ABSTRACT
In the last 25 years, we have digitalized almost every domain of lives. While mainstream architectural practice was ignoring the challenges of digitalization, a new generation, to which belonged, was enthusiastically embracing the new possibilities offered by the incorporation of the digital into architectural practice. Around this time (the early 2000s) many people and companies were experimenting with online configurators which would allow their clients to customize their products according to their personal wishes. By short-cutting the process from the design at the lowest possible resolution of a 176 x 208 pixels mobile phone display directly to the highest thinkable definition of physical material and by eliminating the need – and possibility – of any form of human intervention along this workflow, we radicalized the question of mass customization and design democratization. Designing always involves parametric thinking. However, this becomes evident and computationally relevant only under very specific conditions.
