Perhaps the most familiar and accessible form of digital fabrication is laser cutting. An increasingly common machine within the workshops of architecture schools, professional model makers and even design practices, the laser cutter is an important tool owing to the array of functions it offers. Laser cutters are suitable for use with comparatively thin materials, usually up to 20mm thick, but provide a high degree of accuracy and clean, square-edged cuts. In addition, laser cutting may be used with a range of materials, including paper, card, plastics, wood, metals (such as aluminium, brass, mild and stainless steel) and even textiles. The precision offered by this method enables the designer to make components with complex shapes and detailed elements, incorporating apertures and patterns, even at relatively small scales. This last-named advantage initially attracted a number of professional model makers to its use in the making of high-quality model components such as those for façades, although it has since become much more prevalent. Unless applied at an industrial scale, most laser cutters are relatively small, which places clear limits on the size of components that may be fabricated.
The fabrication process of laser cutting is perhaps most analogous with conventional methods of physical modelmaking and prototyping, since components are cut from a sheet material and then assembled to form three-dimensional propositions. The only real differences lie in the choice of materials and precision with which curvilinear and detailed parts are cut, which would be much more difficult to achieve using traditional tools such as craft knives or scalpels. As such, the way of thinking on behalf of designers is similar to that adopted when making models and installations manually, as they need to visualize the three-dimensional form prior to setting out the different components on the sheet ready to be cut – a process also analogous to pattern cutting in fashion design. Of course the computer is instrumental in this regard, enabling designers to translate information from the three-dimensional digital to the two-dimensional sheets, which once cut provide a kit of parts to be assembled as required. This process of construction is akin to traditional methods, except that some designers use the laser-cutting technology to provide a reference key on each component as well as small holes, slots and notches to aid assembly. This brings us to another key feature of this digital fabrication technique: the ability to score or etch onto the surface of materials. Because the power of the laser is highly controllable and may be applied in a very accurate manner, it does not necessarily cut the material but may be used to inscribe patterns, texture or the location of primary elements (for example, window positions on a façade) in order to further enhance the aesthetic information of the components. Such application can be a time-consuming process, so it is important to specify data that is integral to the components and avoid unnecessary ornamentation where possible.
This model by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for their design of the REN building, Shanghai, utilized laser-cut plastic sheet to enable the intricate façade pattern and curvilinear geometry to be produced with precision.
Laser cutters are available in a range of shapes and sizes, but all work on the same principle in that there is a protective casing (top) which houses the laser moving across a metal grill (bottom), upon which the material to be cut is placed.
The use of laser-cutting technology was combined with laser sintering and CNC milling to produce the ‘floating’ planes of landscape and programme in this masterplan model for Almere Dune designed by ZUS (Zones Urbaines Sensibles). A visually striking object in its own right, the model employs digitally driven fabrication techniques to give legibility and detail to small components within the overall composition.
Modelmaking at Coop Himmelb(l)au for their Musée des Confluences, Lyons, utilizes laser-cut and scored panels to achieve the surface geometry of the building’s design.
Barkow Leibinger designed these complex three-dimensional objects, drawn in 3D modelling software, as part of an investigation into the materiality of interior components that could be decorative, enable lighting effects and retain structural integrity.
The objects were fabricated using a revolving laser-cutting technique which rotates the material as well as cutting it, allowing complex shapes to be cut from three-dimensional objects rather than two-dimensional sheets of material.
In this project for street furniture in Manchester, the designer Rupert Griffiths used digital design and laser cutting to produce the objects. From left to right: 1 CAD drawing of foliage wrapping around base of tree.
2 Full-size prototype in the artist’s studio for evaluation.
3 Final object installed in public realm.
sixteen*(makers) – 55/02, Kielder Water and Forest Park, Northumberland, 2009.
Accompanying their research and design project at Kielder (see page 125 for details), sixteen*(makers) designed 55/02 in collaboration with steel manufacturers Stahlbogen GmbH. The small structure (named after its position coordinates) offers both shelter and an engagement with the landscape, addressing visitors to the specific qualities of its location.
A Physical scale model at 1:100, showing arrangement of folded planes.
B The design is developed in detail using 3D CAD modelling to enable the folded panels and structure to be integrated accurately.
C The CNC plasma-cut panels are folded as specified at the manufacturers, and connected.
D Because of these folds, the panels have structural rigidity and integrity and can be freestanding elements.
E The panels are powder coated to protect from weathering and lifted into position on site, where they are connected to pad foundations and, in the case of overhead panels, supporting steel structures.
F The final shelter in context.
Case study Laser-cutting process as generative mode of design
Barkow Leibinger – Gatehouse, Stuttgart, 2007
The Gatehouse uses laser digital cutting to fabricate a unique and freestanding building, in which the application of this technique is integral to the construction and not simply surface decoration. Citing as precedent the work of Jean Prouvé – such as his 1950s factory in Maxville, wherein entire building components were constructed using sheet metal – Barkow Leibinger and their client Trumpf, who specialize in laser-cutting technologies, developed a series of workshops to explore the fabrication possibilities of laser-cut and welded sheet metal. The 32 x 11m stainless-steel roof cantilevers 22m from four columns, resulting in a 600mmdeep honeycombed box-beam of 3mm stainless and mild steel. The triangular roof-plane perforations vary in density in correlation to weight reduction along the cantilever’s length. The roof is thus a mathematical diagram explicitly illustrating the loading across the structure.
A Concept sketch.
B, C, D AND E Various roof patterns were explored through laser-cut scale models, to refine surface geometry and relationship of apertures across the roof plane.
F 1:50 mild-steel prototype, fabricated to explore structural implications in relation to triangulation.
G Full-scale fabrication of roof structure indicates its size.
H The roof comprises 204 cassettes, 700 x 3,000mm, fastened together forming a continuous stiff plane. These components arrive on site as a series of prefabricated 32m strips bolted together, are raised as a unified roof up and over the columns and then fastened to pin-joints.
I Prototype detail section of roof structure for testing prior to full fabrication.
J Close-up view of roof structure prior to application of stainless-steel cladding.
K The underside of the roof is accentuated by illuminating the coffers with LED lighting, further enhancing the structure’s ‘floating’ appearance. Backlighting the façades ensures that the gatehouse functions as an entrance ‘lantern’ at night.
