29.01.2026

Digital Craft: How robots are developing traditional craftsmanship

Building design

Modern apartment building in IJburg, Amsterdam, artfully photographed in black and white by Leo Wieling. The image emphasizes the unique design of the balcony railings and the urban architectural style.

Robots that lay bricks, AI that plans timber joints and digital manufacturing that is suddenly taking over the field of craftsmanship: Welcome to the age of digital craft. What sounds like science fiction in carpentry has long since become reality – and not just in tech labs, but in workshops, on construction sites and in design offices between Hamburg, Zurich and Vienna. But what remains of the myth of the ‘master craftsman’ in the age of automation? And how much craft is left in digital craft?

Digital Craft combines traditional craftsmanship with digital production, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Robots and computer-controlled machines are fundamentally changing work processes in architecture, construction and workshops in DACH.
Innovations such as parametric design, additive manufacturing and algorithmic planning are driving this development.
Digital tools open up new design and construction possibilities, but also raise questions about authenticity, value creation and sustainability.
The most important challenges: Know-how transfer, resource consumption, interface competence and social acceptance.
Digitalization and AI are no longer marginal phenomena, but the basis for productive, sustainable and future-proof construction.
The relationship between man, machine and material must be rethought – beyond nostalgia and faith in technology.
Digital craft is causing controversy: is there a threat of traditional trades being devalued – or is a new mastery emerging?
In an international comparison, Switzerland and Austria are often braver than Germany. But here, too, the number of pioneers is growing.
Digital craft is shaping the global architectural discourse – and challenging the profession to rethink its self-image.

Robots at work: how digital craft is revolutionizing the trades

The idea of reconciling craftsmanship and digitalization initially sounds like a PR programme for digitalization deniers. But reality has long since caught up with us. In Swiss carpentry workshops, there are industrial robots milling complex wood joints that no old-school carpenter would ever have drawn. In Vienna, architecture firms are experimenting with 3D-printed façade elements whose geometry is based on algorithms and simulation data. And in Munich, bricklaying robots are laying bricks more precisely, faster and without tiring – not as a gimmick, but as a response to the shortage of skilled workers and cost pressure on construction sites. The world of construction is undergoing fundamental change. But what does this mean in practice?

The traditional boundaries between design, planning and production are becoming permeable. Where the shop drawing used to be the bottleneck between architecture and craftsmanship, digital interfaces are now emerging that transfer design data directly to CNC milling machines, robotic arms or additive manufacturing systems. The role of the craftsman is changing: he is becoming an operator, an expert for material, machine and data in equal measure. And the architect? They must learn to design in the digital space, think parametrically and understand the logic of the production machines. If you don’t communicate on an equal footing, you will lose out – both technically and creatively.

But of course, not all that glitters digitally is gold. Many of the spectacular robot installations remain one-offs, prototypes for exhibitions or lighthouse projects in a university context. The wider construction industry, especially in the German SME sector, is often cautious and wait-and-see. The investments seem too complex, the interfaces between software, machine and human too opaque, the fear of faulty production, data loss and liability issues too great. But the direction is clear: if you don’t start shaping the digital transformation of the skilled trades now, you will be shaped by it – whether you like it or not.

The new relationship between man, machine and material is essential. Digital craft is not just automation, but an expansion of possibilities. The robot is not the craftsman’s enemy, but his tool – a tool that enables new precision, new geometries and new efficiency, but also creates new sources of error, new dependencies and new responsibilities. This means that traditional craftsmanship is changing, but it is not disappearing. It is being digitized – and that is not bad news.

Switzerland and Austria are showing how it can be done: in Zurich, institutes such as Gramazio Kohler are experimenting with robot-assisted timber architecture that is setting standards worldwide. In Vienna, the start-up Printstones is developing mobile 3D printers that spit out concrete elements directly on the construction site. Germany? Often follows suit, experimenting in research projects and pilot construction sites – but the big leap into day-to-day business has failed to materialize in many places. The reasons are well known: Reluctance to invest, a shortage of skilled workers in the digital sector and a culture that prefers to preserve rather than venture. But change cannot be stopped.

