Aggregates are ubiquitous in the concrete production industry, yet are rarely deployed in an unbound form. This materials research project from Stuttgart, Germany examines aggregate architectures made from designed, self-solidifying granulates that are fabricated by injection molding – an entirely novel branch of construction systems. The fact that structures can simply be poured, aggregated, disaggregated, and re-used in relatively short time-spans makes them a novel pioneering and outstanding approach in architectural construction technology. In this context, Aggregate Structure is a pilot project for a ground-breaking construction method using the potential of loose, designed granulates.

The individual grains of these aggregates are geometrically defined to interlock and consequently require no additional binding agent. Aggregate Structure is thus fully recyclable and can be rapidly poured into multiple spatial formations and adapt to almost any site constraints from urban to rural.

Progress: Aggregate architecture made from designed, self-solidifying granulates is an innovation in terms of approaches regarding construction technology and processes. The methodology is very simple and thus transferable: no expert training is needed. Both the design of granulates and the pouring itself can be replicated using both manual and digital aggregation methods.

People: The granulates will be locally produced in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. This ensures a very high quality of working conditions in compliance with German law including regulations for compensation, safety, basic needs and gender issues. The project will be constructed at the University of Stuttgart in cooperation with students and student assistants as part of an educational program at the Institute for Computational Design (ICD).

Planet: Aggregate structures made from designed, binder-free granules are fully recyclable. Once the aggregate system is produced, it can be used over and over again. If ice or snow are used as a formwork, which the designed granulates solidify upon, water as a renewable energy makes 90% of the construction system. Additionally the use of either bio- or recycled plastics or naturally-grown wood as the base material of the designed granulates is investigated.

Prosperity: The main financial investment lies in the design and fabrication of the grains themselves. After production these can be reused multiple times to produce a vast amount of non-repetitive architectural structures with only very limited production costs. If naturally occurring materials like sand or snow are deployed as a formwork for the designed granules, cost per structure is even reduced by an average of 80-90%.

Place: Being moldable, an aggregate structure can adapt to almost any site constraints from urban to rural. If embedded into a naturally erosive environment, such as sand or snow, designed and natural aggregate systems can become one synesthetic system, using natural materials and energetic processes as part of the construction cycle.