Hannes Mayer studies what architecture is today and conceives the architecture of tomorrow. In an era of rapid specialisation, he bridges between academia and practice, between thinking and making, between science, art and architecture.

Combining his expert knowledge in digital technologies with his profound interest in nature and culture, he realises paradigmatic projects at the intersection of research and practice, investigating how traditional building methods and advanced technologies can contribute to an ecological architecture of novel beauty.

Between 2016 and 2022 he led Gramazio Kohler Research at ETH Zürich, a leading research group for robotics and digital technologies in architecture, and directed the Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Digital Fabrication programme. Based on his research, he curated exhibitions on the digital future of building at Swissnex San Francisco, Cooper Union New York, Venice Biennale, in Milan and Zurich, and realised large-scale architectural installations for the Centre Pompidou, V&A Dundee and Istituto Svizzero in Rome. More recently, he completed Collaborative Constructions, a three-storey timber-frame structure for the Aichi Triennale 2022 in Japan, which updates traditional wood-joints for the age of robotic assembly. As a former artist-in-residence at Villa Kamogawa Kyoto, Hannes continues to explore how computation and digital fabrication can inspire new relationships between carpentry, forestry and the housing sector working towards the World Expo 2025 in Osaka as the director of the Digital & Analog Timber Lab at Goethe-Institut Osaka Kyoto in Japan. On the Arabian Peninsula, he works on the reinvention of earthen architecture through computation and robotics.

Hannes is the author of How to Build a House, a monography on the DFAB HOUSE, the world’s first inhabitable building created by robots, as well as founding publisher of the architecture magazine manege für architektur, whose current issue automations explores the relevance of artificial intelligence in architecture. Furthermore, Hannes conceives, produces and organises public formats, which intensify architectural debate.

Committed to define the conditions of the future, Hannes is a passionate educator, having taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, University of Westminster, TU Munich, University of Bremen, University of Innsbruck, Kassel University and ETH Zurich.

Hannes holds a Diploma and Master degree in architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture and persues his PhD research on Non-Binary Spaces at the University of Tokyo.