Parametrics, AI and the end of chance: new tools, new aesthetics

If you want to understand digital craft, you have to understand its tools – and these are no longer just hammers, saws or planes. They are parametric design software, generative design algorithms, machine learning tools and digital manufacturing technologies. Design is becoming an iterative process between man and machine. Algorithms calculate supporting structures, simulate manufacturing processes, optimize the use of materials and generate shapes that go beyond traditional imagination. The new mastery is no longer exclusively demonstrated in the perfect joint pattern, but in the ability to control, monitor and deliberately irritate digital processes.

The effects on aesthetics are obvious. Where chance used to leave its mark on craftsmanship, today the precision of the code reigns. The result: façades that appear to have grown, components whose complexity is based on biological models, load-bearing structures that are only made possible by algorithmic thinking and robotic precision. The boundaries between nature and technology, chance and necessity, design and production become blurred. The architect becomes the “designer of processes”, the craftsman the “navigator of machines”. And all this in a field of tension between control and loss of control.

Artificial intelligence is more than just a buzzword. It detects errors in design models, controls robots in production, suggests optimization routines and learns from every production cycle. It sounds like science fiction, but it is part of everyday life in digital workshops from Zurich to Graz. The big challenge: the interface between analog material and digital control remains susceptible to faults. If you don’t understand how wood works, how concrete flows or how steel deforms, you produce expensive errors – and no innovation.

The classic argument of technology sceptics: won’t the authentic, the imperfect, the human element be lost? The answer is: perhaps – but something new is also created. Digital craft is not a copy of craftsmanship, but rather its further development. The robot’s traces are different from those of the hand, but they are no less valuable. On the contrary: they open up new creative and constructive possibilities that traditional craftsmanship never had. The art lies in productively combining the qualities of both worlds – and that is more challenging than it sounds.

In practice, this results in projects that are as fascinating as they are controversial. From the robotically constructed brick wall in a museum to the parametrically planned wooden bridge in the Alps: there is hardly a competition or biennial where a “signature piece” of digital craftsmanship is not on display. But: widespread use remains the big challenge. Only when digital tools become part of everyday life will digital craft become more than just hype – it will become a new paradigm of construction.

Sustainability, resources and digital responsibility

Of course, digital craft is not just a question of technology, but also one of sustainability. Robotics and digital production promise efficiency gains, material savings and lower error rates – all important levers in the fight against resource consumption in the construction industry. Algorithms optimize cuts, reduce waste and calculate the ideal geometry for minimal material quantities. Additive manufacturing makes it possible to build only what is really needed – layer by layer, gram by gram. That sounds like a perfect world, but it’s only half true.

The downside is obvious: digital manufacturing requires energy, machines, infrastructure and expertise. Anyone who compares the life cycle costs of a robot arm with those of a traditional workbench is often in for an unpleasant surprise. Maintenance, updates, software licenses – all of this incurs costs, consumes resources and ties up skilled workers who are not available elsewhere. Sustainability in digital craft is not a sure-fire success, but a challenge that requires technical knowledge, economic calculation and a sense of social responsibility.

Nevertheless, the opportunities are considerable. Digital tools enable more precise planning, better control of the material flow and transparent documentation – all of which are prerequisites for circular construction, urban mining and the reusability of components. Those who control processes digitally can also evaluate and optimize them and, in the best case, trim them for sustainability. The trick is to choose the right indicators and not to delegate control to the machine, but to retain control as a human being.

It is exciting to take a look at Austria and Switzerland. Both countries are focusing on sustainable timber construction and earth building projects in which digital production technologies are used in a targeted manner to process regional materials efficiently and to a high standard. The combination of traditional material expertise and digital precision creates new value chains – and is a model for sustainable construction in the 21st century. Germany? Lags behind because the funding framework and building regulations remain outdated. But the impetus from research and practice is getting louder.

What remains: Sustainability is not an end in itself in digital craft, but a task for professionals. It is not enough to set up a robot and dream of green building. If you want to build digitally and sustainably, you have to think holistically about processes, materials, energy flows and life cycles – and that is more challenging than ever. Welcome to the age of “digital responsibility”.

