ABSTRACT
The present state of building construction is mired between hope and stubbornness. Forms unthinkable without computer assistance are constructed using centuries-old methods of part-by-part construction. Research at KieranTimberlake Associates responded to these considerations by looking to extra-architectural industries and methods of mass-customization.2 While buildings are still put together nail by nail on site, manufacturers of everything from toothbrushes to 747s explore new materials and methods of making. The prospect of mass customization, transfer technologies, and off-site fabrication should be givens for questions in architecture, just as issues of structure, enclosure, and use have been givens for a thousand years.
