On the aesthetic significance of imprecision in computational design: Exploring expressive features of imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches

Malgorzata A Zboinska,Delia Dumitrescu

doi:10.1177/1478077120976493

Abstract

Precision of materialized designs is the conventional goal of digital fabrication in architecture. Recently, however, an alternative concept has emerged which refashions the imprecisions of digital processes into creative opportunities. While the computational design community has embraced this idea, its novelty results in a yet incomplete understanding. Prompted by the challenge of the still missing knowledge, this study explored imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches to establish how it influences the aesthetic attributes of materialized designs. Imprecision occurrences for four different digitally aided materialization processes were characterized. The aesthetic features emerging from these imprecisions were also identified and the possibilities of tampering with them for design exploration purposes were discussed. By considering the aesthetic potentials of deliberate imprecision, the study has sought to challenge the canon of high fidelity in contemporary computational design and to argue for imprecision in computation that shapes a new generation of designs featuring the new aesthetic of computational imperfection.

Highlights

The issue of imprecision, reflected in the discrepancy between the design and its physical embodiment, is inherent to any design-to-construction process in architecture
The notion of imprecision in computation and digital fabrication can be regarded as an umbrella term describing computational and material discrepancies – between the digital datasets occurring during the translation of the original model to a representation for fabrication purposes and between the geometric and surficial features of the input model and its materialized version, represented by the mold and the cast made from that mold
This study has sought to demonstrate that imprecision in the computational design process can play a generative role in shaping novel expressive attributes of the design

Summary

Introduction

The issue of imprecision, reflected in the discrepancy between the design and its physical embodiment, is inherent to any design-to-construction process in architecture. The casting constituted the crafting part of the process, with silicone applied and manipulated by hand using various instruments and manual techniques This first experiment began with the digital processing stage featuring a conversion of the original blueprint geometry into a representation required by the fabrication technique. Of the least formed mold parts, can be strengthened by intentionally enlarging, adding subtracting or shifting the areas in which it occurs In this way, in the stage of casting, varying silicone accumulation compositions can be produced using the same model as a point of departure (Figure 7). A detailed example of such design explorations is described in a separate publication.[37]

Discussion of the findings

Attributes relating to optical properties

Conclusion