Competence, control and conflict: the new job description in digital craft

The digitalization of the skilled trades is not a sure-fire success. It requires new skills – at all levels. Architects have to design parametrically, understand interfaces and prepare design data so that it can be read by CNC milling machines or robots. Craftsmen are becoming process managers who are equally proficient with materials, machines and software. Site managers will become data integrators who monitor and control production processes in real time. The job profile is changing radically – and this is not a disadvantage, but an opportunity for all those who are willing to learn.

But change comes at a price. The traditional foreman is losing his authority, value creation is shifting from the workbench to the data model. Training is lagging behind technology, the training landscape is fragmented and often lacks practical relevance. Anyone training an apprentice today does not know whether they are preparing them for the future or the past. The conflict between upholding tradition and innovation is omnipresent – and is fought with a great deal of pathos by both sides. But: the future is digital, whether the traditionalists like it or not.

This also increases the responsibility of the profession. Anyone who uses digital tools must be able to control them – technically, ethically and creatively. The danger of algorithms and machines taking control and humans becoming passive operators is real. A new culture of digital mastery is needed: a combination of technical knowledge, critical thinking, design expertise and ethical standards. Those who achieve this can set new standards in digital craft – and become role models for the next generation.

Internationally, the debates are similarly heated. In Japan, entire houses are being built from robotically joined wooden elements, while in the USA, start-ups such as Katerra are shaping the discourse on industrial prefabrication and AI-supported construction. Switzerland and Austria focus on quality, precision and sustainability – and show that digital craft is not a contradiction to craftsmanship, but rather its logical development. Germany is struggling – and risks losing touch if the profession does not become more courageous and willing to learn.

What remains is the realization that digital craft is not a panacea, but a challenge. It requires new skills, new collaborations and a new willingness to take responsibility – for technology, material, process and product. Those who ignore this will remain stuck in digital no man’s land. Those who embrace it are actively shaping the future of construction.

Criticism, vision and the search for a new craft

Of course there is criticism. Digital craft is often seen as a threat to traditional craftsmanship: Devaluation of mastery, loss of jobs, alienation from the material. The fear of the transparent workshop, where robots and algorithms call the shots, is real. But it is also an expression of a deeper insecurity: what will remain of the craft’s self-image when the machines take over? The answer is uncomfortable: less will remain than before, but more than we think.

The visionaries of the scene argue differently. For them, digital craft is not a replacement, but an extension of craftsmanship. The machine becomes the tool, the code becomes the material. People remain designers – but they have to learn to think, design and produce with new tools. The real danger lies not in the loss of control, but in the passivity of the profession. Those who allow themselves to be driven by technology lose. Those who shape it win.

The big challenge is integration. Digital tools must remain accessible, understandable and controllable. The interfaces between design, planning, production and operation require open standards, transparency and a new culture of collaboration. The battle for data sovereignty, intellectual property and control over the production process has long been raging. Whoever gains the upper hand here will determine the rules of the game for tomorrow’s construction.

Digital craft has long been a fixture in global discourse. The major architecture firms are investing in digital workshops and experimenting with AI-supported design and robotic production. Sustainability, resource efficiency and the circular economy are becoming the touchstones of digital transformation. Those who innovate here will become export models – those who hesitate will remain spectators. The future of craftsmanship lies in the interplay between tradition and innovation, materials and machines, people and code.

So what to do? The profession must make a decision: Do we want to preserve craftsmanship in the digital age – or develop it further? The answer is obvious. Digital craft is not an end, but a beginning. But it requires courage, knowledge, a sense of responsibility – and sometimes also a portion of cheeky pioneering spirit.

Conclusion: digital craft is the new mastery

The digitalization of crafts is irreversible. It is not only changing tools and processes, but also the self-image of an entire profession. Robots, AI and digital production are not a threat, but an invitation to rethink craftsmanship. The mastery of the future will be digital – and yet remain a craft. But it requires more knowledge, more reflection and more courage than ever before. Those who understand this will not become victims of the machines, but their conductors. Welcome to the age of digital craft.

