Reflections
So far we have looked at the current state of digital fabrication, walked through a typical industrial residential project and examined interventions for that project at various scales. In this chapter, we will discuss the possible ramifications of digital fabrication methods in the architecture, engineering and construction industry and reflect upon what it can bring to the field.
Aesthetics
When it comes to aesthetics, digital fabrication methods give the architect a lot more freedom to design. The ability to create complex geometry at a similar, or even lower price, is in itself one of the main selling points of using digital fabrication methods. Through the interventions we saw that digital fabrication can be used in all scales of residential construction projects. This can be interpolated to the city-scale as well, where digital fabrication can be used to aesthetically weave areas of the urban fabric together through the use of master plans or regulation if so desired. It can be used to create styles similar to, or contrasting, the existing built environment.
With digital fabrication, elements that are utilitarian in nature, which traditionally receive little love in regard to aesthetics, like parking garages, stairwells, transformer stations and underpasses, can become sculptural. The fabrication process itself does not discriminate between a decorated or plain surface. The increase in complexity will come at little to no extra cost or production time.
Improvements in aesthetic possibilities through digital fabrication do not have to be expressed solely through a break with past traditions or attempts at finding a new “style”. Similarly, to how the term parametric design brings to mind the neo-futuristic buildings of architects like Santiago Calatrava or Zaha Hadid, to some the thought of 3D printed architecture might procure images of undefined blobitecture with no relation to their surroundings, images they shun with horror. However, like parametric design, digital fabrication is merely a tool that provides more options when it comes to building. More freedom of form often enables a new way of designing that can provide a result that is a stark contrast to the way we currently build, but parametric design and digital fabrication can be used to improve how we build regardless of style. Just because it is easier to produce rounded corners or double curved walls than before, does not mean that the sharp corner or straight line has lost their intrinsic properties. Those who wish for the return of renaissance or baroque buildings can use 3D printers to create buildings with columns, cornices and pilasters printed in stone.
A problem that might arise from reduction in price and increased aesthetic potential of digital fabrication is the idea of fast fashion in architecture. If digital fabrication methods provide increased potential of aesthetic expression while reducing the price to the point of thoughtlessness, rapidly changing trends might result in unnecessary overconsumption and excessive waste. Fast fashion is a concept in the clothing industry where a large quantity of inexpensive garments is produced using low-cost manufacturing and efficient supply chains to quickly reach the market to match new trends. The goal is to get consumers to buy clothing more frequently, which speeds up the trend cycle, causing faster changes in what is considered fashionable that in turn leads to more products being made to match the trends. The products are typically of lower quality, as lower quality materials are cheaper, and they do not have to last as long because of the changing nature of the trends. The result is a mass production of low-quality products that are quickly discarded, wasting resources, and having a negative impact on the environment.
A similar effect could be seen in architecture as facade cladding or bathroom fixtures can be quickly and cheaply created in a way that also makes them easy and fast to switch out. Wooden slat walls have been popular the last couple of years. Initially, one had to cut and mount each slat individually, a very time-consuming process, but as wooden slat walls gained more popularity, retailers have started selling panels with the slats already mounted on them, drastically cutting down on the time required to put up a wall. Both plates and individual slats are still fairly expensive. At the time of writing, they are still priced at around 600 NOK per square meter slatted wall, so they have not reached a point where consumers will quickly discard them when the next trend rolls in. Digital fabrication methods might however be able to reduce the price point of trends to the point where this might become a problem. While the fixature of your bathroom or the facade of your home are not worn when venturing around outside, the increased use of social media to display wealth and success might play a factor. While this type of architectural consumerism can be enabled by digital fabrication, it is something that will have to be dealt with using regulation or through educating the public about the negative aspects of rampant consumerism. This is especially important in a society that is already struggling to meet its sustainability goals.
Tools
When it comes to the tools required to design and create the files needed for digital fabrication, they have to be accessible to the designer for digital fabrication to have merit. Current tools often require a high level of computer literacy to use, higher than what many in the industry currently possess. While most architects are able to use BIM software to draw buildings using predefined wall structures and components, creating custom geometry, like for example a double curved wall, in a format ready for digital fabrication is outside the scope of their abilities. These jobs usually fall to specialists working in the architecture offices, specialists that smaller practices might not have access to. The use of visual programming languages like Grasshopper and Dynamo, where geometry is created through manipulating a network of nodes rather than writing code, has lowered the bar but it still relies on an advanced level of computer knowledge.
Luckily, software that provides more intuitive ways of working with form, like 3D sculpting programs where the user shapes the geometry as if it was clay, is more accessible than before. While most software still requires the user to navigate 3D space through a 2D screen with a keyboard and mouse, virtual reality creates an even more natural way of working using your own hands. Sculpting software, whether on the computer or in virtual reality, is however still not perfectly integrated with the BIM workflow. Geometry is often required to be exported, imported, and redefined or converted to work correctly with BIM software. Not only does virtual reality create a more intuitive way of working, it also allows the user to experience the project they are working on in a more immersive fashion at various scales. Being able to switch between working top down at a 1:100 scale to polishing a detail at 5:1 scale with a flick of your wrist allows you to navigate the project faster and examine it naturally from various perspectives, which increases efficiency in the design and modeling process. Being able to walk through the project at 1:1 scale improves the spatial awareness of the user, increasing immersion and helping them better understand the size and scale of the project and its components, which can be difficult to do on a 2D screen.
