Empowering architecture students through digital fabrication technologies

Abstract

During the last three decades, technological, economic, social and cultural innovations have changed radically our cities and with them, they have trans formed also productive processes that now we must define as flexible. As a result of this situation, there have been changes in the architectural design education to accommodate new demands provided by the opportunities of the fabrication based design techniques and schools of architecture have been trying to adapt digital fabrication concepts in their curricula. In this paper, it is presented a case study: the Advance Diploma in Digital Fabrication for Architectural Design taught in the Digital Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab Madrid CEU) based in CEU San Pablo University. This training program intends to take advantage of the high creative potential associated with the combination of virtual computer aided design and digital fabrication tools, as milling machines, laser & vinyl cutters and 3D printers, which are considered the fourth generation of the application of digital technologies in the field of Architecture.