Week 2 - Design to Production

3D computational softwares, digital modelling and its influence within architectural design has developed to become an efficient tool, which has expanded not only into architecture, but also into many other industries. Digital information has risen to be the essential component within the architecture and building industry, where computational design is influenced and incorporates multi-layer complexities of system generated computational design. With the development of new software coupled with developing hardware, complex designs are formed through the collaboration between design and information. Although technology is developing at a rapid rate, and designing starts to seem like an “autonomous” process through the complex calculations of non-linear splines, ultimately humans still control the selection of parameters and exchange of information within technology.

The relationship between the designer and the builder has fluctuated, where architect and constructions have parted ways. Kolarevic states that “building contractors were reluctant to take on projects they saw as –unbuildable- so designers became closely involved in the digital making of buildings.” Architecture before the digital turn, was seen to have a distant relationship between architecture and construction, with very little to no communication between the two. Through to the digital age, there is more sense of collaboration between architect and construction. Kolarevic states that “The close relationship that once existed between architecture and construction could potentially re-emerge as an unintended but fortunate outcome of the new digital process of production.”

Fabrication and its processes have been developed through the introduction of new technologies. These New technologies include CNC fabrication and CAM technologies, which allow for mass customization at the cost of traditional mass manufacturing methods. The relations between architect and machinery operators mirrors the relationship between the master builder, or the architect, and the artisians in the pro-renaissance era. The gained interdisciplinary knowledge has increased the efficiency and has the designer and constructor more involved with the whole process from design to production.

Readings:

Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: 283-291.

Klinger, K. (2008). Relations: Information Exchange in Designing and Making Architecture. Manufacturing material effects : rethinking design and making in architecture. B. Kolarevic and K. R. Klinger. New York, Routledge: 26-36. 

Kolarevic, B. 2003. ‘Digital Production’. Architecture in the digital age: design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon Press: Pp. 40-68

Week 1 – Analogue to Digital

Architecture and its processes has developed substantially through the integration of technology and its continual progressive nature over time. Expanding on this progression; Information Master Builders (Kolarevic, B), Design Worlds and Fabrication Machines (Mitchell, W) and Transgression from drawing to making (Sheil,B), delve into the nature of the progression from Analogue to Digital, revolutionizing the processes of designing to the physical making in a range of industries, including architecture.

New technologies have played a major input into the creation of a plethora of conceptual shapes in architecture; shapes that are only possible with the use of data and computers, shapes beyond the human capacity to calculate. Computers have furthered possibilities and increased the efficiency and accuracy of the design process. Prior to the renaissance, the architect is the “master builder” controlling both the design and construction processes of a building. Soon after the Renaissance, architects disassociated themselves with the “building” phase of the process and focused solely on the “design”. In the architects eyes, technological advances in CAD and data management increase efficiency, and allows the architect to envelope a range of work covered by other disciplines. For example, the introduction and the combination of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) has allowed architects to not only “design” their product but also “produce” or “make” a physical model, thus, reconnecting an architects role to a “master builder” and bridging the ever so distant gap between designing and making.

The continual progression of technology over the past decades have also seen the introduction to the development of new materials and its limitations with its application into the architectural and construction industry. Materials are continually developed, improved or even simply replaced in a building depending on the nature of use, ultimately creating buildings enhanced according to their environment.

With the move from Analogue to digital, the introduction of technological advancements in the 20^th century and the bridging between designing and making, it is evident that architectural processes have since been improved and enhanced with efficiency.

Readings:

Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age: design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon Press: 55-62

Mitchell, W. (2003). Design Worlds and Fabrication Machines. Architecture in the digital age: design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon Press: 73-80.

Sheil, B. (2005). "Transgression from drawing to making." Arq : Architectural Research Quarterly 9(1): 20-32.