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Two researchers working beneath a robot arm that holds a timber frame module in place, with finished modules stacked behind them in a laboratory

Caschlatsch

Disentis/Mustér, Switzerland · 2024 · Gramazio Kohler Research and MAS ETH DFAB, ETH Zurich

A climbable three-storey tower of 2000 timber beams, built by students and robots together in twenty weeks from first sketch.

On a rocky outcrop near the Lukmanier Pass, where the Caschlatsch castle once stood, hikers can now climb a three-storey timber tower. Students of the Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Digital Fabrication designed it with parametric tools and tested it with local partners in virtual reality. The modules were built in the Robotic Fabrication Laboratory, ETH Zurich, trucked to Disentis/Mustér and flown to the site by helicopter.

How COMPAS was used

COMPAS Timber exported the CAD data for the CNC machines that cut the beams. The students assembled the beams through an augmented reality interface on their phones, built on COMPAS XR, which let them compare what they had built with the digital model at any time. A robotic arm held the larger elements in their exact positions.

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