UA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PROPOSES DIGITAL AND FABRICATION FACILITY

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — With a new digital craft and fabrication facility proposed by associate professor Julieanna Preston and clinical assistant and network manager Lynn Fitzpatrick, students' creative ideas may one day turn into design prototypes, preserving the School of Architecture's commitment to design and putting the University of Arkansas on the forefront of architectural science.

Days when architects sent their blueprints to contractors and never saw the nuts and bolts of on-site building are over.

"Digital craft and fabrication allows us to perfect the smaller parts of architecture and experiment with different types of materials like aluminum, foam or even paper," said fifth-year architecture student Lewis Roebuck.

By creating a pedagogy that would marry currently disparate areas of study within the architectural curriculum, this facility would also combine building technology with design and architectural theory.

"Our goal with this proposed facility is to critically explore the use of these technologies in design education as a means of visualization, communication, craft, construction and production," Fitzpatrick said.

This facility would fuse technology, practice and contemporary architectural theory and design into a full-bodied creative and productive activity for students.

In February 2001 the School of Architecture prompted its commitment to this proposed facility by purchasing a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) milling machine. Typically used in industry for sign art and cabinetry, this three-directional router is one of many building technology tools such as laser scanners, laser cutters or vacuum forms, which create useful links between building industry and architectural education.

"The CNC ensures precision, and the fabrication software we use with it allows us to engage in more efficient designs," Preston said.

Without the CNC, student and faculty designs might be too expensive or time consuming to build, but by allowing students to see the fruition of their designs, the CNC is producing better architects, more efficient products and perhaps one day if this facility is engendered, will become a research-by-design opportunity for the University.

Roebuck says this facility would be an asset to architecture and landscape architecture students like himself by saving time and increasing the quality of work.

The proposed facility also has the potential to:

• prototype full-scale models,
• test materials on form, installation, performance and material detailing,
• design small-scale models
• and create speculative material constructions designed with software based on non-Euclidean geometry and experimental materials that might be more economical or environmentally sound.

The School of Architecture has a long established history for its attention to building craft, detail and materials and its reverence for the mundane yet powerful conditions of architecture such as texture, light and shadow.

Whether students explore the vertical wall surface or the entire building envelope, Preston says they are known in the School of Architecture for their keen knowledge of small building systems and material presence.

By focusing on building and construction as a means of investigation, this new initiative reinforces this attention to detail yet pushes the students into the realm of digital design, which has become more prevalent in top universities.

If the facility was created, Preston speculates that it would ground the students firmly in the relationship between design-how something is conceived and constructed, measured or developed-and construction-how something is made, represented, built or assembled. The human form and material properties are not forgotten, and the products are tangible and accountable as well-made (or unmade) works.

Several courses have been offered in the past couple years to explore the limits and potential of the CNC machine. Ted Krueger, associate professor of architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (and a former E. Fay Jones visiting professor at the University of Arkansas), and Dr. Jerry Wall, professor of architecture in the School of Architecture, created the MAXM, a "custom-built instrumented cycle that functions as an input and output device to a virtual world." The MAXM was the result of a 1999 UA architectural design studio in which the students were asked how to understand astronauts' unique use of space (and perhaps to redefine what they once imagined as an "architectural space").

The MAXM recently made it to Switzerland for the December 13 conference "Game, Set and Match" at Delft Institute of Technology. At the conference, Jeroen Mensink of Archined, The Architecture of the Netherlands, wrote: "The most theoretical, yet also most practically oriented presentation, both feet firmly on the ground came from... the University of Arkansas" (www.archined.nl/news/news.htm).

Aside from running machine and software training sessions for architecture students and faculty, Preston is currently teaching an elective, Surface XYZ, examining the relation of surface conditions and finishes to form, material and ornament.

Part of the students' coursework in this course is learning to use the CNC as well, Preston said.

"Last year’s course produced new column claddings for the steel section columns in Vol Walker, which are remnants of the building’s former life as the library," she said.

This semester students have been methodically testing a wider range of materials. They have also moved into using the machine to create three-dimensional models.

University of Arkansas Dean Jeff Shannon believes the CNC is an excellent pedagogical tool.

"The UA School of Architecture is one of the very few architecture schools in the country with the capability to take digital information and translate it directly to three-dimensional representations. We would be very pleased to have the funds to create a new digital and fabrication facility for our students," he said.

For more information about the CNC machine or to set up a demonstration, please contact Julieanna Preston or student-technician Lewis Roebuck at the School of Architecture.

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