Rapid Robotic Clay Rotunda

The Robotic Clay Rotunda is a free-standing, earth-based structure constituting the soundproof outer shell of the SE MusicLab, a high-fidelity music auditorium built in the city of Bern, Switzerland. The Robotic Clay Rotunda is designed by Gramazio Kohler Research from the ETH Zurich.

The cylindrical structure combines clay, a sustainable, zero-waste building material, with computational design techniques. Almost 11 meters in diameter, it rises to a height of 5 meters with unreinforced clay walls just 15 centimetres thick. It was built in situ by a mobile robot that aggregated over 30,000 soft clay bricks over a period of 50 days.

The Clay Rotunda addresses the urgent need to reduce material consumption and revert to the use of emission-free materials for the fabrication of our built environment. The robotic clay aggregation process combines traditional clay construction knowhow with contemporary digital design and fabrication processes. Greater control over both material and process enables the building of complex structures that go beyond what has traditionally been possible. Clay also has excellent properties for regulating the interior climate of buildings, thus reducing the need for mechanical ventilation and maximizing comfort for their inhabitants.

Finally, earthen constructions are entirely waste-free since the clay mix used to build them can be ground down and fully reused. What is taken from nature can be returned to nature in its entirety.