INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL FABRICATION
PARAMETRIC SKINS
Seminar Faculty: Lana Awad, Shyam Zonca and Ricardo Mayor

Digital Fabrication is an introductory course on new production techniques through the relation between computer data and machine-oriented fabrication.

Credits: Matter Design Studio, 2012

CNC machines were introduced in the middle of the XXth century into the industry, changing the conception of the production of objects and parts (mainly in the automotive and military industries, and then into mass-consumed products). The relationship between architecture and digital fabrication CAD / CAM processes in architecture is not new anymore, it started during the last two decades of the XXth century, bringing in a new relationship that is not only affecting the way architecture is produced but is changing the way machines are constructed and conceived for the production of architecture.

At first, the relation between architecture and digital fabrication has been focused on the production of non-standard parts/components and on the speculation of forms as an end itself. Instead, the seminar will focus on geometry and machines as a means to develop the performance-based design with efficient fabrication methods.