What do we talk about when we talk about ‘industrialization’ today? That is the question posed by the BAI Institute in its project to bring new technologies closer to the world of construction, from a pursuit of excellence that integrates design, digitalization, robotization, social awareness, and humanistic thought. It is a complex question and objective that BAI wants to address in collaboration with some of the most prestigious international institutions in the field of the design-technologies relationship, including the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA), of ETH Zürich, which opened its doors to the BAI of Navarre in a work session celebrated on 31 March and 1 April in the Swiss city.

The session, organized by Zurich professor Andrea Deplazes, and academic director of the BAI Postgraduate Degree, included lectures by some of the most prominent professors and researchers of the ITA. The first lectures analyzed the possibilities of digital technology to rethink and enhance construction systems. While Fabio Gramazio, director of the ITA, introduced the concept of “digital materiality in architecture”, professor Jacqueline Pauli talked about the innovations in hybrid construction using timber-rammed earth showing one of the prototypes at a 1:1 scale developed at the ITA. The civil engineer and professor Francesco Ranaudo explained a concrete patent that, inspired by Gothic vaults, improves the material’s performance and substantially reduces its ecological footprint.

During the second session, the presentation of research projects led to a more practical part, developed at the laboratories and workshops of the ITA, with three lectures. In the first one, professor Andrei Jipa revealed the design keys for Tor Alva, the world’s tallest laminated timber tower, and in the second, professor Kunaljit Chadha analyzed on site the possibilities of robotic arms when working with traditional materials like clay. The session concluded with an intervention in which Deplazes explained in detail the process of conception, development, and construction of Monte Rosa Hut, a mountain shelter built in an isolated location of the Alps. 

The visit ended, on day two, with the interventions of three prominent ITA researchers who will join the faculty of the BAI Postgraduate program. Jonathan Benhamu dealt with the more pedagogical side of the matter, stressing the importance of integrating technologies into design and the not the other way around: “Technology follows project; not project follows technology,” he stated. For their part, professor Hubert Klumpner and the Spanish-Swiss architect Diego Ceresuela-Wiesmann presented two projects in Colombia that take stock of the possibilities of industrialization in disadvantaged areas and point at the fundamental objective that BAI also assumes as its own: service to society, commitment to people’s real needs.