New Pavilion by Shigeru Ban in Zurich

A while ago I reported about the erection of the new Tamedia building by Shigeru Ban in Zurich. In a few days, a new pavilion by Ban, designed to cover the terrace of Villa Wesendonck, Zurich, will open. During the summer months it will be used as cafe, and for theater plays, concerts, and readings. Read the press text here (in German).

For the structure of the pavilion, Ban establishes the world's first application of structural carbon girders, and combines them with cardboard tubes.

Architectural Easter Eggs

A collection of former Serpentine Gallery pavilions in their current state discovered via bing maps. Read about their post-Serpentine life in Marina Otero Verzier’s article.


Zaha Hadid’s pavilion is used as event venue in Flambards theme park, Helston, Cornwall, UK.


Toyo Ito’s pavilion is used as beach club restaurant in hotel Le Beauvallon near Saint Tropez, France.


Frank Gehry’s pavilion is exibited on the property of the Chateau La Coste winery near Aix-en-Provence, France.

Wooden Structures at ETH Campus

Two new temporary wooden structures have been erected recently at the ETH campus in Zurich.

Spatial Aggregations 3, by Gramazio & Kohler:

A reciprocal frame structure, by Spiro:

Gifery: a HTML5 Webapp to Draw Animated Gifs

My brother Jan Lachauer and I just released the first version of a webapp that let's you draw and edit animated gifs on desktop or mobile devices. The app´s client side is based on HTML5 and JavaScript. The server side is programmed in Python (gif creation and upload to tumblr/imgur). We use localstorage to auto save the drawings on the client side, so you can continue whenever you come back to the app from the same device.


Animated gif created by animation wunderkind Jérémie Périn, done with gifery. More animated gifs in the gallery.


A video of an early version of the app. A description of all buttons and hotkeys can be found here.

The following features are implemented till now:
- draw in true color with transparency and variable brush size
- works on mobile devices (tested on iPad and iPhone)
- upload your gif to imgur and tumblr
- import existing gifs to edit or view frame by frame
- auto-save in case you want to continue editing later
- fill shapes
- pick colors
- undo
- onion skin (to see the frame before and after)
- copy and paste frames
- hotkeys

Christmas Movie: Room on the Broom

I am proud to announce that the great animation movie Room on the Broom, directed by Max Lang and and Jan Lachauer, my brother, will premiere tomorrow, on Christmas Day at 4:35pm on BBC1. Based on a book written by by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the movie tells the story of a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat. The gang ultimately saves the witch from a fearsome dragon, and in gratitude she rewards them with a magnificent new broom which has room for everyone. The film is produced by Magic Light Pictures.


The Observer states that for those of you, who have been disapointed by Peter Jackson's Hobbit, Room on the Broom might be more satisfying, since it "largely eschews tricks that have made Peter Jackson's Hobbit film controversial".

Workshop at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne

Volker Helm and myself have been invited by Prof. Trogemann for a workshop about generative design and modelling techniques at his legendary labIII, the institution at the very interface between computer science and art in Germany. Trogemann is well known for his books, dealing with the history and materiality of computing, and with the introduction to programming for artists.

Masonry Workshop at ETH Zurich

A stunning Catalan free-form vault has been designed and build by students during a one week workshop organised by Prof. Deplazes and Prof. Block from ETH Zurich. RhinoVAULT has been used for the design of the complex compression-only shape. For details, visit the homepage of the BLOCK Research Group.