The design vocabulary of architects Coop Himmelb(l)au reads like a weather chart. BMW World features a swirling tornado column, the master plan for the Kuala Lumpur financial district resembles a rainbow, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) in Shenzhen has a "cloud" at its centre.

Indeed, the Austrian firm's name itself is a play on "blue skies" (himmel blau). Removing the parenthetical "l" transforms the meaning to "building in the sky" (himmel bau). For 50 years its cutting-edge architecture has offered regular blasts of fresh air. Co-founder and design principal Wolf Prix's latest disruption advocates robots in architecture. 

"3D printing and using robots is the future of building complex shapes," he said during a recent visit to Melbourne, where he plans to establish a new office. "It's faster and more economic. Instead of having 80 people working eight months, you can have eight people [working] in one month."

Despite his eagerness, it has not all been cloudless skies. An impressive computer simulation of robots placing panels on the MOCAPE Cloud, fixing them with screws and welding seams in place, failed to convince the client. "Prix says he's not exactly sure why this happened," according to online magazine Redshift. He hasn't given up. And his first success may be back in his home town of Vienna.

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