April 04, 2024

#13 Philippe Block: The Incredible Future of Sustainable Construction

1 hour 14 minutes

I met Philippe Block while studying historic masonry structures in Spain last summer. He presented his work and I was blown away. He is a pioneering structural engineer who, as part of his research group Block

Research Group, is inventing the future of sustainable construction by blending old knowledge and precedent with new technology, materials and innovation. He's BUILDING off of thousands of years of architectural

innovation and deepening our knowledge of how structures really work, with stunning results.

And what makes it so impressive is he isn't just doing this in a research lab somewhere--though that is where the ideas are refined--he's implementing them in the real world. Not only is that very difficult to do, overcoming all the obstacles, it also takes a tremendous amount

of courage.

When I say "the building industry is broken," as I often do, what Phillipe is doing is part of the solution--he's part of pioneering and inventing the future that doesn't exist yet. Enjoy!

PHILLIPE'S BIO

Philippe Block is a full professor of Architecture and Structures and head of the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) at ETH Zurich, where he co-leads the Block Research Group (BRG) with Dr. Tom Van Mele.

He studied architecture and structural engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, where he earned his PhD in 2009.

The BRG develops sustainable and circular construction solutions through the advancement of computational structural design and innovation in digital fabrication and construction. Specific expertise includes computational form finding, discrete masonry, graphic statics, architectural and structural geometry, digital fabrication and construction, and open-source computation.

Philippe and Tom translate their research into practice, with the consultancy Foreign Engineering and the ETH spin-off VAULTED. Most significant is the development of the Rippmann Floor System (RFS), a low-carbon-footprint, fully circular prefabricated concrete floor solution

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and Problem Statement

03:10 Three Tenets: Strength through Geometry, Material Effectiveness, and Circular Construction

09:02 Comparison of Concrete and Steel Floor Systems

17:36 The Rippman Floor System

27:29 Combining Architecture and Engineering

32:19 Thinness and Prefabrication of the Rippman Floor System

38:59 Rediscovering Structural Form and Graphic Statics

50:24 Opportunities to Learn Graphic Statics

51:28 Integration of Graphic Statics in Projects

52:21 Opportunities for Self-Education

52:48 New Master of Advanced Studies in Structural Computation

53:17 Focus on Outreach and Education

54:34 The Importance of Open Source and Collaboration

56:29 Graphic Statics as a Tool for Engineering

59:19 The Maturity of Tools for Arch Structures

01:01:16 Challenges in Accepting New Approaches

01:04:07 The Urgency of Innovation in Construction

01:06:35 The Excitement of Discovering and Learning

01:07:47 Following Philippe Block's Work

RESOURCESBlock Research GroupVaulted Unreinforced Concrete Floor SystemBRG Githup Compass ResourcesBook on Graphic Statics: Form and Forces: Designing Efficient, Expressive Structures.

Book on Guastavino Vaulting by John Ochsendorf

MIT's Morningside Academy For Design w/ John Ochsendorf:

Phillipe Block Lecture - ETH Zurich, Block Research Group

Phillipe Block Lecture - Stone Skins: New Masonry Shells

Armadillo Vault

Phillipe Block on Linked InCONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTURE

https://www.buildingculture.com/

https://www.instagram.com/buildingculture/

https://twitter.com/build_culture

https://www.facebook.com/BuildCulture/

CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELL

https://www.instagram.com/austintunnell/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-tunnell-2a41894a/

https://twitter.com/AustinTunnell

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By Austin Tunnell

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