A team formed by Isern Associats, Ceramica Cumella and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has designed and manufactured a Musical Robotic Facade, translating Max Richter’s music into ceramic carvings.

Try to imagine a façade that combines robotics, ceramics and Max Richter’s music. Do you think it’s possible? It is, and today you can see it by visiting the Eixample neighbourhood in Barcelona, as part of a recently built hotel.

By applying an algorithm designed by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), a robot was able to transform a musical input into carvings on the ceramic bricks which cover the hotel’s façade.

The music played on ceramics is the album “Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,” published in 2012 by Deutsche Grammophon label. The whole work is composed by 1120 pieces (800 in the front and 320 in the main hotel entrance), each one containing eight seconds of robotic reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter.

This work has been possible thanks to the sum of talent of the Architect Daniel Isern and his team, specialists in hotel construction, the Ceramist Toni Cumella and IAAC Robotic Expert Alexandre Dubor.

The first idea of this project has been developed within the Open Thesis Fabrication Program (OTF) by the student Rodion Eremeev and tutored by Alexandre Dubor, Areti Markopoulou and Silvia Brandi.