Ceramic Architectures

The Material Processes and Systems Group (MaP+S), founded by Professor Martin Bechthold, is a research unit that takes materials as the starting point for a broad set of research involving computation, robotics, materials science and environmental psychology.

Here the authors, Hyeonji Claire Im, Sulaiman AlOthman and José Luis García del Castillo, present an advanced ceramic 3D printing system that, unlike conventional techniques, incorporates a laser feedback loop for real-time adjustment of clay deposition, ensuring greater geometric accuracy and structural stability. The process begins with a suspension of stoneware clay mixed with water, alcohol and a small portion of nylon fibers to optimize its viscosity and cohesion during extrusion.

The pressurized clay flows through nozzles of different diameters, where the system measures the deflection of each clay strand using a laser sensor (LRF) with sub-millimeter resolution. Software instantly recalculates print paths to correct for deviations caused by the weight and settling of the wet material, ensuring that each layer faithfully follows the digital model.

This approach promises to revolutionize ceramic additive construction, opening doors to complex structures with guaranteed accuracy and strength.

Zellige tiles are an emblematic expression of the Moroccan ceramic tradition, combining art, technique and cultural heritage. This video puts in value these pieces, highlighting their artisanal process passed down through generations. Made from natural baked clay, Zellige are glazed and manually cut into small polygons, thus creating unique geometric patterns. Each imperfection of these tiles or variation in tone in the glaze adds authenticity, reflecting the connection between the artisan and the piece. Geometric designs have a strong symbolic component, linked to Islamic aesthetics and its principles of harmony and unity.

The use of Zellige goes beyond the decorative: it is a cultural element that adorns mosques, palaces and houses. Fusing aesthetics and resistance. Its timeless design makes it a valued material in contemporary architecture, incorporating tradition and sustainability. This video celebrates the art of Zellige, a work of patience and precision, showing how each piece encapsulates centuries of history and passion for ceramics. They provide authenticity and sophistication, creating a bridge between the architectural past and present.

Ant Studio explores terracotta as a sustainable material in contemporary design. Through this approach, they emphasize the urgent need to rethink the use of traditional materials. This is crucial, as many modern practices are unsustainable.

Terracotta, or “terra cotta,” has been used in various cultures to make utensils and decorative objects. It was also used to cool water in ancient times. Today, designers and engineers are rediscovering this material. They integrate technology and tradition to create sustainable solutions. Its properties, such as its porous structure, allow water to evaporate, helping to reduce the temperature of the environment.

Ant Studio collaborates with engineers and artists to combine advances in design with terracotta pieces. In this way, they explore new applications in modern contexts. A practical example is the installation and design of an environmentally friendly outdoor cooling system in India. In this project, terracotta pots are stacked in a circular shape, similar to a beehive.

By pouring water over them, evaporative cooling is maximized, improving the thermal conditions of the workspace.

The M+ building by Herzog & de Meuron redefines the concept of a museum. It is a multifaceted cultural center for art, design, architecture, and moving images from the 20th and 21st centuries. It is not just a traditional exhibition space. M+ integrates a variety of environments and functions. From the conventional white cube to projection rooms and reconfigurable spaces, M+ covers the full spectrum of museum experiences. The innovative “Industrial Space” reflects a post-industrial approach, transforming wastelands into a vibrant cultural hub.

The video complements this vision by showcasing the entire project process, from the client’s initial requirements to the final construction. Ceramics become a central element to materialize the building’s vision, symbolizing China’s rich tradition. The documentary details how these ceramic pieces were created and placed on the façade, giving M+ a unique texture and character. Ceramics not only connect the building with cultural heritage but also highlight innovation in design and construction, harmoniously blending the traditional with the contemporary.

“Pottery is one of the oldest of the crafts, one of the earliest of the arts, so ancient that its origin is unknown”. The Pottery Maker is one of two short films directed by filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty after the completion of his second feature Moana in 1925.

In The Pottery Maker, a woman and her granddaughter visit a pottery workshop to buy a new jug. Fascinated by this age-old craft, the young woman carefully observes all the steps the potter takes to carry out his work. Kneading the wet clay to remove the air bubbles. Put it on the wheel. Add water constantly. Work the clay up and down to establish a harmony with the spinning wheel. Once this is finished, fires will be lit in the lower part of the kiln, which should be kept burning day and night until the piece is fired and ready for use.

Produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and sponsored by actress and Flaherty admirer Maude Adams in 1926, the short film was shot in the basement of the museum, with the participation of potter Victor Raffo, his daughter Ruth and Elizabeth Custer.

Chinese materials company Yi Design has developed a porous brick made from recycled ceramic waste that could be used to prevent flooding in urban areas. The permeable brick is made from 90 per cent recycled ceramic waste sourced from industrial porcelain manufacturers in the city of Jingdezhen. According to Cheng, co-founder of the company, “This brick can harvest rainwater, redirecting it from the sewage system to the water table by permeating through the ground”.

