Lecture Series for the academic year 2009 /2010 “Materialising Ideas in an Age of Digital Production”

Lecture Arnold Walz
Mo. 19.10.2009, 19:00h
IKA Lecture Room R211a, 2.OG

From Computational Design to Digital Production<<

The development of new technologies on the production side has opened new perspectives on that of design and has caused a change of planning strategies in the architectural profession.
Architects have to question the planning methods and tools they have used until now. Today Architects are confronted with new forms & production possibilities and increasing demands in building requirements.
Digital models are needed in order to provide the input for digital production although they were not exactly invented to satisfy architectural needs.
These digital models should be synchronized with the building context, especially in terms of detailing, materials and size of parts.
designtoproduction tries to maintain the complexity of parts within the computer and the digital production process, preparing the automated production of individual parts which fit together in just one way, simplifying the assembly of big structures and complex architectural construction. This research and the realization of such structures will be discussed in the Lecture.

Arnold Walz, Architect (born 1953 in Stuttgart) studied architecture and planning theory at the University of Stuttgart.
He was as one of the first to develop parametric CAD-models for design optimization & construction planning and helped to improve the workmanship and precision of some of the most discussed buildings of the past years such as; The Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart (UN Studio), The Centrum Paul Klee in Bern & the P&C Weltstadthaus in Cologne (RPBW), The new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart (Delugan Meissel), The Lufthansa Headquarters in Frankfurt (Ingenhoven) and many others.

In his long professional background, he has collaborated with architects such as Frei Otto, Bodo Rasch, Christoph Ingenhoven, Renzo Piano, Ben van Berkel, Herzog de Meuron and some of Germany’s most innovative engineers, such as Bollinger Grohmann, Jörg Schlaich, Victor Wilhelm and Werner Sobek.
In 2006 he founded, together with Fabian Scheurer, designtoproduction with offices in Stuttgart and Zürich.

For further information: http://designtoproduction.ch/