ABSTRACT
Antoine Picon acknowledges, "digital technology has allowed to become a more autonomous dimension, present from the start in the design process and imbued with a definite ornamental character." Recognizing the cost-prohibitive limits of 3D printing industry-standard materials for interior architecture, Ron Rael and Virginia San Fratello, co-founders of Rael San Fratello, created an offshoot of their Oakland-based practice called Emerging Objects, defined as a "MAKE-tank" focused on design and fabrication research through 3D printing. One of the clearest channels through which designers test new ideas is through the technologies of production, defined as the software and hardware used in the design and construction processes. Machines are generally understood as finite tools – they do what they do – but within the context of design where norms are questioned, machines can be a productive subject for experimentation. Computer numerically controlled machine size limitations lend well to the interior scale.
