Modelling a future practice

The nature of architectural practice is undergoing rapid change and evolution. The increasing adoption of digital fabrication and direct manufacturing technologies within the design and construction industries presents both significant challenges and opportunities for the practice of architecture. Digital fabrication refers to the direct manufacture of three-dimensional objects from digital files using additive (3D printing) or subtractive processes (milling, laser cutting etc). There is a well-established lineage of investigations of advanced fabrication in architectural design and education. However, the majority of this research has focused on the development of, or design potential presented by, novel tectonics made possible by these techniques and/or the opportunities for material or process optimization that these tools offer. There is limited research into how the adoption of these technologies will impact the practice of architecture itself. The adoption of these techniques allows for the fabrication of components, assemblies or increasingly whole structures directly from digital design models, resulting in a dramatic collapse of the traditional separation between the architect and the produced object. This is a significant opportunity for architecture. At RMIT these issues are being explored in the Architecture Professional Practice 3 course. In the context of this course students, as emerging practitioners, are asked to respond to these changes described above and leverage the opportunities that they offer to develop proposals for innovative modes of practice. This paper will describe the role and value of a design research approach for the teaching of Professional Practice in architectural education and in exploring the emerging role of the architect. Specifically, investigating the application of speculative modelling of business propositions as a mechanism for understating the practice of architecture and its relationship with entrepreneurship.