We are very happy to present our paper "Prototype as Artefact: Open-Ended Collaborative Assembly Processes" at the ACADIA 2020 Conference. "Prototype as Artefact" aims at integrating digital fabrication with principals of craft in order to explore novel human-robot collaborative workflows combining explicit machine intelligence with implicit human knowledge and creativity. [read more]

Climate Active Bricks looks into possibilities for improving the local microclimate in urban areas by creating self-shaded building facades with reduced solar exposure. The project integrates the potentials of computational design, climate simulation and robotic fabrication with the activation of climate-active properties of bricks in building envelopes. Within a design-build summer school in August 2020, a prototype of this concept was produced together with students at 1:1 scale at the Kreativquartier in Munich. [read more]

What is Augmented Bricklaying? Prof. Dr. Kathrin Dörfler in conversation with Kelly Kelch. With a new technology developed by incon.ai, a spin-off of ETH Zurich, local bricklayers in Greece built a 225 m2 facade in less than three months. The highly articulated brick walls show how Augmented Bricklaying combines the advantages of computational design with human craftsmanship and supports a completely new way of fabrication. Credits: Gramazio Kohler Research Collaborators: Kathrin Dörfler, Timothy Sandy, Daniela Mitterberger, Foteini Salveridou, Lefteris Kotsonis, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias… [read more]

Welcome to our summer semester module Climate Active Bricks! As natural or technical phenomena, microclimates are local thermal zones with specific physical and thermal characteristics influencing our level of comfort and experience in urban areas. The local creation of microclimates can be achieved by the careful and purposeful design of spaces by passive heating or cooling methods or by the installment of active technical devices. The research-by-design module CAB will explore the microclimate effects we can achieve with the creation of geometrically differentiated brick structures. We will… [read more]

As robot technologies are becoming increasingly smarter, cheaper, and safer to work with, both academia and industry are striving for semi-autonomy: where humans and robots work collaboratively toward a common goal. This lecture will provide insights into how hybrid human-robot design and fabrication methods have the potential to use machine intelligence and robot capacities while at the same time involving the participatory engagement of humans and thus creating mutual gain. [read more]

We are happy to invite you to the final presentations of this semester’s design and research studio "Simple Slab - Design and Robotic Fabrication of Timber-Concrete-Composite Slabs"! We will start at 14:00h with an introduction by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Dörfler, continue with a talk by DI Ursula Frick, who will give us exciting insights to her work as CAD/CAM specialist for “Free Form” at Blumer-Lehmann AG in Switzerland, and close with the presentations by our students. In collaboration with: Tilmann Jarmer I Research Associate at the Chair of Architectural Design and Construction I TUM… [read more]

Prof. Dr. Kathrin Dörfler will speak about “Strategies for Robotic On-Site Construction” at the 6th Symposium on Geometry and Computational Design (GCD 6) in Vienna. GCD is a series of lectures by leading researchers presenting recent developments in geometry, computer graphics, computational design and architectural engineering. The event will take place on Nov 29, 2019, at TU Vienna, Kuppelsaal. Potential participants are asked to register for the symposium by Nov 25, 2019. Attending the symposium will be free of charge. [read more]

DFG funds new CRC/Transregio at Technische Universität Braunschweig in collaboration with Technical University of Munich! Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) is a new manufacturing technology that is now introduced in many industrial sectors. If the potential of this technology is transferred to the large scale of construction, new design possibilities and more efficient, resource-saving construction methods can be created. The aim of the TRR 277, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is to fundamentally investigate Additive Manufacturing in interdisciplinary research for the… [read more]

The M.Sc. Programm Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research (ITECH) is an interdisciplinary, research-oriented, experiment-based programme shaped around contemporary aspects of the built environment and practice. The goal of the ITECH programme is to prepare a new generation of students from different disciplines for the continuing advancement of technological and computational processes in development of the built environment through merging the fields of design, engineering, construction and natural sciences. [read more]

Care Protocols, a Mixed Reality Installation for the XII Architecture Biennale São Paulo by Kathrin Dörfler, Romana Rust, Ryan Luke Johns, and Alexander Nikolas Walzer, provides a hybrid digital-physical interaction space that is connected to the act of cleaning. In this space, the most common cleaning devices, namely brooms, act as objects of dual nature. When taken by visitors, they become a magic wand for sweeping the floor filled with virtual rubbish. Care Protocols questions the notion of technology and development as a disruptive force and asks if we can associate it with the notion of… [read more]