AEC Magazine 2019 NXT BLD Conference Speakers Announced

The London-based NXT BLD (Next Build) conference put on by AEC Magazine has been announced for 11 June 2019. The event mixes an exciting multi-track series of speaker sessions across cutting-edge topics in AEC technologies with a robot exhibitor floor.  There is also a mixer at the end of the day for networking.

NXT BLD Speakers and Details

By looking at the speaker lineup and their talk titles, exciting sessions cut across topics like the game-ification of architecture and AEC (game tech penetrates pro markets), robotics in architecture and construction, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality workflows in architecture, and last but not least computational design and its convergence with fabrication.

In this image Melike Altinisik Architects Robot Museum, Seoul, is being built itself by robots. (image: Melike Altinisik Architects & AEC Magazine / All rights reserved.)

Here is what folks can expect during the day:

9.40 am // Welcome
Martyn Day // AEC Magazine & NXT BLD

9.45 am // What if human-like mobility could be added to automation on construction sites?
Michael Perry // Boston Dynamics

10:25 am // Design for robotic construction
Melike Altınışık // Melike Altınışık Architects

10:50 am// How Fortnite is changing AEC
Ken Pimentel // Epic Games

11:45 pm // Pushing the Envelope
Paul Ehret // Felix Constructions

12:10 pm // Extra-Terrestrial Architecture
Xavier De Kestelier // HASSELL

12:35 pm // KnitCrete: Stay-in-place formwork for complex concrete forms
Mariana Popescu // Block Research Group

1 pm // Re-imagine cities of the future with next-generation visualization
Sandeep Gupte // NVIDIA

1:30 pm// Navigating challenges surrounding AR and VR hardware
Mike Leach // Lenovo

2:00 pm // Bringing architectural design into VR
Hilmar Gunnarsson & Johan Hanegraaf // Arkio

2:30 pm// Silicon and Sawdust – Deconstructing Construction
Richard Harpham & Abhijit Oak // Katerra

3:10 pm // Robotic Fabrication Processes in Architecture
Federico Rossi // DARLAB (Digital Architecture & Robotic Lab)

4:05 pm // Presentation TBC
Herzog De Meuron

4:30 pm// Between the folds – Towards a material revolution
Tal Friedman // Foldstruct

4:45 pm// Exploring forms through Computational Design to Digital Fabrication
Marc Fornes // THEVERYMANY

Michael Perry of Boston Dynamics and his presentation should be quite fascinating as the Boston-based company appears to have the leadership in robotics on human-like mobility. That first kickoff talk is followed by another about designing for robot construction.

We wrote about Keterra in our recent Xpresso newsletter but here is a shot of the fabrication floor courtesy of AEC Magazine. (image: AEC Magazine / All rights reserved.)

Main sessions are one track and after lunch, a second track on Visualization and VR is added for the rest of the day. It means attendees could spend most of the day listening to sessions talk about just VR and visualization, with speakers from world-famous visualization studios like Boston-Cambridge founded Neoscape, the Chaos Group and noted architecture firms Herzog & De Meron and KPF.

Boston Dynamics SPOT MINI is to be launched into the construction market. (image: Boston Dynamics courtesy of AEC Magazine / All rights reserved)

You can see the entire schedule here.

Venue and Tickets

This year’s London-based NXT BLD conference takes place at Queen Elizabeth II Centre, on the 5th floor – Cambridge and Windsor rooms, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London, SW1P 3EE.

Registration begins at 8:30 am. The conference starts at 9:40 am.

Tickets are £65.00.