Text: Eszter Götz When the curator of the 17th Venice International Architecture Biennale, scheduled for 2020, Hashim Sarkis announced his program and gave the slogan, “How will we live together?”, no one yet knew what would break out into the world in a few months. The pandemic not only postponed the opening of the Biennale […]
Jövőtérkép
The Building Material of the Future
Maison Fibre at the 17th Venice Architectural Biennale Project managers: Prof. Achim Menges, Dr. Jan Knippers Text: Eszter Götz Photos: ICD, ITKE, Stuttgart Maison Fibre, exhibited at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, explores an alternative approach to the design and construction of future habitable spaces. In response to the exhibition theme “How will we live […]
Digital Masonry
Stratus Bridge, Venice, 2021 Text: Bálint Botzheim Photos: Zaha Hadid Architects Striatus is an arched, unreinforced masonry footbridge composed of 3D-printed concrete blocks assembled without mortar. Exhibited at the Giardini della Marinaressa during the Venice Architecture Biennale until November 2021, the 16×12-metre footbridge is the first of its kind, combining traditional techniques of master builders […]
Getting started
The first generation of generative software to help design Text: Bálint Botzheim Generative methods have been present in architectural research since the 1990s, however, until recent years, few thought they could play a role in real design processes. The situation is changing and today Autodesk, the largest software vendor, has also flagged the use of […]
Igloo Reloaded
TECLA Experimental Home with 3D Printing Text: Bálint Botzheim In the past year news have been flooding on a daily basis about various buildings made with a variety of 3D printings, the majority of which, however, relied on the vertical-horizontal logic of traditional construction systems, corresponding to the duality of wall-ceiling building materials. As opposed […]
Simply Green – Liveable Cities
DAM, Frankfurt, 01. 23. – 07. 11. Text: Bálint Botzheim The exhibition in DAM Frankfurt addresses the prejudices towards and the arguments in favor of greening the outer shells of buildings and goes beyond merely presenting scientific findings to provide practically oriented tips on greening existing buildings or new builds. It is intended as a […]
The New Empire of Waters
Nature-Friendly Innovation Against Climate Change Text: Bálint Botzheim A key agent in climate change in the Carpathian Basin happens to be water, of which we temporarily have too much or too little. In spring and early summer sudden showers and downpours are often accompanied by flash floods. In the latter half of the summer, however, […]
Wood, Revised
HoHo Tower, Vienna Text: Bálint Botzheim In the the past few decades we have witnessed a rebirth of wood, as a variety of glued and multi-layered wooden materials have become also widespread besides the traditional timber structures. One of the most innovative building materials is the CLT (cross laminated timber) panel, which was developed in […]
The Meeting of Local Building Materials and Innovation
Droneport, Ruanda Text: Bálint Botzheim Photos: Normanfosterfoundation.org The struggle against global warming encourages the building industry to find innovations. How is it possible to build by loading less stress on the environment whilst using less resources that we borrowed from the next generations? The initiative named Ruanda Droneport was launched in 2016 in Ruanda where […]
Digital Arts and Crafts
Marebito House, Nanto, Japan Architecture: Vuild. Co. Text: Bálint Botzheim Photos: Hayato Kurobe, Takumi Ota An architecture startup Vuild, Inc. has completed “House for Marebito” in Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture in 2019. This project challenges the local issues of forestry and marginal settlement by only using local lumbers and CNC milling machine. Toga village is stated […]