Lecture by Michael Hansmeyer

Today, we can fabricate anything. Complexity and customization are no longer constraints. Yet there is a discrepancy between the wonder of digital fabrication technology, and the conventionalism of our designs. Put simply: we can fabricate more than we can design.

We need a new type of design instrument. We need tools for search and exploration, rather than simply control and execution. These tools will no longer require words, labels or categories, as they must create the previously unseen. Knowledge and experience will be acquired through search and mining. As of yet, we have countless tools to increase our efficiency and precision. Now is the time to create tools to inspire us and to help us be creative. With the machine as our muse, let us draw the undrawable, and imagine the unimaginable!

Michael Hansmeyer is an architect and programmer who explores the use of algorithms and computation to generate architectural form. His work focuses on the interplay of computational design methods, digital fabrication and new materials.
Recent projects include the Sixth Order installation of columns at the Gwangju Design Biennale, the design and fabrication of full-scale 3D printed grotto for the 2013 Archilab exhibition, and the Platonic Solids series. Michael’s projects have been exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, Art Basel / Design Miami, and the Museum of Art and Design.

Michael was previously a visiting professor at Southeast University in Nanjing. Prior to this, he was a lecturer and researcher in the CAAD group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. He holds  a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University and an MBA degree from INSEAD Fontainebleau. He previously worked in the consulting and financial industries at McKinsey & Company and J.P. Morgan respectively, as well as at Herzog & de Meuron architects.

www.akbild.ac.at/ika