Models, prototypes and archetypes fresh dilemmas emerging from the 'file to factory' era'

'File to factory', an appropriation from the aeronautical design industry that is used to describe the direct transfer of CAD file data to CNC manufacturing plant, has been taken by many in architectural design to imply consistency and speed. Gone are the wasteful and vulnerable channels that pass through consultants, contractor, specialist contractor, maker and supplier. Executive Architect and Researcher to the Temple Sagrada Família in Barcelona and Professor of Innovation at RMIT Melbourne, as well as visiting professor and director at a host of international universities and design and technology institutes, Mark Burry challenges this popular claim. He argues, if anything, the opposite is about to be true. Here, he articulates through his extraordinary work on Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família spanning over 30 years, that digital fabrication has blurred definitions of the model and the prototype, and with it a lack of clarity about the role of the archetype has been initiated.