ETH research group and geometry consultant join forces as 'designtoproduction'. The joint expertise promises a quantum leap in precision and cost effectiveness in the realization of free forms.

Just in time for the new year, a promising collaboration emerges in European building industry: The Stuttgart based architect Arnold Walz founds the company 'designtoproduction' together with a research group of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. During the past years, Walz has drawn the professional circles’ attention to his geometry consulting for renowned projects such as the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern and the 'Weltstadthaus' by Peek & Cloppenburg in Cologne. The ETH research group around Fabian Scheurer and Christoph Schindler emanated from Ludger Hovestadt’s Chair of Computer Aided Design (CAAD) and made a name for themselves with the economic realization of complex shapes. The interdisciplinary team of architects and computer scientists seek to establish themselves as a leading European service provider for the planning and realization of unusual geometries.

Getting a grip on thousands of different elements
The planning of a complex projects usually starts innocently: In 3D modelling software free forms are generated with a few clicks. In contrast, the realization – depending on the size of the object – consists of thousands of different pieces. This means: Thousands of different realization plans with dimensioning, details and tolerances for the architect and thousands of implementation plans and machine programming for the workshop. Time and effort for planning can quickly increase to an immense extent and the risk of flaws can become unpredictable.

'During the last years, a trend towards complex forms became evident', Scheurer explains the business idea and continues, '3D-software with intuitive user interfaces made the design of free forms easy and attractive. The realization became quite an obstacle because the structures of visualizing design tools and materializing manufacturing tools were hardly compatible. With our service we want to enable architects and planners to take this obstacle with ease.'

Cost reduction of up to 75%
designtoproduction offers parametric models as links between computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing: If the designer changes a design parameter, all implementation plans down to the machine code are adjusted automatically. Furthermore, it is possible to fine-tune a design according to structural or other criteria. Such a process is not only faster but more economic and safer than planning with traditional CAD-software. In the ETH research projects the production costs of three projects could be lowered by 75%. 'The door is finally wide open to everything that comes to the architects’ mind. The building industry has arrived at last in the information age’, Scheurer summarizes the impact of the new service.

The references of designtoproduction are notable. In the past, architects such as Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Kees Christiaanse, Renzo Piano and UN Studio have already entrusted them projects.

we realize complexity in architecture
www.designtoproduction.com