Robotic Glazing Workshop at IAAC: Tradition Meets Automation

In Xi’an, Heatherwick Studio’s Cultural Commercial Building District unveils a façade composed of glazed ceramic layers—reflective, irregular, and rooted in ancestral techniques. It speaks of handcraft, yet emerges through industrial precision. This intersection between material tradition and digital fabrication became the point of departure for Robotic Glazing Choreography, a workshop hosted at IAAC – Advanced Architecture Barcelona in collaboration with Ceràmica Cumella.

Led by Heatherwick Studio members Alfredo Chávez and Theophile Peju, the workshop brought together designers, technologists, and ceramicists to explore how gestures—brushing, dripping, layering—could be reinterpreted through robotic motion. Using motion tracking, colour sensing and algorithmic control, participants translated human technique into computational language.

Students from the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction played an active role, contributing both technical depth and material curiosity. The challenge was not to mimic the hand, but to understand what could be preserved when the hand meets the machine.

With the support of Ceràmica Cumella, known for their mastery of clay, glazes and firing processes, the workshop moved fluidly between digital testing and hands-on application. The resulting process revealed a space of negotiation—between code and intuition, precision and variability.

Instead of resolving this tension, the workshop embraced it. By engaging with the nuances of craft through robotics, participants questioned how tools shape not only form, but also authorship. What emerged was not a new technique, but a new way of thinking through matter—relational, open-ended, and deeply contextual.

This type of exploration is at the core of IAAC’s approach to education—where learning happens through making, and making becomes a space for critical reflection. For students of the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction, workshops like this are not isolated events, but part of a broader ecosystem of experimentation where design, code, material, and context are continuously negotiated.

If you’re interested in engaging with this kind of hands-on experimentation—where robotics, material culture and design processes intersect, you can learn more about the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction here.

For a deeper look into the process and outcomes of the workshop, you can explore the full project documentation here.