Hi, I’m Ramon Weber, I work at the intersection of architectural design, building science research and digital technology.
About
As an Assistant Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley, I started the Spatial Systems Lab in the College of Environmental Design CED, and teach in the Department of Architecture. My research group investigates how computational design methods and simulation tools can create more sustainable architecture.
Extended bio
I earned my PhD in Building Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2024, where I was conducting research with the Digital Structures Group and the Sustainable Design Lab. I hold a Master of Arts and Science from the MIT Media Lab, where I was part of the Mediated Matter Group. Previously, I received a master’s degree in Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research with distinction from the University of Stuttgart and a bachelor’s in architecture from ETH Zurich, where I conducted research at the Block Research Group, the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE). I worked for two years at Zaha Hadid Architects in London, in the inhouse ZHA|CODE research group.
My personal and professional work has been published and presented internationally in both scientific and design venues, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, SFMOMA, the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and Ars Electronica, and published in Nature Communications, Automation in Construction, Solar Energy, and ACADIA.
At UC Berkeley I started the Spatial Systems Lab, am part of the Center for the Built Environment (CBE), collaborate with the Berkeley Wood Lab, am a member of the executive committee of the Jacobs Institute, and affiliated faculty of the Master of Design Program (MDes).
Selected work · 2015–2023
Aguahoja II
2018 · Mediated Matter Group, MIT Media Lab
A 5.2 m tall structure 3D-printed from cellulose, chitosan and water. Shown at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.
Mathematics: The Winton Gallery
2016 · Zaha Hadid Architects
Project and design team member for the mathematics gallery at the Science Museum, London.
Robotic Timber
2019 · University of Stuttgart
Collaborative single-axis robots that build with standard timber beams and also use them to move. Shown at Ars Electronica.
Refugee School
2016 · Zaha Hadid Architects
Design and construction of the prototype tent structure, later deployed as schools, clinics and shelters for displaced communities.
Danjiang Bridge
2015 · Zaha Hadid Architects
Project team member for the cable-stayed bridge in Taiwan, currently under construction.
Über Null
2023 · Competition, Zurich · with Paul Mayencourt
A net zero residential building that reuses the decks of a parking garage as foundations, with a timber structure and a rammed earth wall.
Pluma
2021 · IASS Design Competition · honorable mention
Photovoltaic membranes in a lightweight cable system, shaped by optimization to generate more energy than the structure embodies.
Voxelcrete
2017 · University of Stuttgart
Reusable, robotically placed formwork voxels for continuous concrete forms.
Research projects and publications since 2024 are on the lab website.
Publications
PDFs via eScholarship where available · new papers added automatically from OpenAlex · see also Google Scholar ↗︎
Exhibitions
- 2026SF Climate Week, The Weather To Come: Forest, City, Fire, Cloud. UC Berkeley, Institute of Urban & Regional Development, Berkeley
- 2025 19th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti
- 2022 SFMOMA, San Francisco. Nature × Humanity: Oxman Architects (with the Mediated Matter Group)
- 2020 MoMA, New York. Material Ecology (with the Mediated Matter Group)
- 2019 Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. Aguahoja II (with the Mediated Matter Group)
- 2019 Ars Electronica, Linz. Understanding AI
- 2019 Experimental Architecture Biennial, Prague. Digital Tactics
- 2016 Palazzo Franchetti, Venice (with Zaha Hadid Architects, ZHA|CODE)
Selected talks & reviews
- 2026AIA Conference on Architecture. San Diego, USA. “Daylight to Carbon: insights from Computation, Simulation & Construction”
- 2026Autodesk, Toronto, Canada. “Industry Futures Designing and Constructing the Future”
- 2026HKU Department of Architecture, Hong Kong. Discussion Summer Series 2026 “AI Driven Architectural Design”
- 2024 Graft Architects, Berlin. “Novel Machine Learning Tools for Architectural Design”
- 2023 Vitra Learning Journey, Boston. “Computational design in the built environment”
- 2023 Final reviews at Harvard GSD and the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
- 2023 University of Washington, Department of Architecture. Guest lecture
- 2022 UC Berkeley, Center for the Built Environment. WeLL Lecture
- 2021 Kohn Pedersen Fox, New York. “Digital design and robotics in architecture”
- 2020 SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. “Digital Tectonics”
Awards
- 2020 Presidential Fellowship, MIT
- 2019 Scholar of the Norman Foster Foundation “Robotics Atelier”
- 2019 Sonderpreis, Deutscher Förderpreis Holzbau
- 2017 Frei Otto Award, AIV Stuttgart
Patents
- 2022Method and apparatus for the sequential additive manufacturing of continuous material transitions in composite layers. US 17/475,008 (with N. A. Lee, J. H. Kennedy Jr., J. Van Zak, J. Duro-Royo, N. Oxman, MIT) – Status: Abandoned
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