Digital Technology for Architectural Fabrication

The document illustrates the transformation from the craftmanship production method of «more or less» to the «zero tolerance for imprecision» imposed by industrial manufacturing. Consequently, the paper analyzes how this changes affected approaches in conceiving/realizing architectures and designing in general with the birth of industrial designers. The paper briefly describes the historical process of transition from a qualitative approach, «by analogy», to the introduction of numbers as a measuring and design instrument until the recent digital modeling. It also analyzes the opposition between design practices based on regulatory approach and those arising from experimental modeling to affirm a new figure of architect: the architectural industrial designer, a new craftsman that – quoting Gropius – “… will result in a new unit of work, which will make him the exponent of experimentation to be applied in the industrial production”. The paper is a synthesis of the introductory lecture for the class «From manufacturing- Architecture and Structure Design Lab» held by the author at the International Course of Architectural Design, University of Florence.