Bespoke Fragments:Materials and digital fabrication in architectural design

The PhD project Bespoke Fragments is investigating the space emerging in theexploration of the relationship between digital drawing and fabrication, andthe field of materials and their properties and capacities. Through a seriesof different experiments, the project situates itself in a shuttling between thevirtual and the actual, and control and uncertainty.The project has established an experimental framework that consists ofthree materials and four types of processing. The materials are concrete, woodand steel. The processes are division, subtraction, addition and transformation.Through tangible experiments, the project discusses materiality anddigitally controlled fabrication tools as a expansion of the architect’s tool boxand workflow. Bespoke Fragments considers this expansion as an opportunityto establish a connection between forms of digital drawing and the specificitiesof materials. Through that connection, the project seeks to use the realisationto generate developments and findings and, through an iterative mode ofthinking, establish a dialogue between drawing, materials, and fabrication.The use of digital fabrication tools through digital drawing opens upa new approach to materials in an architectural context. The knowledge andintention of the drawing become specialised through the understanding of thefabrication processes and their interface with materials. When drawing embeds,not form, but capacities into the materials through fabrication, the emergenceof the virtual extends into the materialisation. Based on this understanding, theproject produces a series of ‘bespoke fragments’ through the materials and themachining driven design experiments.A transverse exposition of the experiments provides an unfolding oftheir influential elements. The elements are understood as connected interfacesthat each impact the outcome of the experimentation. This understanding ofthe process contributes with a perspective on how the material experimentationcan affect and be affected through the discipline of architecture. The PhD project Bespoke Fragments is investigating the space emerging in theexploration of the relationship between digital drawing and fabrication, and the field of materials and their properties and capacities. Through a seriesof different experiments, the project situates itself in a shuttling between the virtual and the actual, and control and uncertainty.The project has established an experimental framework that consists of three materials and four types of processing. The materials are concrete, woodand steel. The processes are division, subtraction, addition and transformation.Through tangible experiments, the project discusses materiality anddigitally controlled fabrication tools as a expansion of the architect’s tool box and workflow. Bespoke Fragments considers this expansion as an opportunityto establish a connection between forms of digital drawing and the specificities of materials. Through that connection, the project seeks to use the realisation to generate developments and findings and, through an iterative mode ofthinking, establish a dialogue between drawing, materials, and fabrication.The use of digital fabrication tools through digital drawing opens upa new approach to materials in an architectural context. The knowledge and intention of the drawing become specialised through the understanding of thefabrication processes and their interface with materials. When drawing embeds, not form, but capacities into the materials through fabrication, the emergence of the virtual extends into the materialisation. Based on this understanding, the project produces a series of ‘bespoke fragments’ through the materials and the machining driven design experiments.A transverse exposition of the experiments provides an unfolding of their influential elements. The elements are understood as connected interfaces that each impact the outcome of the experimentation. This understanding of the process contributes with a perspective on how the material experimentationcan affect and be affected through the discipline of architecture.