According to YiDesign, China produces approximately 18 million tonnes of ceramic waste each year, the majority of which is dumped or buried illegally. Therefire, the company collected waste from selected local producers, before grinding and binding it together using a specially developed non-organic chemical binder.

The Permeable YiBrick uses up to 97 per cent recycled waste in its production, making the product both highly porous and robust. As a result, the building blocks can be used as a more absorbent alternative to conventional cement bricks in various architectural contexts. The resulting material is used to create a series of durable products such as bricks and glazed tiles in the company’s own factory in Jingdezhen, which was set up in 2021.

Produced by the Spanish Association of Ceramic Tile Manufacturers, this didactic and enlightening documentary shows in detail the production process of ceramic tiles.

The video goes through the different stages of production, starting with the congeneration, a state-of-the-art process that produces the atomised powder with which the tiles are later shaped and pressed. Once they have acquired their final shape, they are placed in a dryer to reduce their humidity and increase their mechanical resistance.

Then, with the help of digital printing, the tiles are coated with one or more layers of glaze, a treatment that gives the surface a series of technical and aesthetic properties such as shine, colour and impermeability.

It is at this point in the process that the tiles are placed in a continuous kiln where they are subjected to a thermal cycle at high temperatures, obtaining different products depending on the composition, the temperature curve and the duration of the cycle. This causes a fundamental modification in their properties, giving rise to a hard material with excellent performance.

Finally, the process concludes with additional treatments, such as pre-cutting, surface polishing, grinding and bevelling. The result is a product that is perfectly controlled in terms of dimensional regularity, surface appearance and mechanical and chemical characteristics.

The history of this famous pottery house began in 1759, when its founder, Josiah Wedgwood I, aged just 29, started out as an independent potter in Burslem, England. His avant-garde spirit, energetic design policy and commitment to exacting standards of quality are values that remain at the heart of the pieces made today.

Many of the techniques pioneered by Josiah Wedgwood are still used today by craftsmen in Barlaston, England. Since 1940, the factory has combined modern technology with the ancient techniques of casting, shaping and decorating. Using unique materials, Jasper, luminescent Queen’s Ware and fine porcelain, Wedgwood continues the tradition of beautiful handmade works of art, with respect for the past and an eye to the future.

The following documentary, filmed by British Pathé in 1958, shows different shaping processes as well as the work that the craftsmen carried out in the Wedgwood factory on a daily basis: artists at their drawing tables, potters working the wheel, ornamenters fixing the different parts to the ceramic pieces… This is a unique historical document that allows us to get a close-up view of the work of this legendary, world-renowned ceramics house.

Studio RAP designed and started production of the facade cladding of an eye-catching boutique in Amsterdam’s most luxurious shopping street, the P.C. Hooftstraat. This building is an example of how fusing the advanced methods of ceramic 3D printing, algorithmic design, and artisanal glazing, the architectural potential of ceramics and ornaments of the 21st century is revealed.

Using digital design algorithms, produced in-house, Studio RAP explores a reinterpretation of the decorative qualities and design vocabulary of glazed ceramics in the historical city of Amsterdam. The design replicates the silhouette of the original facade, continuing the characteristic tripartite of the street and maintaining the overall character of the site. The scale, size, type, and colour of the ornaments and materials are synced with the neighbouring buildings.

The design aims to inspire people around the world with a contemporary expression of digital craftsmanship, reinterpreting historical classics in new and exciting ways. The facade also refers to the collection of the nearby Rijksmuseum, where a large collection of ceramics from all over the world is stored. The highly differentiated and algorithmically designed details will be realized by using Studio RAP’s large scale 3d-printing technology, produced in-house at the architecture firm. This results in a luxury boutique that aspires to stand out amongst the surrounding buildings.

The use of earth goes back to the earliest days of architecture. It was only with the advent of industrialization processes that the material was replaced and discarded, and associated with primitive ways of building. Environmental concerns and the pressures of climate change have been rescuing the material, which is carbon-neutral, and it has returned to the center of architecture’s interest.

Clay Rotunda by students of the MAS ETH DFAB, together with researchers of Gramazio Kohler Research, is ongoing research that has acted as a catalyst for the knowledge transfer between research and industry and is giving new meaning and investigating new ways —more efficient and durable— to build with earth.

This project combines clay with an in-situ robotic fabrication process by controlled pressing of clay cylinders to form interlocking aggregations. Built on-site with more than 30,000 soft clay bricks over 50 days, Clay Rotunda has a diameter of almost 11 meters and reaches a height of 5 meters with just unreinforced clay. The compression of about 60% of the original height assures a strong and interlocking aggregation, leading to a soft bond that expresses both the plasticity of the material and the dynamic forces of the construction process.

Over time and across various cultures, the use of the tile in the roof has often been limited to construction systems with seemingly static, predictable, and flat organizational principles. This project designed by BASE, explores new spatial and formal repertoires that reimagine and enhance the usage and possibilities of traditional materials by means of global contemporary design methods.

