Episode 28: Matthias Kohler

The AIA National Conference entitled Material was held in Melbourne in June 2013 and ArchiTel attended with the Architecture on the Radio 3RRR-FM team of Stuart Harrison, Simon Knott and Rory Hyde. Together we interviewed conference keynote speaker Matthias Kohler (Switzerland) about his response and philosophy regarding the materials he has chosen to employ in his projects.

Matthias Kohler established Gramazio and Kohler with Fabio Gramazio in Zurich in 2000. The practice quickly became known for using advanced digital logics in the realisation of built architecture. Gramazio and Kohler’s work explores highly complex architectural artifacts, built by industrial robots typically used to assemble automobiles and perform other high-precision tasks. The accuracy, strength and speed of these robots allow them to fabricate architectural forms of unprecedented complexity and intricacy. The office’s projects include the Gantenbein vineyard façade, the Tanzhaus theatre, the Christmas lights for the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich and the sWISH* Pavilion at the Swiss National Exposition Expo.02. They are currently documenting the Research Building and Guesthouse for the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology.

Kohler gained his Diploma from Department of Architecture at ETH, Zurich where he now holds the Professorial Chair for Architecture and Digital Fabrication. He has lectured at Aalborg University, Denmark, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the Berlage Insitute, the California College of the Arts, the University of Washington and the University of Chicago, USA. Gramazio and Kohler have exhibited at the Storefront Gallery, New York and FRAC, Orleans and their work is widely published, including two monographs, Flight Assembled Architecture (Editions Hyx, 2012) and Digital Materiality in Architecture (Lars Muller Publishers, 2008).

Producer & Editor – Elizabeth Sarsfield

Camera & Sound – Bradley Andrew

Interviewers – Simon Knott, Stuart Harrison

AIA Liaison – Alexandra Cato