Gramazio & Kohler Architektur und Digitale Fabrikation

Got an out-of-the-blue email from a German-speaking friend about an architecture firm in Zürich, die Schweiz. Fabio Gramazio und Matthias Kohler are, apparently, two faculty members in die Fakultät Architektur at Eidgenössische Technische Hochshule (ETH) Zürich. (Take a look at Kohler - faculty photos are a little different in Europe!) They specialize in digital fabrication, using robotic arms to assemble complicated brickwork directly from computer design files, rather than relying on human hands and printed drawings and specifications.

What makes their ideas particularly interesting is that they use everyday materials. Gebäude aus Ziegel (brick buildings) are very common in the US, particularly New York, where the wall above was built. Most G&K structures are built in a lab as panels and installed by ein Baukran (crane), but this wall was the first to be built on site (in situ, in engineering terms). Der Roboterarm (robotic arm) for this project was shipped all the way from Switzerland.

The coolest building I found was a winery in Fläsch, Switzerland. G&K designed the facade in only 3 months, starting with looking at the under-construction building as a basket and filling it with giant Weinbeeren (grapes). They created a 2-D image of the basket for each wall and created the shading by rotating bricks robotically to a very precise angle, even ensuring a particular amount of light got through to help with grape fermentation.

They don't do masonry alone. Some of their woodwork involves automated carving.

Then there's the plain old architecture. Which, really, is anything but plain.

Ich bin eine Hochbauingenieurin (structural engineer), aber mein Vater ist ein architekt, so when I see work that marries technical and artistic pursuits like this, it makes me think there's a niche for me after all. Doesn't hurt that it's im schöne Gebirge (beautiful mountains) von die Schweiz. :)

Images and project info found at http://www.gramaziokohler.com/web/d/projekte/index.html.