypes that test different assembly approaches. The resulting artifacts range from self-assembly to incredibly massive solid cast concrete elements that can walk and assemble effortlessly. The introduction of innovative concrete technologies was fundamental to enable versatility in geometrical design and achieve the target performance from the displacement of the COM. The success of these prototypes points to the possibility where computation, coupled with novel concrete technologies, can expand the reach of, for example, tilt-up wall construction and reconsider the potential of mass in rapid and responsive deployable systems.