Evolution of Process, Part 3: Future Goals
Even though our digital process now lets us give valuable visuals of our designs to our clients, they are not true real world representations. This can lead to models seeming too perfect or clean, especially in sites that are complicated and messy. As in the pictures of Airway, above and below, the model shows a perfected space that in reality is quite rough. The pictures on our computer screen can easily mislead. In the digital world things are infinitely smooth and ideal. Real world materials are not. This texture and materiality is an important part of our work.
Our next steps include using digital tools to fabricate physical objects. These objects will have texture and materiality. We have reinvested ourselves in the physical, finding a way to use digital tools to create real models. Patterns and textures are different in real life than on a computer screen and only by making physical prototypes can a design be truly experienced. All of our initial design work for Spokane, above and below, was done digitally but it was only until we laser cut paper models that we could understand the scale and interaction of the patterns.
Using digital tools to introduce physicality to project may seem paradoxical, but it is the strengths of the digital world, ease of 3D design, quick visualizations and an iterative process that make them perfect. We can model design and patterns in the computer, cut them physically and then change the model in response. These skills, strengthened at the UW Certificate Program in Digital Design and Fabrication, will allow use to understand and increase the importance of texture, material, form and pattern in our work. This can be seen in our class projects, above and below.
