The Craft of the Intelligent Machine

Abstract

Making is considered to be a large part of the architect’s livelihood, just as much as a traditional craftsman who produces physical artefacts. However, while architects design buildings, they do not build that which they design. Architects instead are engaged in making as a means of representation, in the form of drawing, employing the use of projective and descriptive geometry – that is of perspective and orthographic drawing – as well as scale models or maquettes. These then become a set of notational instructions for contractors to construct what has been designed, essentially removing the architectural “authors” from a large part of the making process. This authorial and distant approach to design and making stems from the Albertian distinction between the work of the mind (the intellectual) and the work of the body (the mere labourer), where the former is held higher than the latter. How then, can we reconnect craft in architecture, or rather, how can we renegotiate architecture as a making practice which is more engaged with fabrication? The answer potentially lies in current design practices which are heavily invested in digital technologies. In our current contemporary context, making is increasingly being mediated through the virtual space of the computer via three dimensional drawing and modelling software packages such as CAD (Computer Aided Design) and BIM (Building Information Modelling). In this context modelling in three dimensional virtualspace replaces projective drawing in a two dimensional domain. Beyond this, expansive modelling practices such as algorithmic, or parametric, modelling coupled with CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) tools and current practices of collaborative, networked computing and information sharing have given rise to a plethora of new forms, workflows and production methods. The Craft of the Intelligent Machine focuses on making as a craft process which is rooted within the conflict which arises when we question the role of the architect as a craftsman. It explores “making” and physical production as a design practice situated in a contemporary digital context where architecture is mediated through advanced computing. Rather than seeking to revive traditional craft in a nostalgic sense of working with traditional tools and families of materials, this thesis posits a more contemporary and productive notion of making.