ABSTRACT
An architect must be a craftsman. Of course any tools will do; these days, the tools might include a computer, an experimental model, and mathematics. However, it is still craftsmanship – the work of someone who does not separate the work of the mind from the work of the hand. It involves a circular process that takes you from the idea to a drawing, from a drawing to a construction, and from a construction back to idea. (Renzo Piano1)
Architecture as a material practice implies that making, the close engagement of the material, is intrinsic to design process. Making, however, is increasingly mediated through digital technologies: today, it is the CNC2 machines and not the hands of the maker that mostly shape materials and their properties. Digital making – the use of digital technologies in design and material production – is blurring the sharp discontinuities between conception and production established in the twentieth century. New techniques based on close, cyclical coupling of parametric design and digital fabrication are restructuring the relationships between design and production, enabling a closer interrogation of materials during the earliest stages of design.
