Practice Futures 1: Digital Fabrication and Future Practice

In Practice Futures we begin to investigate the challenges and opportunities that arise out of the increasing adoption of digital fabrication within the design and construction industries. Specifically we focus on professional practice in the architecture discipline in Australia. We focus on unpacking the ecology of new modes of architectural practice falling around digital project delivery, how they relate to traditional modes of procurement and how they are shaped by critical factors such as scale, risk, responsibility and reward. These questions are approached through two filters. The first considers the implications for our understanding of the role of the architect, and what the expanded roles might be for architects and new types of professionals. The second is the nature of risk, as architects start to be more involved in processes of fabrication, and for longer periods in the process. This document catalogues the first and early stages of the research in which we begin to understand the terrain that we are working with, to explore whether there is in fact any interest or validity in the research question itself, what material already exists and what form a more developed research question might take.