In an almost sculptural fashion, the fragile ceramic elements suspended in a light-cable ceiling reveal the inherent capacity of its concave nature to constitute geometrically complex structures. Therefore, the system’s organization obeys an intuitive-like behavior among the parts: distance, weight, gravity, and physical stress, as well as the logic of mass proliferation and coordinated replicability. In that sense, the Chilean studio‘s proposal establishes a particular application within the several variations that the system allows. A design that invites people to create semi-open common spaces, making it essentially a social enabler that allows for inclusiveness and spatial generosity.

In the context of the Biennale di Venezia 2021, Flocking Tejas aims to trigger questions and evoke images and speculation about the spatial, social, identitarian potential of architecture, and local materials.

Trained as an architect and artist, Brian Peters has melded both worlds into a distinctive career. His medium is 3D-printed ceramics and the interplay of light and shadow.

Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, his work explores patterns, textures, and forms that show evidence of both the artist’s hand and the marks of the tools used. Peters is not interested in the perfection of machine made objects, but rather the art of integrating digital coding, custom-built technology, contemporary aesthetics, and natural clay. Once he develops a pattern and form that inspires you, he translates his two-dimensional sketches and drawings into digitally modeled 3D geometries that will be materialized in space. His parametric design process allows you to explore and make prototypes on 3D printers ceramic he built.

Brian Peters spend hours in my studio experimenting with clay bodies, scales, geometries, connections, and glazes. Each final piece is the result of countless prototypes. Finally, the pieces are refined by hand once it leaves the printer, dried for several days, and kiln-fired. Once bisqued, they are removed from the kiln, glazed by hand through traditional artisanal methods (if applicable), and then kiln-fired once again. All that means that craftsmanship and artistry remain an integral part of each piece. They are not machine made, they are digitally crafted.

The art of Zellige is a delicate process, where attention to detail is a vital ingredient in the production of these little tiles. Even though the industry has modernized somewhat, the process for assembling ceramic pieces has not changed during this time. But how are these tiles manufactured?

Zellige is a handcrafted clay tile that originates from Morocco. Zellige pieces are known for their variations in tone, shine, flatness, and depth of the glazing, its surface texture with irregularities as well as its variability in shape and size. Each ceramic element is unique. The specialised craftsmen—Mâllems—work to create your designs. This traditional Moroccan tile is made from a very unique natural clay. This unrefined clay is kneaded with water, moulded by hand, and dried naturally in the sun. Raw tiles are fired in a kiln to create biscuits—Bejmat—which are glazed tile bay tile in a variety of colours before a second firing that will set the enamel. The last step is the hand cutting of the glazed bejmat in multiple shapes and sizes, to create the Zellige.

In the following video, a co-production of Morocco In Motion, Editions Amabilis Maroc Sarl and Amabilis Inc., you can observe the manufacturing process of this historical technique that continues to fascinate us in the 21st century.

ProtoCeramics is an experiment geared towards producing novel material with a special interest in tectonic performance. The project investigates the latest generation of thin, large-format ceramic tiles, which presently are largely used as interior surface finish or exterior cladding. But what if that material could be put to use in structural way? That’s the question posed by ProtoCeramics conducted by MaP+S group at Harvard University, in collaboration with ASCER and Javier Mira and Jorge Corrales from ITC.

The work led by Prof. Martin Bechthold, pursues three different material manipulations – cutting, folding, and bending – and explores the inherent opportunities of these strategies towards the production of self-supporting assemblies.

The project was exhibited at the CEVISAMA 2015 ceramic trade fair, where three large-scale prototypes were on display. Each column measured 3.6 meters (9.8 feet) tall and was made from 3mm-thick (0.12 inch-thick) ceramic tiles. To show the possibilities derived from the cutting method, the group used a CNC water jet to cut the tiles. To explore folding, the team used the flexibility afforded by the tiles’ mesh backing to create large-scale 3D geometries. Last, the team found that bending the material, a process to be seemingly antithetical to such a brittle substance, actually made it stronger through enhanced stiffness, allowing for “unexpected material formations that defy conventional expectations in ceramic design,” they write.

New Delft Blue is a pioneering project in the historic Dutch city Delft, designed and 3D-printed by Studio RAP. In this case, the project reinterprets the world-famous decorative qualities and design vocabulary of Delft Blue porcelain. All this, by fusing 3D clay printing, computational design, and tradition.

The approximately 4,000 lush ceramic pieces will clad the two large entry gates of the PoortMeesters building block, which is part of the large scale redevelopment Nieuw Delft. These gates, four meters wide, eight meters high and twelve meters deep, cover a large public staircase where a serpentine line in the ornamental pattern guides viewers eyes past the straight lines of the staircase. For the manufacture of the pieces, Studio RAP used an algorithmic approach to 3D pattern design. After printing these tests at Studio Rap’s workshop, the tiles have been fired and glazed by Koninklijke Tichelaar. This work between the two teams has made it possible to combine the tile with artisanal glazing, a poetic process of ‘painting with shape’ that has given them to create contemporary, rich and unique ceramic tiles.