While it is necessary for the architects and designers to have sufficient control over the tools they use to create the geometry in the first place, the ecosystem used for the fabrication part of the process is in itself as important. If the CAM software is not able to read the file produced by the architect, or the geometry is not suitable for production, no machine is able to fabricate the product. It is important that standards are in place that enables a seamless transfer of data between the designer and fabricator. If each fabricator uses their own standard or file format it will be another hurdle in the way for adoption of digital fabrication at a larger scale.
As noted by the interviewed architects, the design process itself might drastically change with the implementation of digital fabrication from the onset. While digital fabrication can be used in a traditional design process, as a way of creating custom elements that fit in existing frameworks, when used from the initial phase of the process it can unlock unknown potential, like in intervention 01.
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Construction
The increase in efficiency provided by digital fabrication, by reducing man hours in the construction phase, either through on-site machines or prefabricating the building elements, is especially important in the current situation where there is a lack of skilled workers in the industry. Coupled with the projections that the next wave of retirement will reduce the labor pool by a further twenty percent, digital fabrication will be necessary regardless of other benefits it provides.
Digital fabrication also facilitates local production. The flexibility of the machines, their ability to create the product based on just the raw materials, allows a single factory or contractor to produce a wide variety of elements. With traditional manufacturing, a specific product might only be manufactured at a certain factory. Anyone who wants to use that product in their project has to order it from that one factory and have it shipped, possibly around the globe, to the construction site. Digital fabrication methods will not necessarily be beholden to that rigidity. A robotic arm with a WAAM 3D printhead that prints in steel can produce any steel product required as long as it is big enough. Multiple robots can work in tandem to produce the object if necessary. The same robots can be equipped with printheads that print in concrete, or drills to shape wood. A single local fabricator can provide a wide set of services for multiple industries in the surrounding area. They can produce prefabricated elements in a factory or workshop while renting out the same robots to do on-site work when needed. Replacement parts can be produced locally when required as well, making producing and keeping large stocks of replacement parts obsolete. This frees up storage facilities as well as removing the cost, effort, and emissions of creating parts that might never be used. This focus on local manufacturing will not only reduce the need for shipping and storage but help retain jobs in the districts.
Sustainability
There is a lot to be gained in regard to sustainability by using digital fabrication. The aforementioned possible reduction in shipping would not only reduce shipping costs but also emissions from the transportation of products and increase the use of locally produced raw materials. Building elements produced through digital fabrication methods can be topology optimized, using less material than traditional ones while retaining mechanical and environmental properties. This reduction in material can be significant and reduce the embodied emissions in a building project by a fair amount.
The precise nature of digital fabrication methods also produces less construction waste. The on-site methods of digital fabrication produce only the exact amount of material needed, while factory made components can be designed to slot together without the need for formwork for casting that is discarded afterwards.
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One factor of sustainability that is less commonly discussed is aesthetics. Buildings with a lack of aesthetic qualities are more prone to be demolished. Increasing the overall visual qualities of buildings will lead to more cases of reuse and transformation. The custom nature of digital fabrication methods allows for visual qualities to be added to projects regardless of scale, whether as custom detailing or part of a larger concept.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, like the generative image-to-text models used in this thesis, provide an interesting avenue when it comes to approaching aesthetics and design. These tools are able to quickly generate images that can be used as concept references for buildings. The images they generate are an algorithm’s interpretation of what is aesthetically pleasing from a data set of images it has been trained on. The results are not based on an inherit rationale or logic in regard to function but rather a visual weighing of code words. For the purpose of producing architecture, they are therefore useless in and of themselves. They need to be developed in dialogue with a human, either through further refinement by manipulation of the logic of the algorithm and its text input or by being reimagined in a different medium. This focus on pure aesthetics and lack of regard for the function of the rendered spaces does however provide a great source of inspiration when it comes to form. Most importantly, this formal result would be hard if not impossible to create at a reasonable price using traditional manufacturing methods. You would need hordes of craftsmen to produce every single component of the structure. With digital fabrication however, the aesthetic of the artificial intelligence can realistically be produced in its complexity at a reasonable cost.
The generative image-to-text models used in the thesis are currently facing some backlash because they are trained on images gathered online without their creator’s consent. It is likely that legal framework will have to be put in place to protect the artists’ rights. This will greatly reduce the training material for the models, and may affect the quality of their output and thus the viability of their use. Whether or not AI models will be widely used in the future depends on how this pans out.
Further Work
The next steps for digital fabrication is to start integrating it into the commercial sector. Digital fabrication has proved itself to be both more efficient and cheaper for small scale projects. Going forward, digital fabrication methods should be applied to large scale projects, involving commercial developers and contractors, to assess what is necessary for it to be deployed as an economically viable or more sustainable alternative, and if not, what further steps must be taken to do so.
Introducing digital fabrication methods into the design workflow of traditional architecture practices would allow for further investigations into what level of digital skills that have to be developed in the industry for digital fabrication to be viable. Using the technology in a university or research setting is one thing, but whether the average architect is ready or if digital fabrication specialists are required is detrimental to what scale digital fabrication can be utilized at in the industry.
The aesthetic freedom provided by digital fabrication can be used to create more visually stimulating surroundings. Further research should be conducted into what effect creating buildings of a more sculptural nature will have on the well-being of its users. As the interventions show, digital fabrication methods can be utilized at different scales, so it is possible to integrate it with existing workflows without having to do everything using digital fabrication. This allows for smaller interventions or upgrades to be added to existing projects.