About the person
Volker Helm has been Professor of Digital Methods in Architecture(Opens in a new tab) at Fachhochschule Dortmund since 2017.
After studying architecture at the University of Siegen (Germany), he specialized in the field of CAAD as part of a Master of Advanced Studies under the professorship of Ludger Hovestadt (ETH Zurich). Computer-aided architectural design and automated production were the core topics of this course.
During his subsequent six years at the Basel architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, his work focused on the development, programming and realization of complex geometries. He was involved in many internationally renowned projects such as the National Stadium in Beijing. He led in-house seminars and evaluated computer-controlled production machines.
From 2010 to 2017, Volker Helm was a research assistant at ETH Zurich at the Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication of Professors Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler. His research focused on the algorithmic description of architectural components and their robot-based production. In 2013, he took over the operational research management at this chair. In 2016, he was also a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication (ETH Zurich).
In 2015, he successfully completed his doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Georg Trogemann (Academy of Media Arts Cologne - Faculty of Computer Science) and Prof. Matthias Kohler (ETH Zurich - Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication).
As part of his academic activities, Volker Helm publishes scientific articles, supervises student research projects and gives lectures at various universities and universities of applied sciences.
Research
Publications
Monograph
- Open publicationHelm, V., 2014. In-situ-Fabrikation. Köln: Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln.
Anthology contribution
- Open publicationAejmelaeus-Lindström, P., Thoma, A., Mirjan, A., Helm, V., Tibbits, S., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2017. Rock Print. In: Active matter. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp.291–300.
- Open publicationRobeller, C., Weinand, Y., Helm, V., Thoma, A., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2017. Robotic integral attachment. In: Fabricate. London: UCL Press, pp.92–97.
- Open publicationHelm, V., Knauss, M., Kohlhammer, T., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2017. Additive robotic fabrication of complex timber structures. In: Advancing wood architecture. London; New York: Routledge, pp.29–43.
- Open publicationHelm, V., 2014. In-situ fabrication. In: Made by robots, Architectural design. London: Wiley, pp.100–107.
- Open publicationHelm, V., Willmann, J., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2014. In-situ robotic fabrication. In: Gearing up and accelerating cross-fertilization between academic and industrial robotics research in Europe. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp.63–83.
Conference paper
- Open publicationDörfler, K., Ernst, S., Piškorec, L., Willmann, J., Helm, V., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2014. Remote material deposition. In: What’s the matter? Thessaloniki: European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture, pp.361–377.
- Open publicationHelm, V., Ercan, S., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2012. In-situ robotic construction. In: ACADIA 12: Synthetic Digital Ecologies. Cambridge, ON: Riverside Architectural Press, pp.169–176.
- Open publicationHelm, V., Ercan, S., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2012. Mobile robotic fabrication on construction sites. In: 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, pp.4335–4341.
Journal article
- Open publicationHahlbrock, D., Braun, M., Heidel, R., Lemmen, P., Boumann, R., Bruckmann, T., Schramm, D., Helm, V. and Willmann, J., 2022. Cable robotic 3D-printing. Construction Robotics, 6(3), pp.305–318.
- Open publicationHelm, V., Willmann, J., Thoma, A., Piškorec, L., Hack, N., Gramazio, F. and Kohler, M., 2015. Iridescence Print. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing , 2(3), pp.117–122.