The Pen | Léon Spikker, co-founder of Studio RAP (studiorap.nl) and RAP Tech (raptech.io)

Customization as standard

About four years ago, together with my associates Wessel van Beerendonk and Lucas ter Hall, I founded a new kind of architectural firm. An ambitious firm that does not allow itself to be limited by the industrial standard  but rather exploits the freedom of customization. Equipped with an advanced workshop, it would focus on the development and application of new digital design and production methods. In doing so, we could bring the unlimited possibilities of the digital realm to reality and make our built environment more efficient and attractive. To capture this ambitious goal, we named our company Studio RAP - Robotics, Architecture & Production.

Léon Spikker, co-founder of Studio RAP (studiorap.nl) and RAP Tech (raptech.io)

After a year of dabbling, prototypes of our designs were noticed by the Port of Rotterdam Authority and we were allowed to design and build our first pavilion: a small office building with a robotically fabricated, double-curved wooden vault as its roof. For this project we had the entire workflow in our own hands; from design and engineering to production and assembly. The result was impressive; a small but integer building that embodied our vision: harnessing freedom of form with new digital design and production capabilities. And with a new role for the architect as master builder. The project - SkilledIn Office - was given a golden edge when we won both the Dutch Construction Award and the Arc16 Innovation Award. This was appreciation from both the industry and our peers and a huge motivation to continue.

This attention put the right parties in our path. Where we were initially forced to do everything ourselves, we were able to build on the knowledge and expertise of partners who became enthusiastic about innovation: from engineers with a passion for parametric design to concrete producers with whom we develop 3D printing technology. In recent years, this has allowed us to focus on our own expertise and thus take risks in diverse projects and materials: from 3D-printed ceramic facades and robotically stacked walls made of residual wood to Rotterdam's new concrete-printed water taxi stops. Projects that give energy and perspective not only to ourselves and the client but also to all other parties involved.

This customization took other forms two years ago in our spin-off RAP Tech. Within RAP Tech, the experimental control developed in Studio RAP projects is upgraded to user-friendly professional CAM software for 3D printing, milling and robotic assembly, among others. This is customized for the materials and processes of innovative customers such as VDL and Bruil and many others. In this, we see that our knowledge can make a great contribution to the sustainability and digitization of the construction sector alongside Studio RAP's architectural masterpieces. Four years after our founding, we have strengthened ourselves in that vision. Construction automation has begun irrevocably and the benefits of digitization are contributing to the quality of the huge construction demand of the coming decades. Because this is where the added value of digitization, robotization and 3D printing lies; in creating added value for customers. And because customization is demand-driven, customers with a vision can finally turn to construction. As a result, a building is not just a collection of concrete and steel but rather an architectural expression of ambitions!   

I would like to pass "the Pen" to Vincent Wegener, managing director of RAMLAB: a company that applies metal 3D printing on a large scale in the maritime and construction industries, among others.