Matthias Kohler: Digital Materiality in Architecture

Matthias Kohler is an architect with multidisciplinary interests ranging from computational design and robotic fabrication to material innovation. In 2000, he founded the architecture practice, Gramazio Kohler Architects, in conjunction with his partner Fabio Gramazio where numerous radical experimental projects as well as award-winning designs have been realized. A key project of their practice is the NEST building, a future living and working laboratory for sustainable building construction. Opening also the world’s first architectural robotic laboratory at ETH Zurich in 2005, the Gramazio Kohler Research group has been formative in the field of digital architecture, setting precedence and de facto creating a new research field merging advanced architectural design and additive fabrication processes through the customized use of industrial robots. This ranges from 1:1 installations and buildings to speculative designs of robotically fabricated high-rises. Starting with bespoke assemblies of basic modules such as bricks, their work has expanded the spectrum to include natural materials such as sand, earth, gravel, stones or timber. Over the past years, finding responsible forms of human-machine collaboration has become an integral part of the group’s mission. Their research was outlined and theoretically framed in the books Digital Materiality in Architecture and The Robotic Touch: How Robots Change Architecture. Matthias Kohler furthermore initiated interdisciplinary research programs such as the National Centre of Competence on Digital Fabrication or the Design++ initiative and is currently dean of the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich.