Thesis Projects
Computational Clay Coral City
This thesis investigates robotic aggregation of clay to design and fabricate engineered coral reefs, developing a workflow that integrates digital modelling with physical production to leverage material behavior for loose connections and self-interlocking assemblies.
Students: Eleni Skevaki, Nicolas Feihl
Thesis Supervisors: Mathias Bernhard, Marie Griesmar, David Jenny, Jesus Medina
External Collaborators: Ulrike Pfreundt, Marius Neamtu
Concrete Tectonics
This thesis explores design and fabrication strategies for assembly interfaces in large-scale 3D-printed concrete components, addressing segmentation challenges to advance the industrial scalability of Concrete Extrusion 3D Printing (CE3DP).
Students: Aya Shaker, Noor Khader
Thesis Supervisors: Ana Anton, Dr. Lex Reiter
Controlled Deformations as Design Drivers in Digital Casting
This thesis develops a conceptual simulation approach for the material behaviour of Digital Casting, integrating fluidity and curing speed control into a process-specific design tool to explore weakly supported formwork construction.
Student: Rahul Girish
Thesis Supervisors: Dr. Ena Lloret-Fritschi, Anna Szabo
Generative Modelling with Design Constraints: Reinforcement Learning for Furniture Generation
This thesis explores a reinforcement learning framework to design furniture with embedded design and fabrication constraints, generating topologically consistent, unique aesthetic geometries while addressing limitations of traditional generative design methods.
Student: Yuta Akizuki
Thesis Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Benjamin Dillenburger, Dr. Mathias Bernhard, Reza Kakooee, Marirena Kladeftira
Materialised Acoustics: Digital Diffuser Design
This thesis explores the design and fabrication of curved surfaces for sound diffusion using 3D printing and robotic acoustics evaluation, creating an interactive design cycle to optimize acoustic performance through computationally generated surfaces.
Student: Chaoyu Du
Thesis Supervisor: Achilleas Xydis
Robotic Claygraphy
This thesis explores the use of robotic fabrication and customized tools to carve textures and patterns on 2.5D clay surfaces, translating human carving techniques into robotic movements to generate high-resolution geometries and investigate subtractive fabrication.
Student: Chen Ying-Shiuan
Thesis Supervisor: Zhao Ma
Timber Grammar
This thesis proposes a grammar-based design methodology for robotic timber assembly, integrating fabrication constraints into an interactive computational tool, Timber_Grammar, to generate fabricable design possibilities with geometric freedom.
Student: Keerthana Udaykumar
Thesis Supervisor: Victor Leung
Designing a Multi-Property Dispenser for Grading
This thesis develops a robotic tool for grading colors and translucency in glass, using a multi-property dispenser to create volumetric designs with color and translucency gradients, pushing the boundaries of traditional glass fusing techniques.
Students: Jonas Van den Bulcke, Sofia Michopoulou
Thesis Supervisors: Rena Giesecke, Pietro Odaglio
Exoskeleton: 3D Printed Foam-Cored Sandwich Panel Façade
This thesis investigates the use of 3D printing to fabricate bespoke foam-cored sandwich panels for complex geometries, optimizing insulation, translucency gradients, and smart connections, offering a cost-effective and efficient solution for non-standard architectural designs.
Students: Nik Eftekhar Olivo, Yoana Taseva
Thesis Supervisors: Matthias Leschok, Hyunchul Kwon
Design Freedom in Eggshell
This thesis explores the limitations and potential of the “Smart Dynamic Casting” technique developed by GKR, testing ambitious design objectives through a clear methodology and creating one-to-one scale prototypes to further the goals of cast-on-demand concrete, complex geometries, and integrated reinforcement.
Students: Antonio Barney, Wenqian Yang
Thesis Supervisors: Joris Burger, Lukas Gebhard