The New Delft Blue project shows the potential for 3D printed ceramics can go far and for this reason, it will also be applied in a future residential highrise project that the Dutch company is designing

Floating overhead like a giant pair of wings at the 2014 CEVISAMA, Ceramic Shell was a ceramic structure created by MaP+S and Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC) and sponsored by ASCER. The ceramic cover consisted of a deck measuring about 7,8×4,5 meters in a plan view, suspended from the central columns of the building.

The sculptural model is a mock-up of a structural ceramic and concrete shell system that discovers new structural possibilities in ceramics. Ceramic Shell system was part of a research project that highlights the aesthetic and formal qualities of an innovative structural system. This project was originally developed by MaP+S at GSD in collaboration with the Institute for Structural Design at TU Graz.

The special feature of the installation is the double-curvature surface. A covering which is finished with just a single type of piece, whereas double-curvature surfaces usually need several types of pieces. In order to achieve this simplification, the glazed stoneware pieces, manufactured by Ceràmica Cumella, were fitted, thus accommodating the differences in measurements of the surface to be clad.

“Brick-Topia“, an ephemeral project by the architects of the association Map13 Barcelona, was the winning project in the “Build-it” category at the International Festival of Architecture Eme3 held of June 2013 in one of the courtyards of the former factory Fabra i Coats. The proposal is the result of the academic research by Marta Domènech, David López and Mariana Palumbo, co-founders of the group.

The idea was based on a combination of the latest structural analysis and form-finding computational tools with traditional, cheap and effective construction techniques.

Brick-Topia pavilion is a vaulted structure made of brick using a traditional construction technique called “Catalan vault”. It is the result of innovation to fight against budget and time. This construction takes as a reference the prototype built by Philippe Block, Matthias Rippman and Lara Davis at the ETH Zurich, with which they demonstrated the reliability of “RhinoVault”, a plug-in for Rhinoceros, used to design the pavilion. It is a form-finding software, developed at the Block Research Group, that allows the design of compression-only vaulted structures when subjected to self-weight.

You can also take a look at video of the construction here!

All images credited to Map13, Manuel de Lózar and Paula López

An hour south of Naples on the Amalfi Coast stands Ceramica Artistica Solimene factory, the only European building designed by Italian architect Paolo Soleri (1919–2013).

Approaching the design holistically, Soleri used local and available materials. This was, of course, ceramic, which he used as a dominant decorative element of the building. Cantilevered into the hill, the building’s wavy structure and tiled façade give the appearance of a giant lizard soaking in the sun. The interior of the ceramic factory opens up into a noble, almost temple-like space, with powerful pillars in the shape of a Y, which are the supports for the entire structure.

In the proposal of Ceramica Artistica Solimene by Paolo Soleri, there are references not only his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright but also the radical Italian Baroque of Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini with their concave and convex curves. Composed of circular terra-cotta and green tiles, mosaic glass strips, and diamond-shaped windows, the earth-coloured factory effectively blends into the Mediterranean landscape. On the other hand, large windows flood the building with natural light while the ceramic cones promote the factory’s products.

Léa Mazy is a visual artist and product design that is developing a printing method for the ceramic industry. A new approach which envisions to inspire and challenge more manufactures to sustainable and innovative visions in existing production processes.

The Production of Fatigue features is a printing process revealing the creative potential of fatigue and exposing its unexpected aesthetic qualities, making use of the fading quality of a printer as its ink cartridges run low. To do this, the artist features an analogue and hand-powered tool replicates the movements of a printer with a back and forth linear motion. As the result of handcrafted mechanical and systematic motion she designed, each print on the tile is the recording of its own production pace. In addition, depending on the surface the printing-method is applied on, an always surprising and subtle variety of color and pattern nuances emerges.

With her research, Léa aims to demonstrate that “the tile industry is a great platform to show the possibility of distinction and subtleties in mass-produced standard pieces”. “Each tile becomes the witness of a unique outcome.” Léa says.

With a total height of 1,428 feet, the residential tower 111W57th by SHoP Architects will be among the tallest buildings in New York. This project will become as a prominent new local and regional landmark, when it wraps up construction some time in 2020.

The tower’s form is a bold innovative approach thank to using an authentic material from the golden age of the Manhattan skyscraper: terra-cotta. Whit nearly 43,000 terra-cotta pieces, mechanically fastened to a unitized aluminum curtain wall system, the ceramic strips was designed using a 3-D wave geometry generated by a computational script. Ceramic blocks extruded, glazed, and then stacked into an involute pattern, like a softly breaking wave, that appears at once novel and familiar. Staggering those elements across the facade creates a distinctive moiré that changes dramatically when seen in different lights or from various distances. This geometrical focused idea by SHoP was adapted by NBK Terracotta to conform to the specific fabrication parameters of the ceramic pieces.

In this post, FIELD Condition shows us very closely the installation of the terra-cotta, bronze, and glass curtain wall, which has reached the last quarter of the 82-story tower.

