 ASCAAD 2007 CONFERENCE
(Re)visiting Fabrication and Construction Documentation


Abstract. This research explores the representational and conceptual structures that inform the production of physically fabricated objects from digitally produced models through an examination of the conventions of design communication vis-à-vis construction documentation. The translation between physical and digital media involves isolating and organizing geometry leading to the fabrication process. This paper details a design process that places value on the construction document as distinctly different from the fabrication information in that the former must be primarily understood by the human as opposed to interpreted by a machine. The fabrication information can be communicated as a drawing and can serve as the construction drawing in that sequence of forms imply their assembly. The emphasis on assembly allows for these construction drawings to be evocative in their contrast to traditional construction drawings and add value to the physical and conceptual constructs.

Conventional construction documentation relies on fundamental symbolic systems, accompanied by legal reference, and fragmentation and isolation of information risking high levels of indirection. New conventions of construction documentation that evolve out of digital fabrication information eliminate the dependence on symbolism and reintroduce the poetics and science of geometry, form and space. Information can be more complete without symbolically referencing other information and conventional standards. This simple specificity produces artfulness in that the language of any construction drawing is potentially unique to itself. These construction drawings can be tied to design as they are rooted in generative geometry. The drawings represent the process of designing, the process of making and the process of fabricating.


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