Ludwig Rase

Ludwig Rase was born in 1925 in Nuremberg, Germany. He studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule MünchenHe settled in Munich, where he explored how computers could be used in architectural design to calculate, visualize, and generate spatial structures. 

From 1969 to 1973, he collaborated with German mathematician and computer art pioneer Georg Nees on projects that introduced computer-based methods into architectural design. Together they developed computer-aided systems for Siemens AG, including the Siemens Pavilion at the 1970 Hannover Industrial Fair, where the modular roof structure was calculated on a Siemens System 2002 and plotted with a Zuse Graphomat Z64. Their collaboration continued with the German Industry Exhibition in São Paulo in 1971 and with Rase’s research at the Design-Institute Munich, where he used computers to plan modular housing systems based on geometric and functional relationships. His programs treated each housing unit as an element within a larger structure, allowing spatial variations to be tested and visualized. THey also created Nees, Plastik 1, a computer-generated metal relief produced with computer-controlled milling, and Kubo-Octaeder, which merged architectural form, mathematics, and digital drawing and later served as the central image for computer art. nees rase. at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1972–73.

Rase’s work was exhibited internationally throughout the 1970s and later included in major historical surveys of early computer art. He participated in the 1970 Venice Biennale and Tendencije 5 in Zagreb in 1973, and in 1972 he and Nees won a public art competition for a chromed Kubo-Octaeder sculpture installed at the Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium in Regensburg. His work was later shown in bit international at ZKM Karlsruhe in 2008–09. Rase died in 2009 in Munich.