Building Traditions with Digital Research - Reviewing the Brick Architecture of Raúl Hestnes Ferreira through Robotic Fabrication

Brick construction has a strong tectonic tradition in architecture, being used both as a structural and as an expressive material. Despite several technological innovations at the composition and production level, its application still relies on talented craftsmanship, which has some natural human limitations and has becoming harder to find in the present days. To overcome this problem, robotic assembly technologies have been introduced in the field, opening new design and construction possibilities. In this context, this paper intends to examine their application but from a different perspective, by examining how they can be used to connect with the traditions in brick construction. To do so, it presents and analyses the work of Portuguese architect Raul Hestnes Ferreira, and develops a computational design and robotic fabrication research on the topics of corner, column and dome bricks. The production of a column design at the 1:1 scale using an automated process serves to reflect on the relevance of new technologies to innovate in accordance to tradition.