News
Construction floor system for Ethiopian SUDU
25.07.2010
Lara Davis has been building the unreinforced vaulted floor system, designed by Prof. Block, of the prototype of the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit (SUDU) at the EiABC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has been training students and local laborers into the Catalan vaulting technique which allows to build without the need for formwork or steel reinforcements. The construction was part of the ETHiopia Urban Laboratory SummerSchool 2010 in which our chair provided teaching and hands-on workshops in "Appropriate Architecture & Construction". More infoMore Info
Vaulted wooden pavilion on campus
07.07.2010
The wooden shading pavilion fabricated and assembled during the design-build workshop "The Sequential Structure", a collaboration between ITA's Gramazio & Kohler - Architecture and Digital Fabrication and the BLOCK Research Group, can be visited on the terrace next to HIL F 56. More Info
Structural Model featured on Grasshopper
28.06.2010
Lorenz Lachauer has implemented a simplified version of TNA in Grashopper, resulting in a highly interactive and parametric 3D form-finder for compression-only structures. The featured movie shows a first structural "masonry" model, made using 3D-printing, resulting from this powerful tool. It is unglued and stands because it has a good structural form.More Info
Founding Ceremony of NESTown
27.06.2010
Prof. Block attended on June 27, 2010 the very impressive founding ceremony of NESTown, New Ethiopian Sustainable Town, the birth child of Prof. Em. Franz Oswald. "Buranest", the new name chosen by the locals, is expected to be a model town for the Amhara region in Ethiopia. As member of the NEST Group, Prof. Block is responsible for the development of the construction based on local materials.More Info
Innovedum grant for e-QUILIBRIUM
20.06.2010
The project "e-QUILIBRIUM: Interactive Statics", an online, interactive learning environment for teaching structural design to architects and engineers, has received funding for its development through an ETH Innovedum grant. The project expects to revolutionize structures' teaching, using interactive graphical approaches. Dr. Tom Van Mele will be the project leader of e-QUILIBRIUM.More Info
Presentation Diederik Veenendaal at PRECAST2010
01.06.2010
Diederik Veenendaal has been invited to present his work on fabric formwork for concrete structures at PRECAST2010, a symposium on new trends for building in prefab concrete, organized on Tuesday June 15, 2010 at the Technische Universiteit Delft. His talk is entitled "Fabric Formwork - state of the art".More Info
Radical Stone Structures
21.05.2010
Prof. Block will present together with Escobedo Construction their collaboration on realizing exciting stone vaulted structures. The event will be held at the beautiful Austin Museum of Art - Laguna Gloria on Tuesday June 22, 2010. More Info
Special issue on 'Architecture and Development' - ATDF Journal
10.05.2010
Prof. Block has been invited by Dr. Philipp Aerni to be guest editor of the special issue "Design-Revolution in Architecture and its Impact on Development" for the ATDF Journal. The African Technology Development Forum (ATDF) partners with United Nations organizations such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Economic Commission in Africa (UNECA), businesses and has a wide readership consisting of scholars, policy makers and professionals.More Info
Robot-fabricated unreinforced brick columns on ETH campus
08.05.2010
Two of the unreinforced robot-fabricated brick columns produced during the design-build workshop "The Programmed Column", by Gramazio & Kohler - Architecture and Digital Fabrication and the Block Research Group are displayed on the ETH Hönggerberg campus for the Brick Award 2010 Exhibition.More Info
Invitation Inaugural Lecture Prof. Block
26.04.2010
Prof. Block is giving his inaugural lecture, entitled "Conserving the Past / Designing the Future: New Studies in Equilibrium" on Wednesday April 28 2010 at 17:15 in the Auditorium Maximum (HG F 30) in ETH's Main Building. Come check out why Prof. Block was hired! More InfoPodcast
Apply now for ETHiopia SummerSchool 2010 in Addis Ababa
20.04.2010
The ETHiopia Summer School will bring together interdisciplinary faculty members and students from ETH Zurich and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) to teach and apply sustainable, collaborative and innovative architecture. The summer school will take place from June 28 - July 18, 2010 on the EiABC campus in Addis Ababa. More Info
3-day Graphic Statics Workshop in Salerno
03.04.2010
Prof. Block has been invited by Profs. Fraternali and Sicignano to give a 3-day intense workshop on Graphic Statics at the University of Salerno, Italy on May 25-27, 2010. Prof. Block, assisted by Valentina Cima, will be giving an introduction to graphic statics in three seminars: "Funicular structures", "Fan and Tree structures", and "Shaping trusses". More Info
