Fabricating Customization: Prototype

Architects have long flirted with production and manufacturing. This has been pursued to yield greater affordability, customization and expression, and as of late, more carbon-aware material selection and manufacturing.

This course builds upon this rich history and foregrounds architectural component customization to explore prototyping and customization within the context of contemporary practice. It introduces students to a range of prototyping and design for manufacturing frameworks. Through case studies and lectures, the course offers students an overview of existing and emerging modes of collaboration between designer and manufacturer in service to the production of a customized building component.

The course places great emphasis upon the reciprocity of design and prototyping, challenging students to leverage physical artifacts as tools for thinking and testing. Throughout the semester, students utilize additive and subtractive fabrication techniques to iterate the design of architectural components. Through this process, students build proficiency in prototyping to design, test and refine components of limited scope and scale.