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Digital planning and production

The digital transformation will radically and permanently change the construction industry in the next few years, as analog planning, production and assembly are increasingly replaced by their digital equivalents. The linking of the analog world with the digital world and the automation and digital operation of highly complex applications will lead to a far-reaching paradigm shift in construction.

Traditional planning and business processes in the construction industry - from design and planning to engineering, documentation and production to assembly and construction - have been characterized to date by considerable fragmentation, which often leads to a high level of subsequent reworking or inefficiency. The idea of an intelligent, networked and sustainable project and building planning from design through realization to building operation is a promising field of research. Innovative and digital building blocks relevant to research in the field of planning include parametric and object-oriented modeling for the development of new and advanced design methods, Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a cooperative working methodology, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) as advanced planning and assembly tools. The use of 3D printing and robots enables the cost-effective production and assembly of widely individualized and highly complex planning solutions with new innovative, intelligent materials and workpieces, new joining and construction principles on a large scale in the entire field of the industry of construction manufacturing. A continuous digital process chain enables a seamless solution strategy for implementing the digital transformation of the building industry.

The new potential area Digital Planning and Production pursues a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and synergetic research approach.  Successful research projects and synergetic interfaces already exist, such as the RoboLab at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, the Institute for Innovative Structures (iS-Mainz) and the Architecture Institute (AI Mainz). In addition, there are synergies with the core research area of Spatial information and measurement technology in some aspects.