I never intended to be an architect.

I went to University to study social anthropology. Three weeks in and very bored, the tutor threatened us with out first essay — natural childbirth in sub-Saharan tribal regions. My friends at the time were studying architecture and their first piece of work was to build a model of their favourite building. I saw them with glue, scissors and cardboard making a mess in their rooms and had a Blue Peter moment: I was going to be an architect.

Making a mess

Models have come on a bit from those days. We still use glue and cardboard, we still make a mess, but we are aided by computers and pre-fabrication techniques. Our office, for instance, has a laser cutter in the model shop. Pretty serious technology for a medium sized architectural practice. It’s an amazing machine that allows your 2D CAD drawings to be neatly cut out from any material of your choice. It saves a huge amount of time and produces beautiful models.

Recently I’ve been getting excited by a process that takes the laser cutter into the 3rd dimension: 3D printing. It’s been around for a while but is now becoming affordable for everyday use. The process essentially works by creating a 3D physical model directly from digital data, layer by layer. Specialized software slices the file into thin cross-sectional slices which are fed into a 3D printer. The 3D printer creates the model one layer at a time by spreading a layer of powder and inkjet printing a binder in the cross section of the part. The process is repeated until every layer is printed and the model is complete and ready for removal.

Modifying existing technology

It’s really very simple and at a basic level is merely a modified inkjet printer. The results, however, are amazing, producing detailed scale models of an entire site within an afternoon. What’s more the cost is next to nothing when you compare it to the man-hours required to build the model in a more traditional manner.

There are limits of course. The size of the model is restricted to the size of the printer bed, there are very few choices of material, and the architect has to build the 3D CAD model himself.

The future

This technology is in its infancy but I cant help thinking about where it could lead and the opportunities that exist with hybrid performance, linking numerous machines, sensing devices, and computers streamlined to operate under the same language. The future lies in the constant layering of techniques and purposes. Other disciplines are finding novel uses: artists are pushing back sculptural boundaries with unique forms, doctors reconstructing bone samples, archaeologists replicating and archiving fragile artifacts.

The only real barrier to the continued evolution in the production of these unique items is a lack of imagination. Combined with the ability to transfer source information through airwaves or down telephone lines the arena is wide open. Nick Callicott predicts in his book, ‘Computer aided manufacture in Architecture: The Pursuit of Happiness,’ the advent of home shopping over the internet, whereby 3-Dimensional geometric data is downloaded to a personal free-form fabricating unit in your home and generated in front of you.

Endless possibilities

This automatic process will be used to manufacture objects, products, and systems of every description and kind with no limit to complexity. The inputs will simply be raw material and data and the technology reminiscent of desktop publishing but instead of documents and printed matter, the diverse products that we need or desire to use in our lives will be manufactured for us on the spot. We will be able to efficiently make complex things in small volumes without tooling, and with material properties that we can only dream about. With such a mindset it’s easier now to predict the transfer of this technology to the building form itself. How long until we have self regulating buildings with the ability to alter their form in response to environmental stimulus?

In the short term, more realistic uses for such thinking might perhaps be associated with research stations and navel vessels or any inaccessible area where unique tools or parts are required that cannot be delivered by conventional means.

I don’t see these ideas as too far-fetched. I’d love to hear what others think — perhaps you have a specialism in this area and could continue the discussion?

Back to reality

Bringing things back down to earth I’m going to finish where I started. Technology like this may well be extraordinary and open up endless new fabrication techniques, but when designing a building nothing will ever beat the tangible, headache-inducing, finger-cutting thrills of spraymount, scalpels and cardboard.