Saturday, 13 June 2015

Week 9

Does the use of non-standard construction contribute to a waste society of consumption? Holden Pasquarelli puts forward the idea, no, attitude of versioning. Versioning is a term used to describe the shift from traditional modes of thinking, expanding knowledge to explore the potential effects of design. It allows architects to appropriate different practices and ideologies from a variation of disciplines – film, food, finance etc. to help solve a given problem. This attitude becomes a platform for extracting tactics seen in other streams (advertising, medicine, science, film, et.) into the frame of architecture (or visa-versa). This can be made palatable as a catalogue of standardised components that can be mixed and matched in response to a site specific condition. So then where does the role of the designer/architect fit in? In this world of computational design, individualised and highly varied works are becoming cheaper and buildable as technology provides the ability to quantify and manufacture components, with accuracy and with minimal waste. Is this attitude of versioning just an appropriated commercialism?


The established practice of architecture fractured the architect from the construction process, resulting in in-flexibility throughout the construction process. The attitude of versioning aims to rectify that through standardisation, by contrast the use of digital fabrication tools such as cnc-mills, laser cutters and 3D printing aim to engage all parties (architect, engineer, fabricator and client) in the fluid process of form finding. Additionally, these methods are highly tailorable and have minimal wastage, thus being cost efficient within the construction process. This approach is taken by Frédéric Migayrou, as he views “the  use of digital fabrication as liberation for the non-standard”.

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