Prototyping for Architects: Real Building for the Next Generation of Digital Designers

The first overview of how new digital design and fabrication techniques offer new possibilities for prototyping in architecture

Prototyping is an essential part of designers’ repertoires, allowing them to test their projects from structural, aesthetic, and technical standpoints. Prototyping for Architects examines how architects are combining new digital design and fabrication technologies with traditional hands-on building techniques to gain more insight into the strengths and weaknesses of their designs.

Beginning with an introduction charting the rise of prototyping in design history, this cutting-edge volume for students and professionals presents an extensive range of prototyping techniques, followed by a selection of 30 projects by leading contemporary international architects.

Jane and Mark Burry explain how prototyping at a miniature scale helps communicate complex spatial ideas; how prototyping empowers the architect-designer to test and prove a building’s feasibility; and how additive (3D printing) or subtractive (robotic milling) prototyping can lead to exciting new design possibilities. A reference section, which includes a glossary of technical terms, offers further information and clarification. 500+ color illustrations

Jane Burry holds a degree in mathematics and is a registered architect. She is currently a research fellow at RMIT’s Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) in Melbourne.

Mark Burry is professor and director of SIAL and founding director of RMIT’s Design Institute. He is an international expert on the architecture of Antoni Gaudí, and is currently using digital technology to help complete the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.