16.12.2024

Project

IBA Basel 2020 at a glance

Building design

IBA Basel Specialist publication from the G+L editorial team

With the end of IBA Basel Expo at the beginning of June 2021, the International Building Exhibition Basel 2020 officially came to an end and with it the first effective International Building Exhibition in the border triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland. Everything you need to know about IBA Basel can be found here.

With the end of the IBA Basel Expo at the beginning of June 2021, the International Building Exhibition Basel 2020 officially came to an end and with it what was effectively the first International Building Exhibition in the border triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland. A closing film now summarizes the goals and developments of IBA Basel 2020.

The IBA Basel was the first International Building Exhibition to address the topic of spatial planning in border regions. International Building Exhibitions are a special format for urban and regional development. They are a hallmark of national building and planning culture. For more than a century, these experimental fields have brought current issues of planning and building to the forefront of national and international debate.

The origins of the IBA Basel date back to 2008, when everything began with the so-called first “draft memorandum”. This was drawn up by the Department of Construction and Transport of the Canton of Basel-Stadt together with the Trinational Eurodistict Basel TEB. In 2009, the TEB worked out the challenges and opportunities of trinational fragmentation and published these in the 2020 development strategy “A Future for Three”. In the strategy, it identified the main spatial planning objectives of “settlement development”, “transport development” and “landscape planning” as well as the “interactions with the areas of economic and population development” and “governance” and “financing of major metropolitan projects”. In 2010, the political players in the region jointly proclaimed the Basel International Building Exhibition.

2020: 20 projects with the IBA Basel label

In the ten years that followed, the IBA Basel put the shared responsibility for the agglomeration into concrete terms in projects, buildings, infrastructure and landscapes and provided impetus for a cross-border culture of cooperation, in line with the official IBA motto “Au-delà des frontières, ensemble – Growing together across borders”. Under the direction of Monica Linder-Guarnaccia, the IBA in the border triangle saw itself as an instrument of change. From 130 project proposals, the IBA team and a large number of stakeholders from the administration and interest groups launched 43 cross-border projects. A total of 20 of these were officially labeled as IBA projects in 2020.

To the memorandum of the IBA Basel

The memorandum of the IBA Expert Council describes the basis for implementing an IBA in ten recommendations. Precisely because the IBAs have no fixed regulations, their significance for building culture and urban development in a regional, national and international context must be constantly reviewed.

About the IBA Expert Council

The IBA Expert Council supports and advises the current IBAs and ensures that the developments, structures and content of the IBAs are in line with the quality criteria set out in the Memorandum. It also accompanies the preparatory phases of the IBA initiatives. The IBA Expert Council was appointed by the Federal Ministry of Building. Read more about the Expert Council here.

The initial situation of the International Building Exhibition Basel was that of a fragmented agglomeration. The central IBA task was to harmonize the different submission rights, legal bases, internal administrative processes, decision-making powers and financing models of the three participating countries and, last but not least, to build up intercultural competence. This was no easy task and without an understanding of the different mentalities and hierarchies, the implementation of real cross-border projects on an equal footing with the other party would not have been possible. In the course of the IBA in the border triangle, a paradigm shift took place in cross-border cooperation between German, French and Swiss stakeholders. The border region grew together on a political, economic and cultural level during the IBA years.

A budget of twelve million euros instead of one billion

Getting there was an adventure and many a stone had to be cleared away. The IBA in the three countries had to work with the different cultural influences of the three countries, the economic discrepancy between the flourishing economic metropolis of Basel and the agglomeration and the bilingualism – German and French. Above all, however, financing was a constant problem. Despite the support of 27 financing municipalities, the available budget remained far underfunded. The IBA Basel worked with twelve million, while the IBA Hamburg received one billion euros.
The planned three-year financing of the IBA Basel office and its project development fund placed additional demands on the ten-year project throughout its entire duration. This also became part of a recurring search for consensus, added value and return on investment.

