THE HEADSPACE PROJECT Computer-Assisted Fabrication as an Introduction to Digital Architectural Design

Written for architectural educators, this paper discusses whether digital fabrication can be usefully employed in early architectural education. The paper uses examples from a course that aims to introduce the fundamentals of digital architectural design to first-year students. To achieve this, the course integrates digital fabrication as the core element of the production workflow. Challenging but rewarding, early adoption of digital fabrication exposes students to the process- and material-based thinking of contemporary architecture at a time when they form lasting attitudes to designing.