Now, there is an emergence of new architectural practices whose new found modus operandi has a strong technological basis. A number of promising practices have been surfacing over recent years, leveraging architectural robotics beyond mere conceptual merit and stepping into the industrial arena.

In 1996, Bernard Cache’s company Objectile set up a factory utilising CNC milling machines. In 2000, architect Bill Massie built the Big Belt house, and more than a decade later companies like Facit Homes are revisiting the idea of the house as a product, where CNC is the enabling technology. Do these projects suggest a reconsideration of the objectives of early Modernism, to provide affordable and modern houses of architectural ambition? Where novel manufacturing processes, ranging from CNC to robotics are here to anew the architectural profession. To what extent is architecture’s the newfound vicinity of construction desirable, can architecture recover lost ground?

After the lecture Jelle, along with Dave Pigram, and IAAC Robotic Fabrication expert Alexandre Dubor, will all be developing a Robotic Fabrication Workshop, developing hot-wire cutting processes with the Kuka robot.

IAAC Winter Lecture Series 2015

Friday 23rd of January 2015

Jelle Feringa

Lecture: The Evolution of Work

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium

Open to the Public

JELLE FERINGA

Jelle Feringa is co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design research and Odico formwork robotics, he is currently finishing his PhD thesis at Hyperbody, TU Delft. The work of EZCT is part of the permanent collection of the Pompidou Center and the FRAC Orléans collection. Recent expositions on the work of the office include “Naturalizing Architecture”, Archilab, Orléans,“Out of Hand”, MAD museum, New York (2013-2014), the “Multiverses Créatives”, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2012) and Salone del Mobile, Milan (2012).

Jelle lives in Rotterdam, where his robot workshop is located in the harbour. His current research is focused on the development of original robotic fabrication processes for architecture, considering materialization an inherent aspect of architectural design. These efforts have accumulated in an investor backed startup, Odico formwork robotics, based in Denmark. Recent fabrication experiments include the exploration of stereotomy in vaulting structures and cutting large marble volumes “traites” to which end he developed a large robot diamond wire saw in Carrara, Italy. Jelle is also currently collaborating with IAAC.