The IBA in the border triangle is not an architectural showcase in the traditional sense and has therefore been criticized several times in the past. According to critics, the lighthouse projects traditionally built for an IBA are missing. And yes, the International Building Exhibition Basel is not characterized by building construction projects. Rather, it defines a new era for the format of the International Building Exhibition itself. The background: unlike its predecessors – such as the IBA Stadtumbau in Saxony-Anhalt, the IBA See in Lusatia or the IBA Emscher Park – the Basel International Building Exhibition is not taking place in a traditionally structurally weak area.

The IBA of processes

The Basel region has been flourishing for decades with financially strong companies such as Novartis and Roche. The IBA in the border triangle did not arise out of an emergency situation. The challenge of the International Building Exhibition Basel was to establish a tri-national planning culture between more than 64 regional authorities and numerous private stakeholders over ten IBA years and to launch outstanding cross-border projects in a rolling process. The International Building Exhibition Basel is therefore an IBA of processes. This difference has not made it easy for it. In contrast to building construction projects, process innovation is difficult to present.

Out of 130, 20 projects prevailed

An International Building Exhibition puts social, future living environments up for discussion. It must have a message and this must be significant for other regions, it must be transferable. The International Building Exhibition Basel has shown internationally how measures to strengthen and develop a border region can be implemented together. The Basel International Building Exhibition shows how beneficial it is to take the needs of the other party into account. It has shown how participation and an interdisciplinary approach can increase project quality, even if they take more time and are more complex. The 20 labeled IBA projects together with the IBA project groups and the nominated projects speak for themselves.

IBA Basel closing film

The finissage on June 4, 2021 marked the official end of the IBA Basel Expo and with it the International Building Exhibition Basel. Together with the IBA Presidium, IBA Basel Managing Director Monica Linder-Guarnaccia invited guests to reflect on the findings of ten years of the IBA process and look ahead to the future development of the region.

Spatial planning development across national borders was the focus of the International Building Exhibition Basel. No IBA before the IBA Basel had ever dealt with this topic in this way. The special focus, objectives and developments of the IBA Basel are now summarized in a closing film for the IBA Basel 2020.

Garten + Landschaft provided information online about the projects, their creators and the IBA’s goals. The findings of the first cross-border International Building Exhibition in the border triangle of Germany, France and Switzerland have resulted in the publication “IBA Basel 2020. Crossing borders together” in German and French, which is well worth reading. Find out more here.

Our colleagues at Baumeister also celebrated with a special Baumeister issue on IBA Basel 2020 in May.

22.01.2025

Project

Observation tower at Lake Seljord

Building design

At Lake Seljord in the Norwegian province of Telemark, home to a sea monster called Selma, landscape architects and architects planned a “sea snake tower” as part of the “Seljord and its legends” project.

Building in a picturesque landscape is a delightful task. The planners set the scene, the landscape accentuates small buildings. On October 18, a new observation tower, the “Sea Snake Tower”, was opened on Lake Seljord in Norway. It is part of the Skiensvassdraget river system and the culmination of a series of landscape-based interventions placed around the lake as part of the “Seljord and its Legends” project by Feste Landscape Architects, Rintala Eggertson Architects and Springer Kulturstudio, all from Norway. The 15-meter-high tower opens up to the surrounding landscape at different heights. Viewing platforms on the various levels offer views of the landscape. The municipality of Seljord has just under 3,000 inhabitants and is located in the Norwegian province of Telemark. A sea monster called Selma is said to have been sighted for the first time in Seljordsvatn, a lake that lies partly within the municipality, as early as 1750. This is why the coat of arms of Seljord, developed in 1989, shows a yellow sea serpent on a red background. The creature in Lake Seljord is said to be between four and 50 meters long, have a horse or crocodile-like head and appear pitch black. There is also talk of a pair of front fins and humps. The projects of “Seljord and its legends” are documented in Topos 74.Buildings in special places are also the theme of the November issue of Garten + Landschaft. The magazine presents a selection of successful buildings as well as viewing platforms, towers, footbridges and bridges.

Photos: Dag Jenssen