This article was taken from the June 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
During the 90s, architects in Japan and South Korea created skyscraper factories: monolithic robots that substituted humans with automated construction. It didn't work out: "They were too expensive and couldn't accommodate diversity," says Fabio Gramazio, who heads the architecture and digital fabrication studio at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. But he thinks we could now be entering the age of robo-architecture.
Gramazio (pictured, right) and his partner Matthias Kohler (left) recently programmed an industrial robot to work on a Swiss winery. It prefabricated the façade, stacked bricks and applied adhesive, and cranes installed it. "We're replacing the brick module with a machine and controlling the process with algorithms," says Gramazio. "It's beyond what could be done with a human."
The pair have also presented some more speculative projects, including having drones assemble high-rises in Singapore. But to make these scenarios real, Gramazio knows he has to approach the less eye-catching core of the construction industry: "If you want to change the logic of building, you have to attack concrete." He's working on a new type of reinforced concrete -- one whose reinforcement is a structure extruded by the industrial robot, which allows for more complex structures. "We're currently doing it with plastics, but we're working with steel, glass, carbon and natural fibres." That's some way off, but Gramazio is thinking long term. "If you want complete change, this is 50 to 100 years away," the 43-year-old says. "And that's nothing."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
