Lecture date: 2008-02-11
The advent of digital fabrication technologies seems to have opened the doors to ever more complex shapes in architecture. Laser cutters, 3D-printers, and CNC-routers are common in architecture schools and design practices but in the real world the cleft between digital design and digital production still gapes. Where CNC-machines are used for one-to-one production, file to factory requires the integration of design, engineering, fabrication and logistics into a seamless process. Principles of mass-customisation translated to an architectural scale allow for project-specific building systems with thousands of individually shaped components. At the same time they pose new challenges and shift the complexity from machining the material to managing the information.
This lecture, hosted by Mike Weinstock and Michael Hensel, will explain strategies for digital production chains using examples of work on projects by UN Studio, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, SANAA, and Shigeru Ban.
Fabian Scheurer is co-founder of designtoproduction, a Zurich-based consultancy that supports architects, engineers and fabricators in realising complex designs through digital production. He has lectured at the CAAD chairs of TU Munich and ETH Zurich. His scientific work focuses on the practical aspects of artificial-life methods in architectural construction.
