Hooke Conversations

This conversation with Kai Strehlke will take place at Hooke Park, the AA's campus in Dorset.

Free-form Timber Architecture

Kai will showcase five different free-form projects by Blumer Lehmann, focusing on the various technological approaches used in their development. The spectrum ranges from highly manual fabrication methods to fully digitalised processes. Additionally, five different techniques for bending wood into free-form shapes are explored. He will also present various student projects he has been involved in, where the complete digital production chain was developed. These projects were realised using industrial timber construction machines, with project durations varying from one semester to just three days.

Kai Strehlke is Head of Digital Processes at Blumer-Lehmann AG. In this role he coordinates the development of digital data and CNC manufacturing for large scale timber fabrication projects. He has worked to develop the processes and techniques required to manufacture complex projects such as the Swatch headquarters in Biel, the Cambridge Mosque, and the Urbach Tower. Kai completed his doctoral dissertation on “The Digital Ornament in Architecture” in 2004 at ETH Zurich. Since this time he built up and led the Department of Digital Technologies at the architectural office Herzog & de Meuron, and has further held Guest Professorships at the Technical University Graz in Austria, and more recently as Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). Kai is External Examiner for the AA Design + Make Postgraduate programme at Hooke Park.

This event will take place at Hooke Park, the AA's campus in Dorset, or can be joined online via Zoom. You can join the event online at 5pm using this link: https://aaschool.zoom.us/j/88937687365

Image: courtesy of Kai Strehlke