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Designing Natural Buildings

  • Eike Roswag-Klinge
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Research Culture in  Architecture
This chapter is in the book Research Culture in Architecture

Abstract -

Architecture offices in Germany are generally of such a size that it is difficult for them to integrate research activities economically and organizationally into their everyday practice. Nevertheless, architecture firms have a large potential to generate important topics and knowledge as partners in research consortia. ZRS Architekten Ingenieure have developed over a number of years expertise in the field of natural building materials such as earth, wood, and bamboo and deploy this in the development of low-tech building systems for various global climatic contexts. The research activities undertaken by the office have given ZRS a specific knowledge that has proved valuable as a sound scientific basis upon which to develop and justify healthy and circular building using natural building materials. The Natural Building Lab at the Technische Universitat Berlin applies and further develops this knowledge in a university context. It serves as a basis for the development of innovative design projects and for a design-build pedagogy, where students work in transdisciplinary teams in a real context.

Abstract -

Architecture offices in Germany are generally of such a size that it is difficult for them to integrate research activities economically and organizationally into their everyday practice. Nevertheless, architecture firms have a large potential to generate important topics and knowledge as partners in research consortia. ZRS Architekten Ingenieure have developed over a number of years expertise in the field of natural building materials such as earth, wood, and bamboo and deploy this in the development of low-tech building systems for various global climatic contexts. The research activities undertaken by the office have given ZRS a specific knowledge that has proved valuable as a sound scientific basis upon which to develop and justify healthy and circular building using natural building materials. The Natural Building Lab at the Technische Universitat Berlin applies and further develops this knowledge in a university context. It serves as a basis for the development of innovative design projects and for a design-build pedagogy, where students work in transdisciplinary teams in a real context.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Contents 4
  3. Preface 9
  4. Introduction 11
  5. 1. Digitalization and Robotics
  6. Paradigm Reversal – Connectionist Technologies for Linear Environments 21
  7. Individualizing Production with DIANA: A Dynamic and Interactive Robotic Assistant for Novel Applications 37
  8. 1.1 Digital Timber Construction
  9. The Gravitational Pavilion: Simplified Node Complexity 45
  10. Fibrous Joints for Lightweight Segmented Timber Shells 53
  11. 1.2 Robotics in Timber Construction
  12. Towards Distributed In Situ Robotic Timber Construction 67
  13. Cooperative Robotic Fabrication of Timber Dowel Assemblies 77
  14. Bending-Active Lamination of Robotically Fabricated Timber Elements 89
  15. 2. Timber Construction
  16. Recycling of Cross-Laminated Timber Production Waste 101
  17. Textile Architecture for Wood Construction 113
  18. Acetylated Beech in Structural Timber Constructions 123
  19. 3. Architectural Practice and Research
  20. Developing Research Cultures in Architecture 135
  21. Public Debate, Public Interior, Circular Economy – Forms of Exchange: Approaching the Reconversion of an Iconic 1966 Office Tower in Brussels 143
  22. Making Architecture Public: The Architecture Exhibition – An Environment for a Radical Redesign of the Discipline? 153
  23. Grounding Associative Geometry: From Universal Style toward Specific Form 161
  24. 4. Design Methods
  25. Why Evidence-Based Methods Are Useful for Architectural and Urban Design 173
  26. Architecture as Science of Structures 183
  27. Dexterity-Controlled Design Procedures 193
  28. Werkstücke – Making Objects into Houses: Understanding by the Way of the Hands in Design Teaching 205
  29. Biorealism in the Settlement Architecture of Richard Neutra 213
  30. Exploring Chinese Scholar Gardens as a Paradigm of Lifestyle Landscape Architecture 223
  31. 5. Sustainability
  32. Designing Natural Buildings 237
  33. Dye-Sensitized Solar Concrete 247
  34. Form-Finding of the ParaKnot3D’s Gridshell with Equal Line Length Rods 255
  35. Botanical Concrete: Novel Composites for Urban Greening 265
  36. 6. Architectural Space
  37. 6.1 Perception and Visualization
  38. The Role of Expertise in the Perception of Architectural Space 279
  39. Does Space Matter? A Cross-Disciplinary Investigation upon Spatial Abilities of Architects 289
  40. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: New Tools for Architectural Visualization and Design 301
  41. 6.2 Human Body
  42. Embodied Emotions: A Methodology for Experiments in Architecture and Corporeality 313
  43. Reciprocity and Interaction 321
  44. Move to Design, Design to Move 331
  45. Biographies 341
  46. Index of Authors 372
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