Benjamin Kemper

DOCTORAL STUDENT

benjamin.kemper(at)hs-anhalt.de

Benjamin Kemper has been a PhD student since 2020 at the Chair for Digital Building Technologies, ETH Zürich and the Materiability Research Group under the leadership of Prof. Dr. B. Dillenburger and Prof. Dr. M. Kretzer. He researches the multi material properties of robotically deposited bio based materials. He graduated cum laude from TU Delft with a master’s degree in hyperbody/robotic building (MSc) in 2018. At TU Delft, he also worked as a robotic workshop assistant, collaborating with DIA Dessau (Bauhaus). He earned his bachelor’s degree (BA) in architecture at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. He became a member of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation in 2014. Early during his academic career, he gained prototyping and manufacturing experience through several major architectural 1:1 installations and prototypes.

He frequently experiments with 3D printing, 7 axis robotic milling, cutting, and printing, 3 axis CNC milling, laser cutting, and machine hacking. At the moment his current research project investigates fully computer generated and manufactured houses, and involves integrating his knowledge and possibilities of his computationally extended toolbox, while focussing on usability and sustainability. Further, he leads the 7-axis robotic setup (Kuka KR240-2) at Bächer Bergmann GmbH in Cologne, where he conducts personal research and also commercial projects. When he is not in the workshop or at his desk developing scripts, he gives lectures, presentations, and workshops, and works on publishing his findings (amongst them ISARC 2017 in Taipei, University of Applied Sciences in Detmold, simAUD 2018 in Delft, Rob|Arch 2018 in ETH Zurich, eCAADe 2018 in Łódź, etc.). His latest research focuses on merging parametric modeling and computer graphic imagery into tangible prototypes. He is also testing the limits of the robotic setup, concerning material studies and systems, rethinking architecture and design, and the integration of computational methods in a broader context. After working in different studios between his bachelor’s and master’s degrees (also at responsive design studio), in 2018 he joined responsive design studio, to immerse himself in new challenges and possibilities.

PUBLICATIONS

2022
Benjamin Kemper, Manuel Kretzer: Bio Hybrids: Multi-axis and multi-material deposition of starch-based bioplastics and their potentials and limitations for architecture and design applications. In: Knaack U, Tessmann O, Borg Costanzi C, et al. (eds) Print! architecture, 1st edn. AADR, Baunach, Germany, pp 154–157
Benjamin Kemper: Bio-Formwork: Large Scale 3D Deposition of Thermoplastic Starch in Architecture. In: Contributions to the 22. Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innenkonferenz (NWK). Open Conference Proceedings, Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, pp 65–70

2019
Sina Mostafavi, Benjamin Kemper, Chong Du: Materializing hybridity in architecture: design to robotic production of multi-materiality in multiple scales. Architectural Science Review (Taylor & Francis) (DOI: 10.1080/00038628.2019.1653819)

2018
Sina Mostafavi, Henriette Bier, Benjamin Kemper, Daniel Fischer: Materialization of Architectural Hybridity: Modelling, Computation and Robotic Production of Multi-materiality. eCAADe 2018 Conference (ISBN: 978-94-91207-16-7)
Sina Mostafavi, Benjamin Kemper, Daniel Fischer: Multimode Robotic Materialization. RobArch 2018 Conference (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92294-2_27)
Benjamin Kemper: Master Thesis: Running Out Of Gas On The Fast Lane. Argus Architecture Annual 2017|2018 (ISBN: 978-94-6186-949-4)

2017
Benjamin Kemper: Graduation Project – ROOGOTFL Utopia versus Dystopia. Atlantis Magazine (ISSN: 1387-3679)
Alexander Liu Cheng, Henriette Bier, Galoget Latorre, Benjamin Kemper, Daniel Fischer: A High-Resolution Intelligence Implementation based on Design-to-Robotic-Production and -Operation strategies. ISARC Conference (DOI: 10.22260/ISARC2017/0014)