All images credited to FIEDL Condition

A Factory As It Might Be is a new architectural proposal at A/D/O by Assemble, Granby Workshop & collaborators. The project is part of the inaugural season of A/D/O’s Design Academy. Therefore, the installation takes the form of a ‘model factory‘, equipped with a single machine: an extruder, and a single material: clay.

The project takes its name from Morris’s 1884 article imagining the ideal factory as one where work, leisure and education are combined, in a building. In this factory, improvisation is introduced to a process so that each component produced is different and production is treated as a creative activity.

A Factory As It Might Be by Assemble, star out as a simple galvanized steel and wood structure of a building, the factory’s first products were designed to complete the building. A cladding of blue and white ceramic tiles was made for the facade that were produced using an industrial clay extruder and an electric kiln. Finally, alongside planters, dinnerware and door handles, creating a richly decorated building that is part workspace, part display space.

All images credited to Sam Nixon, Granby Workshop and Assemble.

In 2011, The Metropolitan Museum opened the new galleries for the art of the Arab Lands, which house the Museum’s collection of Islamic art. At the heart of all those galleries would create the main feature of Moroccan and southern Spanish Islamic architecture: a medieval Maghrebi-Andalusian-style courtyard.

This documentary showcase a marvelous journey from the former city of Fez, Morocco, to the museum of New York. A journey through islamic art that reflect the construction of a court in the 21st century, steeped in the traditions of the past. All this thanks to a group of artisans — workers in historical North African tile and the upholders of rare artisanal methods—. The result was a complex geometry where more than 70 tiles create a colorful motif that is copied, rotated and arranged into a layered pattern. The beauty of this kind of design is emphasized by the craftsmanship as the hand gives the materials warmth and gives it something extra.

In its 140 years of history, The Met has concerns itself with the work of dead artists and had rarely undertaken to install a work of a group of living craftsmen inside the museum for the purposes of creating a exquisite work with ceramic materials, plaster and wood ornament.

Material Processes and Systems (MaP+S), lead by Martin Bechthold, is a research unit that promotes the understanding, development and deployment of innovative technologies for buildings. MaP+S looks at materiality as starting points for design research, with a special interest in robotic and computer-numerically controlled (CNC) fabrication processes as well as small scale work on nano-materials. On the occasion, this project was developed by Material Processes and Systems Group, supplemented with material research by Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica in Castellón.

Ceramic Morphologies explores the design opportunities of a novel ceramic 3d printing strategy. The pavilion is meant to showcase the expressive potential of ceramic 3d printing. The shape and design are products of research related to the thermal performance of naturally ventilated spaces. Its pyramidal shape facilitates upward air movement, and the interior geometry impacts the thermal exchange between ambient air and the interior mass/surface. Whereas, the contoured, sinusoidal texture of the interior surface is designed to optimize the ratio of surface area to thermal mass, and maximize the potential for cooling through natural ventilation and buoyancy effects. For all this, the project team created different mathematical models with the aim of predicting the thermal behavior of the system.

The Bio-Integrated Design Lab at the Bartlett School of Architecture has created a modular system of tiles inlaid with algae that can filter toxic chemical dyes and heavy metals out of water. Called Indus, These tiles have been designed by an interdisciplinary team led by Dr Brenda Parker, Professor Marcos Cruz and Shneel Malik.

These pieces mimic the structure of leaves and their ability to distribute water evenly to every part of a plant. The ravines are then filled with micro-algae which are suspended within the “biological scaffold” of a seaweed-derived hydrogel. It trickles through the tile channels and is collected at the bottom. As it flows over the channels, the water is subject to a process called bioremediation, in which microorganisms are used to consume and break down pollutants. Finally, once they are saturated, the algae can be replaced with a fresh batch.

Each Indus tile is made by pressing clay into fan-shaped moulds with a series of “vein-like channels” and can be continually reused and re-filled. Each modular tile unit is attached to the next through half-lap joints, and so can be individually removed without taking apart the entire system. This is crucial, as it allows for easy maintenance and adaptation.

Four centuries of pottery activity turn Villarrobledo into a world reference of this ancestral knowledge for the creation of clay jars. These pieces, unique for their characteristics and elaboration technique, were in another epoch the recipient par excellence for the elaboration and conservation of wine.

The jar industry evolved over the centuries, going from being an artisan activity that made small pottery pieces, to become a guild activity. The large number of ovens that existed in this locality prove this, reflecting the importance of this industry until the first half of the twentieth century. Likewise, the quality and quantity of the existing clay in this locality contributed in a decisive way to promote the evolution of this trade.

Today, Villarrobledo jars still use the same clay as their ancestors, although the way of extracting it has been modernised, replacing man with machine. What has been maintained is the way the jars are made, as well as the use of a particular type of clay that stands out for its resistance. Therefore, a strong material is obtained, capable of resisting the high temperatures necessary for cooking the pieces, with a soft touch and without porosities.

