Panel discussions

ROB|ARCH 2018 will be featuring two lively and engaging panel discussions on two different days.

Panel 1

Time and location: 19:00–20:00, ETH Hönngerberg HPH Building, G1 Auditorium

Following the opening keynote by Chris Luebkeman, The ROB|ARCH 2018 conference will kick of with a panel on the topic of interdiscipliarity and digitalisation in architecture and construction on the evening of Wednesday, September 12th. The panel will be moderated by Judit Solt, editor-in-chief of the Swiss TEC 21 magazine.

Panel members

Margarita Chli is an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she leads the Vision for Robotics Lab. She is also the Deputy Director of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich. Originally from Greece and Cyprus, Margarita Chli studied at the University of Cambridge and at the Imperial College London, both in the United Kingdom. Margarita Chli’s interests lie in computer vision for robotics and her work contributed to the first vision-based, autonomous flight of a small helicopter. In 2016 she was featured in Robohub’s list of 25 women in robotics you need to know about and in 2017 she was a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. For her high impact contributions to the development of robotic vision she was awarded the biannual Zonta Prize.

Gudela Grote is Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She received her PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA Her research focuses on the increasing flexibility and virtuality of work and the resulting consequences for the individual and organisational management of uncertainty. In particular, she studies the effects of new technologies on work processes, teamwork and standardisation in high-risk systems, leadership and collaboration in innovation teams, and the management of the employment relationship. She has published widely on the topics organisational behaviour, human factors, human resource management, and safety management, and has consulted with major private and public organisations. She is a former president of the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology and a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology.

Fabio Gramazio is an architect with multidisciplinary interests ranging from computational design and robotic fabrication to material innovation. In 2000, he founded the architecture practice Gramazio Kohler Architects in conjunction with his partner Matthias Kohler, where numerous award-winning designs have been realised. Current projects include the design of the NEST building of Empa and Eawag, a future living and working laboratory for sustainable building construction. Opening also the world’s first architectural robotic laboratory at ETH Zurich, Gramazio Kohler’s research has been formative in the field of digital architecture, setting precedence and de facto creating a new research field merging advanced architectural design and additive fabrication processes through the customised use of industrial robots. This ranges from 1:1 prototype installations to the design of robotically fabricated high-rises. The recent research is outlined and theoretically framed in the book “The Robotic Touch: How Robots Change Architecture”.

Hanif Kara is a practicing Structural Engineer and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard. His work is recognized as being linked with the research and education areas of design. He co-tutored a Diploma Unit at the Architecture Association, London from 2000 to 2004 and was Visiting Professor of Architectural Technology at KTH Stockholm from 2007 to 2012.As Design Director and co-founder of AKTII (est 1996), his particular ‘design-led’ approach and interest in innovative form, material uses, and complex analysis methods have allowed him to work on numerous award-winning, pioneering projects.The practice has won over 250 design awards including the RIBA Stirling Award for the Peckham Library, London in 2000 and for the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge in 2012 as well as the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo in 2010.

Shiho Kawashima is a Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. She is one of the “young game changers, movers, and makers” named to the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Science category in 2015. Her work is in experimental cement and concrete research, which aims to tie nano-/microstructural behavior to macroscale structural response. She specializes in cement rheology, particularly in the development of innovative measurement techniques to further the understanding of the structural and temporal evolution of the fresh-state microstructure of cementitious systems. She is also interested in nanocomposites, including the integration of nanomodification with the use of supplementary cementitious materials to aid in the design of sustainable infrastructural materials.

Chris Luebkeman‘s interest in the built environment blossomed early, propelling him to pursue a multi-faceted education, beginning with engineering and culminating in a Doctorate in Architecture from ETH in Zurich, a city to which he remains deeply connected. Chris gained valuable experience as the protégé of esteemed Spanish Architect, Santiago Calatrava. But, subsequently he turned to his other love, education, by accepting teaching positions at several prestigious universities. In 1999, Chris joined Arup as the Co-Director for Research and Development. A couple of years later, he formed the Foresight, Innovation and Incubation team, which has evolved to its present form as Foresight + Research + Innovation

Panel 2

Time and location: 14:15–15:15, ETH Hönngerberg HPH Building, G1 Auditorium

Panel members

Mahesh Daas (moderator) is a designer, technologist and an experienced academic leader. He serves as the dean of the School of Architecture & Design at the University of Kansas, one of the 34 public AAU research universities in the United States. His academic career spans 22 years at four universities including 13 years in administration.

Daas earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India, in 1990 with A.P. Riding Club Gold Medal; a master’s degree in urban design from Kansas State University in 1994 with John F. Helm Award for professional promise; and an executive doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania with distinction for dissertation in 2013. He has also received executive certificates in management from the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University.

Daas’s interdisciplinary work has been featured in scholarly journals, conference proceedings, federal publications and academic books. Most recently, his co-edited book Towards a Robotic Architecture (2018, Oro Editions, with AJ Wit) is the first comprehensive book on robotics in architecture and features 42 leading researchers from around the world. The book reframes robotics and defines robotics research in architecture here on Earth and on Mars. The book has been chosen as Top Tech Book of 2018 by Architect’s Newspaper.

