Using robots, Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, architects and
professors at the ETH (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) in
Zurich, push the limits of computer and digital fabrication in
design and construction. The teaching and business partners
research digital design and robotic fabrication in architecture.
Instead of creating robotic objects and automated environments,
the architects are using robots to build those products and
environments. The fabrication robots, called ROB Units, build
structures by placing modular pieces of building materials such
as brick or wood in preprogrammed patterns. Algorithms and
parameters written by the architects feed the design of the
structures. The results are intricately detailed and beautiful
installations. The advantages of employing robots in
construction are precision and consistency, conditions normally
vulnerable to the element of human error in construction.
Combined with digital design programs, automated robots can
manipulate materials into shapes and pat