#13 Philippe Block: The Incredible Future of Sustainable Construction

I met Philippe Block while studying historic masonry structures in Spain last summer. He presented his work and I was blown away. He is a pioneering structural engineer who, as part of his research group Block Research Group, is inventing the future of sustainable construction by blending old knowledge and precedent with new technology, materials and innovation. He's BUILDING off of thousands of years of architectural innovation and deepening our knowledge of how structures really work, with stunning results. And what makes it so impressive is he isn't just doing this in a research lab somewhere--though that is where the ideas are refined--he's implementing them in the real world. Not only is that very difficult to do, overcoming all the obstacles, it also takes a tremendous amount of courage. When I say "the building industry is broken," as I often do, what Phillipe is doing is part of the solution--he's part of pioneering and inventing the future that doesn't exist yet. Enjoy!

Sign up for my bimonthly newsletter ⁠here⁠ to learn more! PHILLIPE'S BIO Philippe Block is a full professor of Architecture and Structures and head of the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) at ETH Zurich, where he co-leads the Block Research Group (BRG) with Dr. Tom Van Mele.

He studied architecture and structural engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, where he earned his PhD in 2009. The BRG develops sustainable and circular construction solutions through the advancement of computational structural design and innovation in digital fabrication and construction. Specific expertise includes computational form finding, discrete masonry, graphic statics, architectural and structural geometry, digital fabrication and construction, and open-source computation. Philippe and Tom translate their research into practice, with the consultancy Foreign Engineering and the ETH spin-off VAULTED. Most significant is the development of the Rippmann Floor System (RFS), a low-carbon-footprint, fully circular prefabricated concrete floor solution CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction and Problem Statement 03:10 Three Tenets: Strength through Geometry, Material Effectiveness, and Circular Construction 09:02 Comparison of Concrete and Steel Floor Systems 17:36 The Rippman Floor System 27:29 Combining Architecture and Engineering 32:19 Thinness and Prefabrication of the Rippman Floor System 38:59 Rediscovering Structural Form and Graphic Statics 50:24 Opportunities to Learn Graphic Statics 51:28 Integration of Graphic Statics in Projects 52:21 Opportunities for Self-Education 52:48 New Master of Advanced Studies in Structural Computation 53:17 Focus on Outreach and Education 54:34 The Importance of Open Source and Collaboration 56:29 Graphic Statics as a Tool for Engineering 59:19 The Maturity of Tools for Arch Structures 01:01:16 Challenges in Accepting New Approaches 01:04:07 The Urgency of Innovation in Construction 01:06:35 The Excitement of Discovering and Learning 01:07:47 Following Philippe Block's Work RESOURCESBlock Research GroupVaulted Unreinforced Concrete Floor SystemBRG Githup Compass ResourcesBook on Graphic Statics: Form and Forces: Designing Efficient, Expressive Structures. Book on Guastavino Vaulting by John Ochsendorf MIT's Morningside Academy For Design w/ John Ochsendorf: Phillipe Block Lecture - ETH Zurich, Block Research Group Phillipe Block Lecture - Stone Skins: New Masonry Shells Armadillo Vault Phillipe Block on Linked InCONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTURE https://www.buildingculture.com/ https://www.instagram.com/buildingculture/ https://twitter.com/build_culture https://www.facebook.com/BuildCulture/ CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELL https://www.instagram.com/austintunnell/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-tunnell-2a41894a/ https://twitter.com/AustinTunnell