Advancing construction technology within communities of practice

Abstract

This Body of Work describes fabrication research done in collaboration with Communities of Practice in Hong Kong. The Author fabricates the prototypes and partial assemblies shown in both University facilities, and with assistance from external fabricators. The author situates research outputs in the context of residential real estate development, particularly at moments of developmental transition. Knowledge exchange for technological development, particularly in contrast to industrialization pathways, contextualizes the research output. Research outputs experimentally probe Communities of Practice to understand obstacles to technological advancement. This testing delivers significant insight into researchers’ pathways to help Communities of Practice surmount normative limits to their capability, through Up-Streaming, Tool Packaging, and Alternative Technique development methods. This insight suggests pathways for technological advancement translating industry-normative industrialization into collaborative knowledge exchange. These alternative pathways suggest models to avoid negative externalities of industrialization-based technology advancement in housing development markets. The work is original in its application of advanced craft capability to interfaces with external Communities of Practice. The author uses industry survey to understand limits to a Community’s capability, and applies advanced techniques and facilities to collaboratively surmount those limits. Researchers’ technical support develops ways to integrate technological advancements sustainably into a Community of Practice and, by extension, a development market. Thereby, this work suggests new models for technological advancement with greater possibility of integration into a development context. Collaboration with Communities of Practice is structured through rigorous research throughout those Communities to insure experimental fabrications address limits to practice concretely and surmount them in impactful ways. The work shows multiple pathways for technological advancement based on the multi-faceted constraints Communities of Practice face. The work displays rigorous foundation of technological advancements in an industry-survey based experimental methodology.