The new cyber-physical making in architecture: Computational construction

Abstract

In architectural history, the advent of new fabrication and construction technologies has always been a catalyst for design innovation, and the latent next paradigm shift facilitated by the introduction of cyber-physical production systems will be no exception. What in other domains is often referred to as the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' will also have a major impact on architecture, making possible a move away from instruction-based making towards that based on behaviour. In this article, Guest-Editor Achim Menges, Director of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart, argues that these emerging technologies not only challenge our understanding of how buildings are made, but more importantly how we think about the genesis of form, tectonics and space.