A Swiss building designed and built using digital fabrication techniques and robotics as part of an experiment in architecture and engineering could illustrate the future of construction, Quartz reports.
The DFAB House was developed by a team of expert researchers from ETH Zurich university and more than two dozen industry partners over four years as part of the Next Evolution in Sustainable Building Technologies (NEST) project from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, known by its German acronym Empa, and the aquatic research group Eawag.
The three-level, 2,370-square-foot house is billed as "the world's first modular research and innovation building aimed at accelerating the innovation process in the construction sector." It was assembled with 3D-printed ceilings, energy-efficient walls, and with timber beams that were put together by robots.
"This is a new way of seeing architecture," Matthias Kohler, one of the DFAB's research team members, told Quartz.
Although previously architects were focused on form when designing buildings, the materials and techniques of construction have become increasingly important.
"Suddenly, how we use resources to build our habitats is at the center of architecture," he said. "How you build matters."
The DFAB House officially opened to the public in February with a free exhibition lasting until Oct. 13, according to the school's dean of architecture Nader Tehrani.
"We had imagined that it would be of interest not only to architects, but also to engineers, artists, and builders," Tehrani said. "At once sober, rational, and thoughtful, the research in this project is also projective, unprecedented, and speculative."
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