Workshop Digital Manufacturing A New and Practical Approach to Combine CAAD and Digital Manufacturing in Architectural Design Education

The opportunities for the use of Digital Manufacturing in the field of architecture have increased tremendously over the past years. Today, already a large variety of methods and processes are used for the production of architectural models or even prototypes and design models. By now, this new technology has also become firmly established in the education of students. In this context, especially the theoretical basics of digital manufacturing, that is to say the integration of CAAD with the manufacturing process, and the special characteristics of the additive manufacturing, i.e. assembly in layers, are taught. As a demonstration of the practical application of the new technology of 3D printing, this paper will focus on the Workshop Digital Manufacturing. Due to the new approach of this workshop, which relies on the assembly of a 3D printer from an assembly kit, the students gain profound insights into the technology and functionality of 3D printers. In a next step, the students realize various models with the 3D-printer and in doing so develop design guidelines for additive manufacturing autonomously.