The Material Technologies Lab of The Faculty of Architecture at The HKU has recently finished its second robotically manufactured intervention called “CeramicINformation Pavilion.” Thus, the aim of the project is to reconcile the material intelligence of vernacular crafts with the specificity promised by digital design and fabrication technologies.

Firstly, explores the process of construction and seeks to find an appropriate level of automation suitable for emerging and transitioning economies. Each of the approximately 1000 components that make up the experimental structure is unique and has a specific immanent relationship to its neighbors. Secondly, this approach allowed the complex construction to be realized using unskilled labor, over a short period, without the need for typical architectural drawings. Therefore, the bricks were manufactured over a period of 20 days before the lightweight elements were shipped to the site and assembled into the multifaceted wall. Further, approximately 1.5million lines of code were generated – with each brick containing an average of 1400 individual target-points.

CeramicINformation Pavilion examined the Chinese terracotta brick, and explored it’s potential re-shaping through the process of robotic 3d printing. Certainly, this project highlights the expression and the capacity these systems have to change the way in which we fashion the built environment.

Developed by researchers and students from the Material Processes and Systems (MaP+S) Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Ceramic Tectonics: Tile Grid Shell explores the structural capabilities of thin, large format ceramic tiles – a product commonly used as an interior surface finish or exterior cladding. In other words, Ceramic Tectonics asks the question; can a product typically experienced as a two-dimensional surface also define and enclose a three-dimensional space?

Fabricated from unreinforced 6mm thick ceramic tile, the catenary form of this triangular, self-supporting grid shell is designed to minimize internal stresses and efficiently span between three points of support. Thus, it consists of 462 unique elements ranging from 82 – 181cm in length and measuring 107.22 sqm in total area. Likewise, the structure weighs approximately 1,662 kg with a maximum interior height of 2.48m. Also, with a span of 6 m between supports, the structure includes approximately 13.5 sqm of occupiable interior space.

Tile Grid Shell form a novel structural pattern formed by 30 ceramic ribs which are a world-wide first system of this kind constructed from ceramics. Certainly, this project shows how the structural applications are emerging as new applications for tiles, challenging age-old perceptions of ceramic as surface finish.

The 3D Printed Cabin brings many of Emerging Objects software and hardware experiments together to demonstrate the architectural potential of additive manufacturing on a building. Due to a housing emergency in the Bay Area, the Oakland City Council eased restrictions on the construction of secondary housing units, or backyard cottages. This has opened the door for Emerging Objects to use the relaxed codes to experiment towards addressing housing problems at a micro scale.

In this project, the front facade of the cabin has been comprised of a number of Planter Tile shapes to create a living wall of naturally thriving in the California climate. However, the roof and contiguous facades to the gable are clad in a 3D printed ceramic rain screen of seed stitch tiles. The interior, in turn, is clad with the Chroma Curl Wall, which illuminates both interior and exterior, converting the cabin into a beacon of light.

In 3D Printed Cabin, G-code is used to control each line of clay as it is 3D printed to create a texture that looks like seeds scattered across the surface. So, while all ceramic tiles are printed from the same file, each tile is intentionally unique as a product of fabrication.

After the construction of Gaia, the first architectural module based on raw earth and 3D printing, WASP  (World’s Advanced Saving Project) starts a new technological application with a view to Expo 2020. The 3D printed house measures 30 square meters and is located in Massa Lombardo, in Shamballa, in the region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Their goal is to help solve the world’s housing problem by using natural, low-cost, low-impact local materials. In this sense, the use of this technology is not limited to a specific urban or rural context.

The construction in question represents an advanced eco-sustainable model, especially based on the performance that masonry guarantees in terms of interior comfort. This method means a substantial reduction in the costs induced by the use of raw earth and residues from the agricultural chain.

The technique used in this project demonstrates the potential for the use of diversified materials in 3D printing and construction in general. In fact, waste materials from a raw material such as rice can become effective insulation. The cavities inside the walls allow ventilation and efficiency in general. In this sense, willing to interpret its vision in a way compatible with the demands of each applicant, 3D printing WASP intends to start the construction of an eco-neighbourhood. This training would be able to implement replicable construction strategies in any territorial circumstance.

Flight Assembled Architecture is the first architectural installation assembled by flying robots, free from the touch of human hands. The work is the result of a rigorous architectural design by Gramazio Kohler Research and a visionary robotic system by Raffaello D’Andrea.

Thus, over 1.500 modules which are placed by a multitude of quadrotor helicopters, respond to mathematical algorithms that translate digital design data to the behavior of the flying machines. In this way, the flying vehicles extend themselves as “living” architectural machines and complete the composition from their dynamic formation of movement and building performance. The design, with an architectural vision of a 600m high “vertical village” for 30’000 inhabitants unfolds as a model in 1:100 scale. This newly founded village would be located in Meuse, taking advantage of an existing TGV connection that brings its inhabitants to Paris before long.

