http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Three-Axis-CNC-Machine-Cheaply-and-/

Since means for digital fabrication are more compact than other industrial fabricators, it is conceivable that with the advancement of this mode of production there may be more ‘from home’  shops than giant factories. While for regular industrial production mass fabrication may only be feasible for the organizations that can afford constant cutting-edge R&D, the design phase for CNC can often be more accessible. And with the potential for homemade and homecustomized CNCs, the decentralization continues. Should be interesting to see if this is how things pan out…

http://www.article-25.org/-pakistan-.htm

A one-to-one correlation can be seen between functional intent [i.e. solving a very real problem] and the material production/supply. On this rural Pakistani site, what may seem like a simple reversion to vernacular building is actually a key realization that a specific method [means] can be inextricably married to a specific goal (end). While for us in the US pursuing digitally fabricated construction modules  makes sense on an economic, climatic, and social level, the same is not true for rural Pakistan.

The exploitation of materials for their specific properties is not just an exercise in efficiency but is also more likely to progress those social functions served by it. When the Romans determined the specific areas of superiority of the brick they were able to take it to unforeseen heights. Thus, the ends [the storage house, the bathouse, the arena, the city, the Empire] were advanced to unprecedented levels.

To put it bluntly, if one builds houses, schools, markets, and factories in a way that lets them be destroyed by earthquakes several times a decade, the society served by these will suffer.

Now what about plastics? Looking into this right now…

In the following one the verbal description is less helpful, but pay attention to the footage of the waste separation!

This term originated as a joke between a former studio partner and myself during the final hours of production for a design semester. We came up with the name [and thought ourselves very clever] as we imagined the obnoxious call-out line on our sectional detail. Here, however, I want to use P5 as another pushing-off point for my TdMS investigation.

From what I have so far found it seems that pastics have made their way into contemporary construction almost exclusively in the most normative of applications. Compare:

[A1] www.metaefficient.com/chairs/bent-ply-chairs.html

[A2] plasticless.com/2009/07/11/plastic-chairs-suck/

Here neither option is overly exciting as neither does much to exploit its potential. I would argue that the patio chair in [A2] is even lower on the ingenuity scale as it does absolutely nothing previous models/materials could not. Yes it’s curvy, painfully pink, and cheap. But like P5 it doesn’t quite let its ’active ingredient’ [plastic] shine through. It might as well be wood grain textured. Of course, there are many examples where both fab methods are taken rather far.

[B1] cltad.arts.ac.uk/…/wiki/dc39e/Flat_(wood).html

[B2] www.chairblog.eu/…/chair-designer/bram-geenen/

I will be the first to admit that Geenen’s chair pushes its medium for innovation’s sake and does not add much in the way of basic functionality. But valuable lessons can be extracted from this beautiful object when considering his design/fab methods at the scale of residential and larger construction.

On the left we see an unquestionably revolutionary structure being assembled by methods which struggle to keep up  [technologically and demographically] with the production of its components. Other images of the Crystal Palace’s construction show horse-drawn pulleys. Ferrovitreous construction  [as an act] bears much resemblence here to all forms preceding it. No boom lifts. No cranes. Only miniature rail cars for work crews, but only for glass pane installation, and only after the steel has been erected.

The computer mouse is both an end product and arguably the starting point of digital plastic fabrication. It bears signs of its own work upon its material via other hardware, software, etc. Here the object displays the fruit of its own use. Its geometry and craft reveal its own potential when integrated into the proper system. Had it been built by a modern Paxton it would have looked something like this:

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/02/26/steampunk-mouse-1.jpg 

Just kidding…… but seriously.

It seems to make little sense, then, that plastics in modern construction come to be used mostly in Crystal Palaces rather than in something analogous to mice. In Victorian Britain this disparity is understandable. In our time — less so. With digitally fabricated plastics filling our world one can sense that we are on the brink of an exciting material revolution.