Digital fabrication and crafting for flexible building wall components: design and development of prototypes

Abstract

This research aims to explore and reflect the links between form, function, material and fabrication to develop and assemble more adjustable and flexible building walls. The interconnection of these main aspects of creation is particularly driven by the raising prominence of digital and computational tools in the context of design and fabrication. The new trends in digital fabrication and construction industry have fundamentally impacted building envelope components design with a shift in emphasis from flexible structures to envelope and from form to performance. The objective of this research is to develop new prototypes for more lightweight, dynamic, possibly interactive body envelope with the contribution of digital crafting. The first wall prototype was designed and assembled in the laboratories of University of Minho using CAD and subtractive machining to produce the parts and apply physical tests to the wall. Based to that experiment the second prototype is digitally developed and generated with additive manufacturing; presenting the development process; as an attempt to build an entire envelope from printed components.