171:, along with several other highly innovative new faculty, by then-Dean Alan Y. Taniguchi (1969–1972). At the University of Texas, he founded the Responsive Environments Laboratory, where he and his students developed and extended his thinking about the automated creation of the built environment. Within a very few years, he was tenured as a full professor for his work. After several years, the focus of the lab shifted to the construction of underwater structures by a method not unlike that used by living
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224:. Whenever possible, this was done with direct local government or community involvement and participation. Ongoing projects and concerns were the production of building materials and components, metals, minerals and gases from seawater, direct or indirect solar energy conversion, sustainable brine use and model seacology artificial/natural islands like
239:, and The University of Texas, where he also held an appointment as Sr. Research Scientist in Marine Sciences. He founded the Symbiotic Processes Laboratory (UT). Hilbertz formed and directed The Marine Resources Co., was a co-founder and Director of Biorock Inc., and founder and President of Sun & Sea e.V., a non-profit NGO.
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He published extensively on his research-and-development work. He lectured widely in the
Americas, Europe, and Asia, conducting hands-on workshops. His work has been exhibited on several continents. He authored several US and international patents. In 1998 he and Dr. Thomas Goreau were awarded the
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Hilbertz laid the foundation for the discipline of
Cybertecture, emergent all-encompassing evolutionary environmental systems, and invented the artificial mineral accretion process in seawater in 1976. For the rest of the 1970s, he concentrated more and more on accretion, continuing to develop and
66:, his mother had a more down to earth, practical approach. While his father would have liked to become an artist, circumstances forced him to start working in a bank, whereas his mother enjoyed her occupation, channeling her forceful personality into her job as a
108:, Germany in 1946. He attended the Gymnasium (secondary school) there, which he didn't complete. This would normally have precluded his attending a German university. However, after completing his compulsory military service, he went to
62:, (Germany) in 1938, the first child of Rudolf Hilbertz (1909–1995) and Erna Hilbertz, née Uslat (1906–2008). His parents had quite different personalities; whereas his father was artistic and inventive, thinking up one of the first
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186:. Important students and associates include Joe Mathis, Bob Swaffar, Gene Lucas, Geoffrey Wright, Forrest Higgs, Frances Carvey, Eric Vanderzee, Ed Seiber, Dr. Thomas J. Goreau, Frank Gutzeit and Ari Spenhoff.
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After suffering what were initially diagnosed as stomach problems in the spring and summer of 2007, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the end of July. Hilbertz died August 11, 2007, in
140:. He was survived by his mother († 2008), sister, his wife and two ex-wives, and five children: two sons and three daughters. The urn with his ashes was buried at the cemetery "Städtischer
116:, the Berlin University of the Arts, where he studied architecture. He married Regina Piper in December, 1962 in Berlin and, upon earning his architecture diploma in 1965, immigrated to
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refine the process. By the time he left the
University of Texas in the early 1980s, accretion had become the sole focus of his work. Starting in the late 1980s, he partnered with Dr.
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164:. Together with Phil Harding, he founded a new Architecture Department at the University. After several years there, he conceived and published the concept of Cybertecture.
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in 1959 and signed up for a high school equivalency entrance exam. He was one of the very few to earn a "pass". Thus he was able to attend the
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Hilbertz worked in architects' offices in Berlin, New York, and
Detroit. His first teaching position was in 1967 as an assistant professor at
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With the help of a host of dedicated associates, students, and volunteers, Hilbertz designed and implemented seascaping projects focusing on
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PDF of the seminal 1979 paper by Wolf
Hilbertz, used with permission of the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office
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Hilbertz, Wolf H. (1991). "Solar-generated construction material from sea water to mitigate global warming".
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Aquaculture & Coral Reef
Restoration – Pacific Aquaculture Cooperatives International, Sept. 21, 2007
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Growing a beach in the
Maldives, authors Abdul Azeez Abdul Hakeem, Wolf H. Hilbertz, and Thomas J. Goreau
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Hilbertz, W. H, et al., "Electrodeposition of
Minerals in Sea Water: Experiments and Applications",
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His academic affiliations as an environmental educator and researcher included
Southern University,
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Hilbertz, W. (1979). "Electrodeposition of minerals in sea water: Experiments and applications".
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Biorock.net: website about
Biorock and accretion as developed by Wolf Hilbertz and Thomas Goreau
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Biorockbali.webs.com: Coral conservation project Karang Lestari, Pemuteran Bay, Bali
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special forces. Wolf's sister Uta was born in 1940. His father was badly wounded in
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to install, maintain and monitor accretion / biorock projects in many countries.
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Hilbertz' work was influenced by and influenced the work of such notables as
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Mineral accretion technology: applications for architecture and aquaculture
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Theodore M. Sperry Award for Pioneers and Innovators, the top award of the
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The Responsive Environment: Design, Aesthetics, and the Human in the 1970s
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Solar-generated building material from seawater as a sink for carbon
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Biorock Thailand: Non-profit group working with Biorock technology
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Hilbertz, Wolf (1976). "Marine Architecture: An Alternative".
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Pemuteranbay.com: Reefs in Pemuteran, Bali (Biorock is no. 6)
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Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning alumni
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GlobalCoral.org: photo gallery of the Pemuteran project
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with D. Fletcher und C. Krausse, Industrial Forum, 1977
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with his family in July of that year. 1966 he moved to
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Biorock-Workshop.org: website about Biorock workshops
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73:After Wolf Hilbertz was born, the family moved to
169:School of Architecture at the University of Texas
556:About.com inventors: Wolf Hilbertz – Sea-cretion
167:In 1970 he was appointed to the faculty of the
104:As war refugees, he and his family settled in
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101:with his family towards the west in 1945.
251:, in: Progressive Architecture, May 1970
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432:, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 94–113, July 1979
389:Hilbertz, W. H, "Toward Cybertecture",
292:, in: The Futurist (June 1977): 148–49
85:began, his father volunteered for the
601:German emigrants to the United States
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596:Berlin University of the Arts alumni
430:IEEE, Journal of Oceanic Engineering
335:Building Research & Information
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341:(4). Informa UK Limited: 242–255.
200:Society for Ecological Restoration
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566:US Patent Nr. 5,543,034 from 1996
263:(4). Informa UK Limited: 84–86.
290:Building Environments That Grow
616:20th-century German architects
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611:University of Michigan alumni
269:10.1080/00038628.1976.9697227
237:University of the Arts Bremen
257:Architectural Science Review
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89:and became a member of the
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75:Ústí nad Labem / Aussig
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126:University of Michigan
41:and its use to create
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591:People from Gütersloh
27:Wolf Hartmut Hilbertz
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408:. Able Books. 2020.
142:Friedhof Wilmersdorf
626:Futurist architects
347:1991BuRI...19..242H
310:1979IJOE....4...94H
249:Toward Cybertecture
184:Nicholas Negroponte
154:Southern University
148:Professional career
122:Ann Arbor, Michigan
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158:Baton Rouge
132:Final years
575:Categories
393:, May 1970
377:References
54:Early life
363:0961-3218
326:0364-9059
277:0003-8628
162:Louisiana
128:in 1967.
87:Wehrmacht
60:Gütersloh
542:Archived
530:Archived
513:Archived
496:Archived
99:Red Army
31:futurist
343:Bibcode
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214:habitat
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