Several architectural firms have been planning innovative and effective techniques to build the kind of skyscrapers they have designed. One such thought from a Swiss architectural firm is leading its way to use drones, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for assembling skyscrapers. But, how far can they go when there is no involvement of people! Would UAVs be self-sufficient to do the task in the air? Only time will give the answers to such questions. Nevertheless, the field of architecture always reflects futuristic thoughts and optimism, and thus there is no wonder if UAVs become a part of architecture in one way or another.
The technology
For now, the type of architecture that has been imagined for the UAV era is mostly of the defensive kind. There would be a secret startup with a close-watch home security system, and this is named Domestic Drone Countermeasures. Another unconventional thought is generated for the Shura City, which would run on military codes and have symbolic minarets. But, the real steps that have already been taken include the presentation of a concept called Editions HYX that has been presented by Swiss architects Kohler and Gramazio. Their concept came out of the use of quadcopters they had done for the brick-by-brick assembling of a model skyscraper. Now based on the same concept, these architects are going to publish their book on the flight-assembled architecture.
The present scenario
Fernandio and Sergio Guerra, the Portuguese architects, have already started doing the same. They have been using customized UAVs to take architectural pictures of various structures in accordance with their clients’ requirements. The University of Grenada researchers feel they have beaten it with their plan to use quadcopters for the 3-D scanning of historical buildings. Their 3-D imaging system is probably the first to use a combination of drones, the 3-D modeling technology based on images, and the models’ virtual presentation for producing a realistic 3-D image-to-object modeling. So, the current usage of drones is being done in taking pictures and the rest is future that we all await to see!
Is it practical?
All this done, there still is a lot to be planned if hard-to-acquire drones are to be used to create real multidimensional buildings. Stacking the blocks on a model is far easier than building a skyscraper hundreds of meters up in the sky. Even if a new line of thought were being talked about, its creations would still look miniature in comparison to some world famous skyscrapers. Would the concept still be away from some great achievements as it takes its next step of turning the structures to images? We will get to know when architects get on their further task of taking pictures of various architectural creations using drones.
