Having discussed the range of digital design tools and fabrication techniques available to the architectural designer, it is now time to examine how and why these may be brought together to provide a strategic approach. Therefore, this section will discuss in more detail how digitally controlled manufacturing processes can be used as both generative and representational tools, and applied to develop intelligent systems for the designer. By comparison with the previous section, we will now focus on the strategic implementation of tools and techniques that enable the generated design and integrated fabrication methods to be maximized for architecture. Key terminology will be presented and defined along with the basic theory behind the different system approaches. Like any design medium, digital making has its own set of possibilities and constraints. The potential to bridge the gap between simulation and construction affords designers access to previously unchartered territory between design and making. The advantages of different techniques, alongside their implications and limitations on modes of inquiry, will be described in order to allow readers to optimize their design methodologies and creative practice. This section will seek to contextualize the application of different techniques in an interdisciplinary manner.
The complexity of architecturaldesign tasks for which robotics may be used is still an area of experimentation and research rather than widespread practice. Sophisticated arrangements of standard components or the fabrication of non-standard elements are the primary applications of this technology at present.
A key aspect with digital technologies is that practitioners reconsider the way in which they design, both at a conceptual level and with respect to the components used to construct their ideas – see these non-standard ‘bricks’, which have been intricately laser cut to connect together.
It is important to remember that the design data is the construction data, so to achieve the most from these techniques it is important for designers to embrace a holistic understanding of geometry, fabrication techniques and material properties.
Innovative contemporary architecture often absorbs the digital workflow as an integral loop within its design process, providing material and spatial effects that may belie the sophistication and subtleties incorporated into the design – whilst others (as here) reveal their methods in a more explicit manner.
