Report: Integrating Physical and Digital Design Methods
Digital design tools that make it possible to develop complex geometries have been available for some time now. The computer - a meta-tool - provides great opportunities to develop free-form surfaces; now geometry places nearly no limits on architectural designs. Architecture schools, of course, also utilize these opportunities. We have, nevertheless, noticed that in the design process, students often restrict themselves to the digital realm. But in the interfaces available at present, form, space and scale can neither be perceived nor evaluated satisfactorily in the digital depiction. The option to work intuitively on the physical object is lacking. Our hands and eyes are at risk of becoming mere interfaces with the virtual surroundings. A digital model depicted as a two-dimensional projection on the computer screen or a print-out is not satisfactory. In order to evaluate its spatial qualities, it must possess physical presence. Automated tools such as the different CNC milling machines facilitate this step, as do more involved procedures such as 3D printing. At our laboratory at the Vienna University of Technology, we have acquired - in addition to the standard CNC milling and laser cutters - a milling robot that, while relatively challenging to operate, provides the degree of freedom necessary for complex geometries. The standard commercial equipment gives priority to a high-quality product and accepts the accompanying high operating costs and complex handling. As a result, the models created are for final reviews - when there is no longer the opportunity to make any changes. But models should not be merely the embodiment of a "final phase"; working models are open to intuitive and immediate changes. For this reason we are developing fab@home, a 3D printer that produces models using inexpensive material, such as polyurethane foam, which approximates the form and can easily be modified by sanding or cutting. However, when we modify a physical model by hand or with other tools, we must be able to enter these changes into the digital model. To meet this challenge we utilize different 3D scanners and digitizing processes. The design can be reworked, both physically and digitally, until it is convincing in both realms. A digital model can be point of departure, but the same is true, of course, of a physical model, e.g. a formal study in plaster of Paris or clay. Until dynamic physical rendering systems - which enable interactive physical representation of a virtual model - are available to designers, we will endeavour in our research and coursework to integrate the existing technologies in an overall system in which digital and physical design methods complement one another.
