Detail machines: generating design at full-scale

Abstract

The pedagogical position of this paper is that making at full-scale is not simply a means to an end, but is actually a powerful design tool that can provide specific feedback distinct from other modes of design inquiry. Particularly at the scale of the detail, the process of enabling the simultaneity of design and construction as a technique can illuminate and reveal the forces of mind and hand working together, embedding tectonic (The word tectonic used here refers to Eduard Sekler’s definition, as that which “…cannot be described by construction and structure alone. For these qualities, which are expressive of a relation of form to force, the term tectonic should be reserved.” This definition is distinguished from a Semperian understanding of tectonics, as pertaining exclusively to the frame and lightweight linear construction.) (Sekler, 1) qualities directly in the work itself. Instead of moving from general to particular; from abstract idea to physical manifestation, we begin with the physically constructed material joint as a generative origin. Detail Machines can facilitate an embodied and haptic mode of learning through making that connects students to materials and techniques of construction through active experimentation. This is in marked contrast to the highly abstract and codified representational tools and exceedingly scenographic techniques typically deployed in architectural design today.