Non-standard geometries are built from non-standard parts. The doubly curved glass panels on Zaha Hadid’s Hungerburg Funicular stations are held in place by more than 2500 indvidually shaped profiles. Each of them is cut from polyethylene boards with a computer controlled five-axis router. Their geometry and complete fabrication data is automatically generated from a parametric 3D-model – including stickers with the unique part-IDs.

designtoproduction collaborates with fabrication experts
to manufacture complex geometries on computer controlled tools.

CNC machines make it possible to fabricate indvidual components almost at the cost of mass production. But while the price for machining stays the same, the effort for planning and logistics rises with the number of different parts. And when it comes to the thousands, every second lost per part adds up to man-hours of work in the project.

We set up digital production chains from the design right to the machine, automating the generation of plans and fabrication data and ensuring quality and flexibity at the same time.

materialized projects: Hungerburg Funicular (Innsbruck), EPFL Learning Center (Lausanne), Inventioneering Architecture (Zurich), Libeskind's Futuropolis (St. Gallen), Ringve Plattform (Trondheim), Camera Obscura (Trondheim), Swissbau Pavilion (Basel), ESQ Stand (Basel)