Lecture at Hyperbody, TU Delft

Manuel speaks at Hyperbody, TU Delft on Monday, 19.12.11.

Responsive Design at BDA's "Positionen", Domforum, Cologne

Hans Sachs speaks at the BDA Montagsgespräch "Positionen" in the "Domforum", Cologne

Positionen - Domforum, Köln - 12.12.11 ab 19:30 Uhr

Cardboard Chaise Prototype I Quarter Iso Grid

This prototype chaise is modelled in Rhino 3D. The "Quarter Iso Grid"- Cutting Files are generated by a grasshopper definition which is inspired by Mike Sheldrake's great iso grid cardboard surfboards. This prototype development is kindly supported by Mike Sheldrake (http://sheldrake.net/cardboards/), Oliver Fritz // CIAD - Cologne Institute for Architectural Design // Chair of CAD.CAM Tischlerei Bächer GmbH.

The prototype and further droducts and design studies of will be displayed at the DQE, Design Quartier Ehrenfeld at the "Passagen 2012" from January 16th to 22nd in Cologne, Germany.

next generation materials

Manuel speaks at the Ambience Conference, Boras, Sweden on Tuesday, 29th November 2011.

Wind!Up - Warming Hut Competition

Our proposal for the 2012 Warming Hut Competition in Winnipeg, Canada. Unfortunately not selected...

Cardboard Surfboards I Quarter Iso Grid

This cardboard surfboard core is generated by a grasshopper "iso-grid" definition. The work is inspired by Mike Sheldrake's great iso grid cardboard surfboards. The project's goal is to create individual, customer-shaped cardboard core surfboards based on a web-based shape generator based on i.e. processing. This project is kindly and proudly supported by Mike Sheldrake, Tischlerei Bächer GmbH / Sebastian Bächer, Christoph Schulz, Maik Holtiegel and Jan Tenbücken.

Further application opportunities in field of interior design and architecture are being tested.

Von schwimmenden Blumen und drehenden Pyramiden

Saturday, October 15 at 7:00pm - November 10 at 10:00pm
recent works of responsive design studio at "R. - Raum für drastische Maßnahmen" Berlin, Oderstr. 34

SleepBox

SleepBox represents a contemporary furniture, designed for the demands of an increasingly urbanised environment. A human-scale object, which creates a space of comfort and relaxation within airports, offices or other semi public areas. The hard and uniform shell excludes the exterior and at the same time creates a soft and smooth interior. The project was designed by Caspar Lohner and supervised by Manuel Kretzer and Mathias Bernhard at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, ETH Zürich and realized in collaboration with Kläusler Acrylstein AG.

The free-form shell is made from HI-Macs, an extremely robust solid surface material, which can be thermoformed and visually seamlessly connected. The necessary MDF moulds were produced on a three axis CNC mill at ETH Zürich’s Raplab and the flat HI-Macs sheets then formed into shape using vacuum. After the material cooled down it exhibited the same properties as before deformation and could be further processed similar to wood. The eleven individual pieces were finally glued together to create a single homogeneous object.

Design: Caspar Lohner
Supervision: Mathias Bernhard, Manuel Kretzer
Contribution: Andreas Aeschbacher, Vedren Brasnic, Nathalie Pietrzko, Bastian Schläpfer, Ankita Thaker, Alain Weber, Viviane Weber

Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design 
Prof. Dr. Ludger Hovestadt

Zufall und Strategie im Design

Manuel speaks at Inkjet Seminar, Winterthur on Friday, 14.10.11.

Actuated Matter Workshop

The Actuated Matter Workshop forms part of a recently started research initiative – a collaboration between the Zurich University of the Arts Interaction Design (DDE), Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (DMU), and the ETH Zürich’s Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design – that explores the application of smart materials in architecture with respect to their ability to transform architecture into an “Emotive Environment”, a space that relates to its inhabitants in an emotive and responsive way. The focus is placed on the capabilities and limitations of materials themselves in generating kinetic, visual and acoustic feedback.

Our goal is to endow artificial spaces with some of the qualities of a natural environment in which perceptual, behavioral, emotional and social processes are interrelated and arise from its intrinsic properties. Natural environments grow, evolve and internalize the history of the actions and situations that occur within them, whereas technological systems tend toward perfection, predictability and permanence. The question arises on how we could incorporate aspects of organic systems within the new materials and new architectures?
The production of the active elements, electroluminescent screens, electro-active polymers and flexible audio panels, was strongly driven by the curiosity and engagement of an interdisciplinary team of participants who had little or no previous experience of working with such materials. The workshop showed that highly sophisticated materials and structures could be emerge through participatory and collaborative strategies, thus reflecting our goal of developing an alternative, less rigid architecture of the future as a more connected, interlaced, entangled, responsive and responsible world.
“Emotive Environments” is an approach to enrich the predominantly static characteristics of architecture with responsive, adaptive and smart elements and thereby create a space that exhibits some of the dynamics that can be found in nature. The project aims to realize a prototypical architecture that dynamically responds to the presence and behavior of its inhabitants. These immediate responses, including kinetic movements, visual, acoustic and vibrational feedback, are based on algorithms that model the behavior of self-organized natural systems. Accordingly, the interaction is initiated locally and subsequently spreads across the architectural space. The inhabitants can augment and alter the movements and sounds that are already present in the space generating an enhanced and novel spatial and behavioral experience. Due to a symbiotic relationship among the inhabitants and the “Emotive Environments”, the design is strongly informed by the human experience.
Team:
MA. Dipl.- Ing. (arch) Karmen Franinovic, Interaction Design, DDE, Zurich University of the Arts
Dr. Nat. Sci. Daniel BIsig, Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology, DMU, Zurich University of the Arts
Dipl.- Ing. (arch) Manuel Kretzer, CAAD – Chair of Computer Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
emotive environments blog

Floater Production Process

Floater Chaise Longue
Design: Manuel Kretzer, Mathias Bernhard
Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, ETH Zürich

KUKA VK360

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Purchase of KUKA VK360 with Tischlerei Bächer GmbH for experimental prototype production.

towards a new softness

Manuel speaks at the Adaptive Architecture Conference on Friday, 4th March 2011.