Manufacturing Surface Effects

The paper examines the newfound capacity to digitally design and manufacture highly crafted material and surface effects. It traces an emerging trajectory in contemporary architecture aimed at the decorative effects of digitally crafted surface patterns and textures, as a potential return to ornamentation in architecture. It surveys practices whose approach to form and pattern varies from the “ornamented minimalism” of Herzog and de Meuron to the “expressive exuberance” of Greg Lynn. The paper also describes the different digital modes of material production aimed at particular surface effects, as in series of panels with repetitive, yet unique decorative relief or cutout patterns, striated surface configurations, etc