Manufacturing Performance

Abstract

The use of rapid prototyping to produce scale models has in recent years become commonplace in architectural practices and universities. Employing such layer manufacturing processes at the scale of construction opens up entirely new possibilities for articulating and manufacturing a performative built environment. Achim Menges discusses Freeform Construction, a collaborative effort between Loughborough University's Civil & Building Engineering Department and Loughborough's Wolfson School of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering to develop construction-scale rapid manufacturing processes. Crossing conventional boundaries of the manufacturing domain, the research is not only concerned with developing new modes of production, but also contributes to establishing an alternative approach for designing performative architecture where form, material, structure and performance are understood as inherently related and integral aspects of the manufacturing and construction process. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.