Week 10 - Digital Fabrication & Robotics

The advance of technology has introduced different modes of communicating design intent and the conceptualization of projects. Technological advances, in particular, Digital fabrication has prevailed and risen into todays methods of design to production. Wigley expresses this process to where the initiation of the design to fabrication begins with the mouse. The mouse is described as a medium to "connect us to the digital landscape and bring the digital in". (Wigley, M. 2010). The mouse has been the direct connection of the physical to the digital, where the human input and the relationship with rising digital technologies has allowed a more complex conceptualization of design and communication. "The mouse is a patent prosthetic. When placed in front of our desktop we do not even have to think consciously about reaching for it. Mark Wigleys Eulogy to this seemingly humble but transformative technology highlights the power that such a discrete device can have on the human ecosystem, providing a seamless interface between body and brain that is till only to be dreamt of in architecture" (Wigley, M. 2010).

Wigley further discusses the use of the mouse in an architectural setting, where ht is a connection between space and the input of the designer. "In the moment that the mouse connects the circuitry of the computer, the architecture in the room is hinged to the architecture to the screen" (Wigley, M. 2010). The computational technologies and the integration of digital fabrication (such as robotics and CNC) has lead to the integration of itself into daily practice within Architecture.  Within the design process within Architecture, softwares are used to perform a multitude of tasks to create fabrication ready files and tasks. Robotics have been implemented mainly in the mass production industry such as the production of Cars and its components. By implementing the use robots in architecture, paired with computational softwares, possibilities have been opened up to a semi-autonomous pre-fabricated Built Environment. This area of robotics is still in research with the integration into Architecture, and will slowly be implemented into future projects.

References:

Wigley, M. (2010). "The Architecture of the Mouse." Architectural Design: EcoRedux: Design Remedies for an Ailing Planet 80(6): 50-57.