Andrew John-Wit (moderator) is a designer and researcher operating on the fringe of design, technology and robotics. His projects and research on environmentally adaptive/intelligent building design processes and systems has been widely disseminated in both academic conferences and professional magazines and galleries. In addition, Andrew has practiced internationally at offices such as Tsushima Design Studio, Atelier Bow Wow and Toyo Ito Associates in Tokyo, Japan. Andrew received MArch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his BS in Architecture from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Sigrid Brell-Cokcan is the founder and director of the new Chair of Individualized Production at RWTH Aachen University and co-founded the Association for Robots in Architecture in 2010 together with Johannes Braumann.

IP focusses on the use of innovative machinery in material and building production. In order to create an environment that allows the efficient, individualized production of lot size one, new and user friendly methods for man machine interaction are developed. The Chair of IP employs researchers from different fields of robotics and building production to streamline the necessary digital workflow from the initial design to the production process; shaping the construction site of the future via intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces.

In 2003 she was the founding partner of II Architects int Istanbul/ Vienna. (Best design award at Turkey Build 2008 for Reinforced Prefabricated client: Alacali Construction Industry and Trade Inc.) Before launching her own architecture firm with Baris Cokcan she was working with renowned international architects and engineers Coop Himmelblau, Frank O Gehry, Peter Cook and Bollinger & Grohmann on projects such as Kunsthaus Graz, MARTA Herford and BMW World Munich.

Matthias Kohler is an architect with multi-disciplinary interests ranging from computational design and robotic fabrication to material innovation. In 2000, he founded the architecture practice Gramazio & Kohler in conjunction with his partner Fabio Gramazio, where numerous award-wining designs have been realised. Current projects include the design of the Empa NEST research platform, a future living and working laboratory for sustainable building construction. Opening also the world’s first architectural robotic laboratory at ETH Zurich, Gramazio & Kohler’s research has been formative in the field of digital architecture, setting precedence and de facto creating a new research field merging advanced architectural design and additive fabrication processes through the customised use of industrial robots. This ranges from 1:1 prototype installations to the design of robotically fabricated high-rises. His recent research is outlined and theoretically framed in the book The Robotic Touch: How Robots Change Architecture (Park Books, 2014). From 2014 to 2017 Matthias Kohler was director of the new National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication.

Achim Menges is a registered architect and professor at the University of Stuttgart, where he is the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction since 2008. He has also been Visiting Professor in Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design from 2009 to 2015.

He graduated with honors from the AA School of Architecture in London where he subsequently taught as Studio Master of the Emergent Technologies and Design Graduate Program from 2002 to 2009, as visiting professor from 2009 to 2012 and as Unit Master of Diploma Unit 4 from 2003 to 2006. From 2005 to 2008 he was Professor for Form Generation and Materialisation at the HfG Offenbach University for Art and Design in Germany. In addition he has held visiting professorships in Europe and the United States.

Achim Menges practice and research focuses on the development of integral design processes at the intersection of morphogenetic design computation, biomimetic engineering and computer aided manufacturing that enables a highly articulated, performative built environment. His work is based on an interdisciplinary approach in collaboration with structural engineers, computer scientists, material scientists and biologists. Achim Menges has published several books on this work and related fields of design research, and he is the author/coauthor of numerous articles and scientific papers. His design research and projects have received many international awards, have been published and exhibited worldwide, and form parts of several renowned museum collections, among others, the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Sina Mostafavi is a practicing architect, researcher, and educator. Has practiced architecture since 2007, he is the founder of SETUParchitecture, a firm that offers consultancy for innovative design solutions to construction processes. He is currently the manager and coordinator of Robotic Building Lab at Hyperbody group of TU Delft. He is teaching design studios at Delft and Dessau Institute of Architecture at Bauhaus and has led international workshops such as indesme2015-re.craft  and and Simaud 2018 at Delft and IASS2015 at Amsterdam. As a Ph.D. and later as a senior researcher at TU Delft, he has focused since 2011 on development and application of design computation to robotic production of hybrid material systems; using multimode subtractive-additive robotic production methods. He has lectured internationally and has been a member of the scientific committees of various journals and conferences such as eCAADe and ACADIA. The results of his work have been published and presented in books, journals and conferences, such as eCAADe 2013 in Delft, Algorithms and Actualization at AA London, eCAADe 2014 in New Castle, ACADIA in Los Angeles, eCAADe 2015  in Vienna, ACADIA in Cincinnati, Rob|Arch 2016 in Sydney, Digital Knowledge in Paris Malaquais, chapters in Towards a Robotic Architecture book and in Mutations-creations, Imprimer-le-Monde, Centre Pompidou . Architectural prototypes and works by him have been featured at international exhibitions, such as construction week in Utrecht, V2 gallery-institute for unstable media of Rotterdam, synthetic Exhibition in Le Mans Lillie and Print the World Exposition in Centre Pompidou Paris.