New Cluster of Excellence

We are delighted to announce the success of our Cluster of Excellence proposal on “Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC)” in the final round of the German Excellence Strategy. The aim of the Excellence Strategy is to strengthen Germany’s position as an outstanding place for research in the long term and further improve its international competitiveness. A Cluster of Excellence is the most significant and substantial grant by the German Research Foundation.

BioMat research group at ITKE is currently presenting at the Hannover Messe 2018, the worlds biggest fair for industry, investment products, research and innovation, from April 23 to April 27. At a common stand with the University of Stuttgart and the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, new sustainable material developments and outcomes of research and teaching are exhibited.

The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2016-2017 received the BIM-Award 2018 / BIM-Clusters Baden-Württemberg in the “research” category.

Innovative pavilion buildings for the Bundesgartenschau Heilbronn 2019
Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) – Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) – Prof. Achim Menges
University of Stuttgart – Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning

The Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart are developing two highly innovative, biologically inspired pavilions for the 2019 Bundesgartenschau in Heilbronn. Both are globally unique, light-weight structures that are fully computationally designed and robotically fabricated. The two pavilions embody and express the strength of innovation typical for the State of Baden-Württemberg, which has been an internationally recognized centre for lightweight constructions, biomimetics, and the development of digital technologies in architecture for several decades. By acting as the main funding body, the state will play a prominent role in the exhibition.

Inaugural Exhibition of the Design Society, Shenzhen, 2017

The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013/14 is now on display as part of the exhibition “Minding the Digital” organized by the Design Society Shenzhen. The project is part of a successful series of research pavilions which showcase the potential of novel design, simulation and fabrication processes in architecture. The project was planned and constructed within one and a half years by students and researchers within a multi-disciplinary team of biologists, paleontologists, architects and engineers.

The paper “Multi-Machine Fabrication: An Integrative Design Process Utilising an Autonomous UAV and Industrial Robots for the Fabrication of Long-Span Composite Structures ” (Felbrich, B., Früh, N., Prado, M.,; Saffarian, S., Solly, J., Vasey, L., Knippers, J., Menges, A.) will be presented at the upcoming ACADIA conference held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Elytra: Filament Pavilion at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has received the German Design Award Winner 2018 in the Architecture category. The German Design Award is awarded annually by the German Design Council.

Baubionik – Biologie beflügelt Architektur. Editors Jan Knippers, Ulrich Schmid, Thomas Speck und dem Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie C, ISSN 0341-0161.