Design for Manufacture

This chapter considers the digital continuum between design and manufacture, achieved with the technologies of CAD/CAM, numerical control and prototyping. Although the ‘digitalization’ of architecture is sometimes seen as a threat to the physical aspects of construction, the opportunity to use a digital model directly in the context of production actually strengthens the traditional links between design and practical craftsmanship. The chapter offers an overview of manufacturing processes currently or potentially relevant to construction. Units of manufacturing processes may be described in sufficiently general terms so as not to be restricted to working with a specific material, a given component or a certain producer of machine tools. Key unit manufacturing processes are identified: (1) mass-change, (2) phase-change, (3) structure-change processes, (4) deformations, (5) consolidation, including (6) rapid prototyping. It concludes by considering integrated manufacturing. Two projects are examined in detail because they have been precursors of the principles of design for assembly: Frank Gehry’s “Fish-sculpture” at the Olympic Village, Barcelona (1989–1992), and Norman Foster’s Swiss Re Tower in London (1997–2004). The analysis of these projects confirms the recurring importance of the “craft” factor. Computer-aided design and production systems have shifted the emphasis from skills in craftsmanship to competence in the control of the manufacturing machinery. As manufacturing and construction become increasingly automated, more and more skills are required of the designers.