It is from this quest of an “ideal” self-sustaining habitat that the authors pursue a radical new way of thinking and materializing verticality in architecture. Flight Assembled Architecture is located at the FRAC Center in Orléans, in a department which is dedicated to put together a collection devoted to experimental architecture.

Designed by the architect Daniel Isern, the new Hotel Ohla Eixample sits at the heart of Barcelona’s Eixample district, in what used to be a 1970s office block.

The façade is also unique in its use of robotics. “With the help of Cerámica Cumella and the IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia), we’ve invented an algorithm that uses sound to create a template that a robot etches onto the surface of the ceramic tile while it is extruded. This process allows us to create an infinite number of pieces. In conclusión, each one unique and different but all of them with the same lines. For this pieces, we chose “Vivaldi Recomposed” by Max Richter, which, like us, takes something from the past and brings it up to date”, says the architect.

More than 800 pieces of different sizes make up a vast puzzle of vertical ceramic modules, blurring the order and number of storeys. Therefore, the façade also has five large wooden frames in it that are in fact balconies and that break up the lines of the frontage. This system has been used to create the large ceramic mural that covers the entire ground floor from the reception area to the Xerta restaurant, via the café and the cocktail lounge.

An open courtyard whit a purpose-built gallery for its world-class temporary exhibitions is the project of Amanda Levete studio  for the new entrance of Victoria and Albert Museum.

This choice of material responds specifically to the structure of the original building of the museum and its collections, including numerous striking examples of 19th-century decorated ceramics. Therefore, ceramic was selected for the courtyard floor for its fine texture, its bright white color and its inherent strength. 30 different models partly glazed in 10 shades from blue to green were designed in more than 100 versions.

It took two years, working closely with Koninklijke Tichelaar company, to finalize the tile design and to develop a clay recipe that ensured non-slip performance. Besides, it took another two years to pass the required British Standards, to test tile longevity and to manufacture, by hand, the 14,500 tiles. Each tile bears the mark of the craftsman through subtle variations of shape and shade. Watch this video to see how these tiles were made.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the porcelain insulator virtually replaced glass on all electrical distribution, even at low voltages, as the superiority was demonstrated in both insulation quality and strength.

In this post, we want to share with you a video about how the company PINCO produced porcelain insulators for power lines in 1935. We hope you enjoy it!

Confronting gravity’s determinism over everyday life, the Dutch designer Jólan van der Wiel set out to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism. Van der Wiel developed a machine that uses the shape shifting ability of magnetism to create objects and furniture. For his Magnetism Meets Architecture project, he has created a series of ceramic objects using a process that exploits the conflicting properties of natural materials and processes. His latest experiments with magnets have resulted in fantastical architectural models made using metallic clay.

The Factory Floor is an installation of 8,000 handmade ceramic floor tiles that cover the new floor of the Chini Room at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.

The installation presents the latest experimental production method to be developed by Granby Workshop, the Liverpool based architectural ceramics manufacturer set up by Assemble in 2015. Reinventing the traditional encaustic clay tile-making process, these tiles are made by randomly combining pieces of different coloured clays in a mould under extreme pressure. Each one captures a moment of chance in the act of making and they are all different. You can see the process here. 

All images and video credited to Granby Workshop and Assemble.

Adapting to material tolerances and an uncertain environment of a construction site are key aspects in the research and development of a mobile tiling machine. These challenges are met through integrating specific perception and localisation strategies into the robotic control. The research is conducted by ROB Technologies in collaboration with Gramazio Kohler Research and the Singapore ETH Centre.

By pushing the limits of existing 3D printing technologies, Olivier van Herpt has arrived at machines that produce larger forms and work with materials beyond conventional plastics. Out of paraffin and even clay, he has printed collections of objects that soften the precise and indifferent definition of industrial design. Vases seemingly handwoven by the hands of individual artisans, ceramics crafted with random imperfections, and pottery shaped by the environment they were made in. These manufactured objects demonstrate how van Herpt reinserts humanity into the man-made machine.

The ceramics from Casa Vicens are one of its most recognisable elements. Can you imagine discovering the process of creating tiles with carnations, the yellow flowers that cover the house’s façades? Led by the master artisan ceramist Manel Diestre, director of the process to restore Casa Vicens’ ceramic pieces, in this video you’ll discover the process of creating artisanal carnation azulejo tiles with the original trepa (transfer-printing) technique.

The project LIFE CERSUDS, Ceramic Sustainable Urban Drainage System, funded by the European Commission through the LIFE programme, is developing a sustainable urban drainage system (SuDS) that uses ceramic tiles of low commercial value as a flooring filter system.

The main aim of the project is to enhance city adaptability to climate change and to foster the use of SuDS and green infrastructure. This will be done by designing and implementing a SuDS demonstrator. The demonstrator, envisaged for Benicasim (Castellón), involves the construction of a sustainable urban drainage system via the development of a permeable ceramic flooring, using ceramic tiles of low commercial value. The space foreseen for the demonstrator consists of a street section with light and pedestrian traffic in an established urban setting of about 3000 m².

