Disarmed Strategies: New Machines and Techniques for an Era of Computational Contextualism in Architecture

Digital fabrication to date has typically been blind to context. But this need not be the case – as demonstrated by the experiments of Gramazio Kohler Research , based at ETH Zurich. They have developed systems that employ robotic arms and flying machines with feedback control to adapt the fabrication process as it progresses. From the ballistic projection of clay in a cutting-edge version of adobe, to the interlacing of string to form suspended structures in space, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler and Hannes Mayer outline some of their inventions here.     

Mesh-Mould: Robotically Fabricated Spatial Meshes as Reinforced Concrete Formwork

If robots are to be employed in the construction of high-rise structures, logistics and material systems have to be entirely rethought to cater for both their abilities and limitations: robots have limited loading capacity, but greater dexterity than other on-site, automated construction techniques. Here, Norman Hack of ETH Zurich and Willi Viktor Lauer of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) at the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability (SEC) describe the research they have undertaken to develop ‘mesh-mould’ as an alternative to conventional formwork.     

Integrating Robotic Fabrication in the Design Process

Does the application of robotic technologies in Southeast Asian cities, where the residential high-rise is pre-eminent, provide a unique opportunity to introduce bespoke design elements and liberate the high-rise from serial production and standardisation? Michael Budig, Jason Lim and Raffael Petrovic of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) at the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability (SEC) introduce the research project ‘Design of Robotic Fabricated High Rises’ (2012-13) led by Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, exploring high-rise typologies and architectural scenarios for future vertical cities.     

Crisis! What Crisis? Retooling for Mass Markets in the 21st Century

From his base in Southeast Asia, Tom Verebes , Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), asks what the hardcore realities are for robotics in architecture in this new ‘Asian Century’. At a time when China strives to accommodate 10 million new urban citizens each year by rolling out high-rise residential blocks with standardised serial production techniques, what hope is there that the homogeneous Chinese city will apply robotic tools of mass customisation for the construction of distinctive, rather than generic structures?     

The Awesome and Capricious Language of Past,Present and Future Digital Moods

Can cultural progress be held back by linguistic limitations? Architect and educator Marjan Colletti , cofounder of London practice MAM-arch, examines the nouns, adjectives and adjectival compounds used by the architectural profession during the first and second digital turns. He reflects on how restricted vocabularies can cause initially forward-looking concepts to descend into the realm of doctrine and ‘-isms’, and argues that true advancement requires constant evolution of the language employed to describe it.     

Cities and Grids: In Search of New Paradigms

The wider global influences of expanded populations, new technologies and economies in both Europe and the Far East are having a direct impact on the pattern and planning of urban form. Joan Busquets , the principal of B Arquitectura I Urbanisme (BAU) in Barcelona, and Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), describes how the urban grid is continuing to evolve with these changes, becoming ‘a matrix for innovation within urban development, allowing the creation of sustainable and compact cities’, enabling the forming of ‘new networks and innovative city systems’.