This article was originally published on Autodesk's Line//Shape//Space publication as "Wolf Prix on Robotic Construction and the Safe Side of Adventurous Architecture."

View?of?"The?Cloud"?inside?the?Museum?of?Contemporary?Art?&?Planning Exhibition?in?Shenzhen,?China. Image Courtesy of Coop Himmelb(l)au

This article was originally published on Autodesk's Line//Shape//Space publication as "Wolf Prix on Robotic Construction and the Safe Side of Adventurous Architecture."In response to a conservative and sometimes fragmented building industry, some architects believe that improving and automating the construction process calls for a two-front war: first, using experimental materials and components, and second, assembling them in experimental ways. Extra-innovative examples include self-directed insect-like robots that huddle together to form the shape of a building and materials that snap into place in response to temperature or kinetic energy.The automation battle has already been fought (and won) in other industries. With whirring gears and hissing pneumatics, rows and rows of Ford-ist mechanical robot arms make cars, aircraft, and submarines in a cascade of soldering sparks. So why shouldn?t robotic construction become commonplace for buildings, too"
MSC robots. Image Courtesy of Coop Himmelb(l)au

That?s the common-sense suggestion of one of architecture?s most daring and imaginative dreamers, Wolf D. Pr...