The sustainable potential of digital fabrication process and de-standardisation of architectural products

Abstract

Abstract Digital fabrication processes consist in a parametric designing and in a product manufacturing by computer numerical control (CNC) machines. At the design stage, the architectural object can reach a great grip with the environmental and cultural context, because the parameters measured by the environment become the engine of the virtual model. In this way a change of external parameters results in a change of the project. In this chapter the possibility to optimise, through this method of project generation, is investigated. Parametric design increases the performance of the architecture in terms of structural, thermal and functional needs, with a reduction in resources, material and energy, ensuring greater sustainability. In the production stage, the use of CNC machines ensures the realisation of the objects, designed with parametric methods, that, for intrinsic reasons, cannot be standardised and thus they are unique. This feature of digital fabrication could radically change the industrialised society.