Construction Robotics and Innovative Building envelopes (CRIB) at VITO, an interdisciplinary research group to advance sustainable construction technologies
The Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO NV) is a leading independent European research and technology organisation and consulting centre that develops innovative products and delivers client-oriented research projects in the areas of energy efficiency, new materials, environmental protection and resource scarcity. VITO has valuable experience of developing innovative materials and clean technologies from the initial stages of materials preparation, through advanced shaping processes to characterisation; in particular functional coatings and 3D printed materials and components for chemistry and energy applications.
Dr. Christoph Waibel is activity lead at the Construction Robotics and Innovative Building envelopes (CRIB) group at VITO, Belgium. His group is specialized in automation in the construction sector, development and application of construction robotics, and the design of innovative envelope systems.
Before, he was at ETH Zurich for 10 years lastly as teacher and senior researcher. His expertise lies in integrated energy systems, building physics, Machine Learning, and optimization. At ETH, he is daily supervisor of 2 PhDs (1 recently completed) and has personally supervised over 20 master students, one awarded the ETH Medal. Furthermore, Christoph has several years of industry experience in construction automation engineering (projects include the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg by Herzog & de Meuron, and the Red Dot Design awarded Audi Pavillon of 2011 in Frankfurt Main by Schmidhuber Partner Architekten) and in building simulation (projects include the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims by David Chipperfield Architects and high-precision production facilities of DMG Mori). Christoph acts as scientific committee member and reviewer in multiple international conferences and journals, and was appointed to Editor-in-Chief for CISBAT 2025.