Foster + Partners turns to robot “swarms” for construction

The European SWIFT-BUILD project has secured €4 million in funding and aims to test a new robotic construction method in real-world conditions.

SWIFT-BUILD – Swarm-based Inverted Fabrication for Timber Buildings – literally turns the conventional building process on its head. Instead of construction progressing from the foundations upwards, individual floors are assembled at ground level and then lifted, creating the space required to construct the next floor underneath.

The three-year research programme has secured €4 million in funding through the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder programme. According to European Commission data, the project is scheduled to begin in October 2026 and run until September 2029.

At the heart of the system is a “swarm” of different robotic units. Ground-based robots will handle the assembly and lifting of structural components, while drones will monitor construction progress from above, identifying problems in real time. The systems will continuously exchange data and use artificial intelligence tools to adapt their operations without requiring constant human supervision.

The choice of timber as the primary construction material is also central to the project’s approach. The aim is to combine construction automation with prefabricated and adaptable structural systems that can not only be assembled but also disassembled.

In this way, the building is treated more as a collection of reusable components than as a permanent structure. Mechanical connections are designed to be reversible, enabling selective disassembly and the recovery of materials at the end of the building’s lifecycle.

The First Building Will Be a Timber Pavilion

The research programme will culminate in a full-scale demonstration, during which an autonomous swarm of robots will construct a multi-storey timber pavilion. The project also envisages the construction of large-span structural units, such as roofs or entire spatial modules, which can subsequently be assembled.

Foster + Partners is participating as the consortium’s industrial partner. The research team also includes, among others, the universities of Bristol, Birmingham, Southern Denmark and Pisa, the Technical University of Munich, Delft University of Technology and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

SWIFT-BUILD forms part of a broader effort to transfer automation from industrial manufacturing to the construction site. If the technology proves viable at full scale, its significance will extend beyond simply replacing individual tasks with machines. It represents a different construction paradigm, in which design, AI, robotics, prefabrication and the circular use of materials operate as a single integrated system.