Week 2 - Design to Production

Digital information technology today is an ‘essential agent of innovation[1]’, whereby software is the key to managing ‘complexly articulated designs[2]’ and where models aid the ‘exchange of information[3]’. The algorithms associated with many CAD programs support the breakdown of ‘complex strategies[4]’, however ‘human reasoning still governs the selection of appropriate input parameters[5]’. When CAD software was introduced along with Splines and Blobs, ‘standard detail drawings[6]’ were being replaced because of designs that incorporated ‘non-regular shapes[7]’, and therefore ‘every panel and every joint had a slightly different geometry[8]’.  Before long, designers had to ‘come up with unambiguous, well-defined, formal descriptions, syntactically correct to the last semicolon[9]’. Parametric modelling appears to make the designing process a lot easier, however ‘both descriptions (algorithms and a set of drawings) define the same degree of complexity, only in different languages[10]’. The introduction of digital information technology and modelling makes the design through building stage less ‘time-consuming and error-prone[11]’. With digital information influencing contemporary architecture today, the relationship between construction and architecture that once existed ‘could potentially re-emerge as an unintended but fortunate outcome of the new digital processes of production[12]’. This relationship creates ‘mutually beneficial processes of direct information exchange[13]’, where the ‘digital model becomes the single source of design and production information that is generated … which encodes all the information needed to manufacture and construct the building[14]’.  This digital environment ultimately can ‘provide any information about any qualitative or quantitative aspect of a building under design or construction[15]’. The change that is currently taking place across the architecture and design faculties is ‘inevitable and unavoidable[16]’, there are many obstacles however the ‘rewards are compelling[17]’.

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[1] Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K. (2008). Manufacturing material effects. Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge. p26

[2] Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K. (2008). Manufacturing material effects. Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge. p26

[3] Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K. (2008). Manufacturing material effects. Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge. p26

[4] Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K. (2008). Manufacturing material effects. Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge. p27

[5] Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K. (2008). Manufacturing material effects. Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge. p27

[6] Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: p89

[7] Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: p89

[8] Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: p89

[9] Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: p89

[10] Scheurer, F. (2014). Materialising Complexity. Theories of the digital in architecture. R. Oxman and R. Oxman: p91

[11] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 69

[12] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 69

[13] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 71

[14] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 71-72

[15] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 72

[16] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 74

[17] Kolarevic, B. (2003). Information Master Builders. Architecture in the digital age : design and manufacturing. B. Kolarevic. New York, NY, Spon p 74

Two and Five Minute Sketching Around Campus

Week 1 - Analogue to Digital

In the Twenty First Century, we are seeing more paperless studios across the world, with architects moving towards computer aided design over the more traditional methods of using paper. Before the fourteenth century when paper was introduced into the architecture industry, architectural drawings were created on ‘papyrus and parchment[1]’, but were ‘merely replicas of the paperless drawings taking place on construction sites[2]’.  Interestingly enough, Architecture had ‘begun as a paperless practice[3]’ and paper itself has ‘kept its position as one of the most significant technological presences in the building and design industry[4]’. ‘The use of paper had accomplished the move from an interpretation of architectural projects based on analogical expressions to the virtues of analogical manifestations[5]’. In the years after, the architectural draftsmen’s drawings ‘evolved into a document of legal status and restricted content[6]’.  A revolutionary change occurred in the late twentieth century whereby the ‘drawing was no longer a static document, but an evolving bank of parametric data[7]’. With this came a view of the fabrication process, and following the Industrial Revolution, ‘skills became more consistent, specialised and factory based[8]. Although these skills were in high demand at the time, by the twenty first century there was a ‘shift away from specialisation to a world that recognises the virtue of hybrid skills[9].  The evolution of digital fabrication enabled a change that gave the architect the ‘ability to export geometric and binary data in the appropriate format within the software package[10]’. This provided the means to ‘fabricate customised objects of a complexity that would have been prohibitively difficult or costly to make in the past[11]’. Throughout this progression models were often made for ‘descriptive, predictive, exploratory or planning purposes[12]’, often addressing three questions, ‘what was the model made for; what the model was made of; and how the model engaged with time[13]’. There are many ways to witness the process of a model, and all too often the ‘building is projected as a scaled-up version of the architect’s model[14]’, rather than a process of ‘modelling the building[15]’. The twenty first century appears to be turning to CAD to further designs and bridge the gap between many disciplines within the design industry, however, the use of earlier tools and equipment within the industry still play an important role for designers.

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[1] Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From models to drawings. London: Routledge. p25

[2] Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From models to drawings. London: Routledge. p25

[3] Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From models to drawings. London: Routledge. p27

[4] Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From models to drawings. London: Routledge. p24

[5] Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From models to drawings. London: Routledge. p27

[6] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p22

[7] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p23

[8] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p24

[9] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p24

[10] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p24

[11] Sheil, B. (2005). Transgression from drawing to making. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(01), p24

[12] Starkey, B. (2005). Architectural models: material, intellectual, spiritual. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(3-4), p265

[13] Starkey, B. (2005). Architectural models: material, intellectual, spiritual. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(3-4), p.265

[14] Starkey, B. (2005). Architectural models: material, intellectual, spiritual. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(3-4), p.271

[15] Starkey, B. (2005). Architectural models: material, intellectual, spiritual. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 9(3-4), p.271