Craftsmanship in the Digital Age
#4 Alternative Sketch to Site Processes
Friday, 10 November 2017

The fourth discussion in the ANCB series Craftsmanship in the Digital Age: Architecture, Values and Digital Fabrication.

Part 1 - Introduction and Keynote 1

Welcome and Introduction
Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin - 00:00:00 - 00:01:55 and 00:07:09 - 00:10:05
Helga Kühnhenrich, Head of Division for Research in Building and Construction, German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Bonn - 00:02:05 - 00:07:03
Jörg Petri Co-founder, NOWlab@BigRep, Berlin - 00:10:11 - 00:11:37

Perspectives from Research and Practice
Florian Scheible, Berlin Chamber of Architects / Director, Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering, Berlin - 00:11:43 - 00:35:56

Part 2 - Harald Kloft

Perspectives from Research and Practice
Harald Kloft, Director Institute for Structural Design, Technische Universität Braunschweig / Office for Structural Design, Frankfurt am Main - 00:02:15 - 00:23:35

Part 3 - Kjetil Thorsen

Perspectives from Research and Practice
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Founding Partner, Snøhetta Architects, Oslo

Part 4 - Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Founding Partner, Snøhetta Architects, Oslo
Harald Kloft, Director Institute for Structural Design, Technische Universität Braunschweig / Office for Structural Design, Frankfurt am Main
Florian Scheible, Berlin Chamber of Architects / Director, Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering, Berlin

Moderated by Jörg Petri Co-founder, NOWlab@BigRep, Berlin

The following Invited Peers joined the discussion: Urs Füssler, Association of German Architects, Berlin; Jan Krause, Head of Master Architecture Media Management, Bochum University of Applied Sciences / Head of Strategic Marketing, Sto SE & Co. KGaA, Stühlingen; Martin Pauli, Senior Architect, Arup-Foresight, Research & Innovation, Berlin; Sven Pfeiffer, Professor, Digital Architecture Production, Technische Universität Berlin; Raghunath Vasudevan, Head of Parametrics, Schneider & Schumacher Architects, Frankfurt am Main.

BACKGROUND
This second-to-last discussion described and critiqued the alternative processes that digital fabrication brings to architecture from the moment of sketching a concept to its construction on site: both the processes that coordinate the 'digital value chain', and those that support the iterative designing process just with closer linkage between form, material and fabrication.

The intention of the series Craftsmanship in the Digital Age, and the collaboration with The Netherlands Embassy in Berlin, NOWlab@BigRep and the BBSR, is to explore and co-articulate with manufacturers, proponents of newer digital production tools, architects, and building industry representatives, a craftsmanship approach to incorporating digital fabrication into architecture. Rather than seeing digital tools as incongruous with craftsmanship, Craftsmanship in the Digital Age proposes that they could in fact strengthen certain skills and principles characteristic of craftsmanship with benefits for architecture and manufacturing; including more effective building materials and spatial typologies, a closer working relationship between architects and manufacturers, and an assertion of critical values for the building industry at this point in history, especially regarding energy and resource sustainability. For more on this series background, see here.