Computer to component: an investigation into the integration between architecture and the manufacturing industry

Abstract

The report "Computer to Component - An Investigation Into the Integration Between Architecture and the Manufacturing Industry" is a narrative as to the current uses, applications and developments of computer applications in architecture which lead to the generation of design via machine. The report contains references to the international and New Zealand contexts. The report introduces the notion that computer aided design can be integrated with computer aided manufacturing, to produce an architecture, or component of architecture, where the computer is a design tool and assists in the prototype or production of the architecture or component. The primary computer application considered in the report is solid modelling. The report outlines what solid modelling is, and how it relates to design and manufacture are discussed. Examples of the applications of solid modelling as part of the integrated design-manufacturing process are included where possible. Views from people within the industries involved are presented throughout the report. The report identifies some of the issues that have had an impact on the application of this technology in architecture. It also considers future development, including issues affecting the development within the New Zealand context. The report concludes that fundamental changes would need to occur within the profession of architecture before such a way of creating architecture would have a significant effect in the way we perceive and realise architecture.