Archive · October 2026
ETH Zurich's Hand That Walks on Its Fingers, and the Shaft No Arm Reaches
ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab trained an 818 g five-finger hand to walk on its fingertips and then work. What that could mean for shafts and ceiling voids.
Birr's 250 MW of winter insurance, re-read in 2026 against doubled Swiss solar
In 2022 Switzerland bought 250 MW of gas turbines in Birr as winter insurance. Now they go, PV has doubled to 9.5 GW, and winter stays the open question.
A Timber Joint With 0.25 mm of Air: Robot-Milled, AR-Guided, Built to Come Apart
UQ researchers mill mortise-tenon timber joints to 0.25 mm and guide assembly in AR. No screws, nails or glue, so components can be taken apart and reused.
85 Metres of Cooperative: The ABZ Tower Where Every Party Wall Does Two Jobs
Read the ABZ cooperative tower in Zürich from its 25 m piles to its 1,700 m² roof, and see how load-bearing party walls help keep rents at CHF 19–21/m².
Green Hydrogen Electrolysis: Choose the Load Profile and You Have Already Chosen the Site
How alkaline, PEM and SOEC electrolysers work, why load range decides the site, and what a Swiss office should ask before drawing a hydrogen hall.
Cao Fei Zones a Basel Museum Like a City: Seven Districts, No New Walls
Cao Fei and Small Production turn Kunstmuseum Basel's Gegenwart into a seven-district city with paint, floors, seats and signs. Closes 11 October 2026.
Wood laid like rebar: Stuttgart's flat timber slab carries 20 tonnes at 36 cm
ICD/ITKE Stuttgart load-tested a two-way timber-concrete flat slab on columns: 36 cm deep, grain computed per segment. What it means for Swiss offices.
Week 41: The Glaciers Pay Out, the Rhône Gets Room, and Riehen Drills 1,547 m for Heat
Week 41 in review: 5.5 % of Swiss ice lost, the Rhône widened to 90 m, Riehen's 65 °C heat network, EPFL's site robots and an IfcOpenShell door check.
Modellhygiene on 14 October: Our Archicad Powersession on the File Everyone Else Has to Open
Our Archicad Powersession on 14 October tackles Modellhygiene: clean storeys, layers and zones so handovers, scripts and AI can trust your BIM model.
What a Tower Owes the Street: Zürich Rewrites Its 2001 High-Rise Rules
Zürich voters adopted stricter high-rise rules: public ground floors from 40 m, a competition for every tower, bonus floor area for affordable housing.
