In light of environmental challenges architecture is facing, wood is no longer regarded as outmoded, nostalgic, and rooted in the past, but increasingly recognized as one of the most promising building materials for the future. Recent years have seen unprecedented innovation of new technologies for advancing wood architecture. Advancing Wood Architecture offers a comprehensive overview of the new architectural possibilities that are enabled by cutting-edge computational technologies in wood construction. It provides both an overarching architectural understanding and in-depth technological information through built projects and the works of four leading design research groups in Europe. The projects presented include large scale, permanent buildings such as the ETH Arch-Tec Lab Building in Zurich, the Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall near Stuttgart and the Boiler House in Hooke Park, UK, as well as, built research prototypes investigating additive robotic fabrication, folded plate structures and meteorosensitive building skins. Illustrated in full colour, the book showcases the latest technological developments in design computation, simulation and digital fabrication together with an architectural, engineering and manufacturing perspective, offering an outlook towards novel spatial and constructional opportunities of a material with unrivalled ecological virtues.

In light of environmental challenges architecture is facing, wood is no longer regarded as outmoded, nostalgic, and rooted in the past, but increasingly recognized as one of the most promising building materials for the future. Recent years have seen unprecedented innovation of new technologies for advancing wood architecture. Advancing Wood Architecture offers a comprehensive overview of the new architectural possibilities that are enabled by cutting-edge computational technologies in wood construction. It provides both an overarching architectural understanding and in-depth technological information through built projects and the works of four leading design research groups in Europe. The projects presented include large scale, permanent buildings such as the ETH Arch-Tec Lab Building in Zurich, the Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall near Stuttgart and the Boiler House in Hooke Park, UK, as well as, built research prototypes investigating additive robotic fabrication, folded plate structures and meteorosensitive building skins. Illustrated in full colour, the book showcases the latest technological developments in design computation, simulation and digital fabrication together with an architectural, engineering and manufacturing perspective, offering an outlook towards novel spatial and constructional opportunities of a material with unrivalled ecological virtues.

How can the fundamental digital change taking place in design and construction be actively used to bring about cultural change in architecture? By exploring robotic production methods and innovative material developments, Achim Menges and Jan Knippers have succeeded in developing genuine digital building systems that combine architectural elegance with effective construction. The book provides an insight into ten years of joint research at the ICD and ITKE Institutes of Stuttgart University. Taking completed pavilions and buildings as examples, the authors demonstrate the viability of the underlying hypotheses that impressively push the limits of construction. Articles from international experts contribute to the current debate on architecture.

Wie kann der fundamentale digitale Wandel, der das Entwerfen und Bauen durchdringt, als eine baukulturelle Veranderung aktiv gestaltet werden? Achim Menges und Jan Knippers Ist es gelungen, durch das Ausloten robotischer Fertigungstechniken, gekoppelt mit innovativen Materialentwicklungen, genuin digitale Bausysteme zu entwickeln, die architektonische Eleganz und konstruktive Effektivitat verbinden. Das Buch gibt Einblicke in zehn Jahre der gemeinsamen Forschung an den Instituten ICD und ITKE an der Universitat Stuttgart. Es belegt auch anhand von realisierten Pavillons und Bauten die zugrundeliegenden Hypothesen, mit denen die Grenzen des Bauens eindrucksvoll verschoben werden. Fachbeitrage internationaler Experten verankern das Werk im derzeitigen Architekturdiskurs.

Emergence - the process by which new and coherent structures, patterns and properties emerge from within complex systems

Traditional architecture starts from the premise that architectural structures are singular and fixed, and however well integrated are separate from their environment and context. Emergence requires that the opposite is true that those structures are complex energy and material systems that have a lifespan, exist as part of an environment of other active systems, and develop in an evolutionary way.

This book, based on the authors internationally renowned Emergent Technologies and Design course at the Architectural Association in London, introduces a new approach to the practice of architecture. The authors use essays and projects to demonstrate the interrelationship of concepts such as emergence and self-organisation with the latest technologies in design, manufacturing and construction.

With projects from their course, and critiques and commentary from some of the world s leading design theorists and practitioners, the authors of Emergent Technologies and Design have introduced a radical new way of understanding the way in which architecture is conceived, designed and produced.