Archi-Union Architects has completed a conference centre on Shanghai's West Bund in just 100 days, using robot-assisted design and construction.
Called Venue B, the centre was built to host an AI (artificial intelligence) conference. Because of this, Archi-Union felt it was appropriate to use innovative digital construction techniques in the building's creation.
This follows the ethos of the Shanghai-based firm, who previously worked with robots to the build the complex brick structure of the Chi She gallery, and has also completed numerous other buildings with complex geometries.

Venue B features some of the most lightweight structures available in modern buildings, thanks to the combination of algorithms used in the planning stages and prefabricated construction methods. "AI has been rapidly refreshing our perceptions about the world," said the team, explaining that they set themselves the challenge: "How can we present an urban public exhibition space, which carries the essence of AI technology in 100 days""

The complex consists of three conference venues that sit at slightly rotated angles to each other. These angles create two triangular spaces in between the halls, which contain garden courtyards.
The buildings are white, to blend with the overall language of the West Bund's existing public buildings, which are all pale in colour and modernist in form.
Facades that face the street are as closed as possible to avoid disturbance during s...