The Droneport project explores the generation of a drone airport network combining the dynamic futurism of drone technology with low-tech buildings that use local materials and traditional building techniques. The network aims to interconnect communities in developing countries that lack appropriate road or rail networks, enabling urgent medical supplies and cargo to be delivered quickly and cost-effectively.

The construction of a prototype droneport shell at the 2016 Architecture Biennale of Venice was made possible by The Norman Foster Foundation together with the Block Research Group (ETH Zurich), plus the support of the LafargeHolcim Foundation. They have developed a high strength, local earth-based product, called Durabric, specifically for the project.

The University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture has collaborated with the Sino Group to create Ceramic Constellation Pavilion.

The structure seeks to expand contemporary views on architectural construction by creating a 3.8 meter tall pavilion made entirely of 3D printed terracotta bricks, dispensing with tradictional brick-bonding techniques. Instead, the structure’s load-bearing features and overall stability are made possible by each brick’s unique shape and placement.

The overall structure is composed of 2,000 3D printed terracotta bricks. Over the period of 3 weeks 700 kg of raw terracotta clay were 3D printed into individual bricks. Each brick required between 2 and 3 minutes of printing time. The fresh prints the underwent an intensive firing process, baking for an extended period of time at 1025 degrees Celsius. This process makes the pavilion one of the first in its kind that incorporates this specific material system.

General Electric made an industrial short in the 1920s, a silent film that shows how the company produces porcelain insulators for power lines.

Porcelain insulators of this time period were made from china clay, ball clay, flint, and feldspar. In the dry process, ingredients are pulverized and screened to a fine powder and then pressed into moulds. Once moulded, they are trimmed by hand to remove fins and flashing. The pieces are then spray-glazed while spinning on a vertical lathe.

We share with you this version of the short, edited with the addition of some playful ragtime music. We hope you enjoy it!

Nature and technology come together to create a perfect combination in Villa Nurbs, work of an unconventional house designed by CLOUD9 in collaboration with the ceramist Toni Cumella and the artist Frederic Amat, who has intervened in each of the ceramic pieces through the application of enamels.

The building is covered by a ceramic skin that proposes a new way of conceiving the facade in the field of architecture. It consists of a series of ceramic pieces designed so that, taken together, they function as if they were a plant wall. According to the orientation, this skin has the ability to isolate the building from unfavorable environmental conditions and to protect it against insolation, rain or strong winds. At the same time, it is permeable to the breeze. A system of tensioned cables in the form of a network that rests on the metallic structure of the facade serves as support for these ceramic pieces. Both elements define the outer layer of the façade.

The temperature during the day doesn’t seem to stop rising in Indian summers, and installing big air conditioning systems is uneconomical and energy inefficient for a majority of the population. Working under such heated conditions takes a toll on the health of the employees, a problem which was also faced at the factory of Deki Electronics in Uttar Pradesh.

Excessive heat released from the Genset at the entrance in the external area of the factory had reduced productivity to a minimum. It was also heating up the entire driveway making the exterior envelope of the building hotter, hence reducing its efficiency and increasing air conditioning load of the building. A sustainable and inexpensive alternative was required, and the team at Ant Studio used the old method of Evaporative cooling to provide a low energy and effective solution. This technique, tracing back to the Egyptian period, cools down surroundings with the help of water and local materials.

The thrust of hot air facilitates the cooling when used a fan mechanism. Evaporative cooling needs air force. This design uses the air velocity from the genset to its advantage.

The design was inspired by the structure of a beehive, using environment-friendly earthen cones to create an aesthetic prototype. The design and size of the conical components were customised through advanced computational analysis and modern calibration techniques. The geometry of the pots and the stacked form provided a larger surface area for cooling while also ensuring that the air does not bounce back to the Genset. This was achieved by aligning the stacking of the pots to the air flow.

In a converted farmhouse in rural Buckinghamshire architects, artists and designers are using robotic arms and potter’s wheels to experiment with clay. Bartlett PhD graduate and MArch GAD tutor Dr Guan Lee and Slade artist and researcher Dr Eleanor Morgan work with local communities and research institutions, students and makers to identify ways in which robotic clay dispensers can work with traditional building methods. They explore the trial and error processes involved in creating new forms from an old material and the lively possibilities of clay. Through this communal and collaborative approach, the Grymsdyke Farm is a place where people can exchange ideas, working methods, interests and expertise.

As the follies, have accrued, so the workshops have expanded and they now include everything from a CNC milling machine to 3D-printers, water-jet cutters to ceramics kilns, laser-cutters to casting studios – and a gigantic robotic arm.

In 2014 Guan Lee and Eleanor Morgan, were awarded a prestigious RIBA Research Trust Award for their project «Clay Robotics: Sustainable practice in a digital world». A two-year practice-led research project will reconsider the extraction and use of local clay deposits by combining traditional expertise with robotic technologies. Focusing on the geological and cultural sites of clay beds in Buckinghamshire, the aim of the project is to advance sustainable and site-responsive architecture.