Digital Materiality: emergent computational fabrication

Fundamentally architecture is a material-based practice that implies that making and the close engagement of materiality is intrinsic to design process. With the rapid uptake of new computational tools and fabrication techniques by the architectural profession there is potential for the connection between architecture and materiality to be diminished. Innovative digital technologies are redefining the relationship between design and construction encoding in the process new ways of thinking about architecture. A new archetype of sustainable architectural process is emerging, often cited as Digital Materialism. Advanced computational processes are moving digital toolsets away from a representational mode towards being integral to the design process. These methods are allowing complex design variables (material, fabrication, environment, etc.) to be interplayed within the design process, allowing an active relationship between performative criteria and design sustainability to be embedded within design methodology.