Taxonomia para fabricação digital: oportunidades para materialização arquitetônica

Abstract

Digital manufacturing has gained prominence in both industry and architecture, emerging from the development of computational processes in CAD software and CAM production. Initially associated with the production of buildings with complex shapes, architecture firms have adopted this approach in search of sustainability, cost reduction, and optimization of construction time. In the Brazilian context, most digital fabrication laboratories are concentrated in the academic environment, where universities, research groups, and laboratories explore this technology to design and manufacture architectural models. However, implementing these technologies faces challenges, including creating a culture of innovation, promoting the transition from individual to collaborative thinking, and optimizing economic and administrative factors, such as reducing bureaucracy and equipment costs. The following question arises in this scenario: How to guide designers in architectural materialization through digital fabrication? The hypothesis is that digital fabrication, when chosen to materialize an object, follows criteria in which it is possible to identify and structure a taxonomy for the fabrication and production of architectural elements. The object of study is the relationship between the design process and architectural materialization, through digital fabrication, with a focus on digital fabrication techniques, developed machinery, and published articles that discuss the theme so far. The research aims to develop a taxonomy that can help design architectural materialization using digital fabrication besides allowing the cataloging of concluded projects. To this end, this work follows the "constructive research" approach, which consists of three phases: understanding, proposition, and validation. The comprehension phase encompasses the theoretical framework and systematic literature reviews. The proposition involves the synthesis of taxonomies applicable to architecture and developing the taxonomy for architectural materialization through digital fabrication. Furthermore, the validation phase comprises internal and external validation steps with activities intended to ensure the results' effectiveness. Thus, the taxonomy was submitted to qualitative content analysis, own experimentation, and applications in the catalog of projects that address digital fabrication. The research was developed at the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB / BR) and MIT / USA (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and had as its main result the "Taxonomy for Digital Fabrication applied to Architecture" (TDFab+Arch). The Taxonomy for Digital Fabrication (TDFab+Arch) is a tool that assists designers in architectural materialization through digital fabrication and cataloging of completed projects. It was applied to the design process of three models and the classification of projects in the Homo Faber catalog. This taxonomy is flexible, allowing the incorporation of new criteria and its application in academia and professional activities. It was transformed into an online tool for project analysis, using the established criteria to filter and systematize the data from the analyzed projects. This contribution is significant for the area, considering the growing expansion of digital fabrication and the relevance of the research.