eCAADe SIGraDi 2019 Architecture in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution Volume 2 eCAADe SIGraDi 2019 Architecture in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution Volume 2 Proceedings The 37th Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe The 23rd Conference of the Iberoamerican Society Digital Graphics Conference 11th-13th September 2019 Porto, PortuGal Faculty of Architecture University of Porto Edited by José Pedro Sousa Gonçalo Castro Henriques João Pedro Xavier Volume 2 - eCAADe 37 SIGraDi 23 | iii ORGANIZATION DIAMOND SPONSORS GOLD SPONSORS SUPPORT TECHNICAL SUPPORT eCAADe SPECIAL SUPPORT OpenConf (Winchester) ProceeDings (Wurzer, Lorenz, Coraglia) CuminCAD (Martens, Cerovsek) Voting System (Winchester) INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS iv | eCAADe 37 SIGraDi 23 - Volume 2 Evolving stages of digital fabrication in Latin America Outlines of a research and extension project Rodrigo Scheeren1, Pablo C. Herrera2, David Sperling3 1,3University of São Paulo (USP) 2Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) [email protected] [email protected] 3sperling@sc. usp.br The introduction of digital fabrication technologies in Latin America faces diverse, heterogeneous and decentralized conditions. After several years, there was not a comprehensive perspective on the situation in the region. The goal of this paper is to present a project called ``Homo Faber: Digital Fabrication in Latin America'' and some of its results. The project comprehends the creation of a database that led to researches and exhibitions about digital fabrication in design, architecture and building construction in Latin America. The questions that guide the investigation try to understand which factors contribute and limit the potential of automation in material processes towards 4.0 industry. Keywords: Computer Aided Architectural Design, Digital Fabrication, Latin America, Mapping INTRODUCTION: AN OUTLOOK OF LATIN tecture Design in Latin America started two decades AMERICA DIGITAL FABRICATION ago. Throughout this period, different temporalities In the fields of design, architecture and building con- and specificities in the region’s manufacturing pro- struction, CAAD processes have converged to ad- cesses became noticeable. vances in simulation and in a material approach. If In Latin America, the potential of design projects in the first we can consider computational design using virtual tools does not match effortlessly with processes such as performance and optimization and the potential to materialize such complexity by us- also Building information modeling, in the second we ing automation processes of fabrication, leaving us take into account automation processes in the use with a gap into the use of this potential to enhance of novel technologies to prototype and manufacture material strategies. Digital fabrication laboratories objects. In the first situation, all come to hand by the have been established since the last decade in aca- use of software and skills on programming, in the sec- demic spaces, Fab Labs and Makerspaces, and also ond it depends on the acquisition of digital fabrica- design offices, boosting a decentralized routine of ac- tion machines and robotic systems. The implemen- tivities, focused on a set of internal necessities such tation, diffusion and development on the use of dig- as teaching, research and extension and external de- ital fabrication in the area of Computer-Aided Archi- mands such as design of objects, art installations and Matter - FABRICATION AND CONSTRUCTION 2 - Volume 2 - eCAADe 37 / SIGraDi 23 | 797 projects for companies. The use of the machines has METHODS: COLLECTING DATA AND been seen mainly as a chance to prototype models SPREADING INFORMATION with precision and reconsider craft as a process to The project Homo Faber: Digital Fabrication in Latin materialize ideas based on a maker philosophy, shap- America began in 2014, with the invitation to or- ing some kind of hybrid culture. Furthermore, profes- ganize a small exhibition upon the topic of digital sionals use technologies appropriated from abroad fabrication in the Latin America region, in the oc- and are accessible in the local market to understand casion of the 15th CAAD Futures Conference car- and develop skills in a short time. The globalized in- ried out in 2015. The exhibition resulted from a fluence of projects fosters particular investigations in ground-breaking approach using a survey to col- strategies of applying digital fabrication tools under lect data from digital fabrication laboratories, struc- a certain risk of mimetic proposals. Moreover, there tured by four parts: institutional information (city/- are few strategies to implement the use of digital fab- country, current coordinator, current staff, date of rication technologies with industry to enhance tech- foundation, brief history, institutional associations, nology transfers, besides increasing attention to local email/website), infrastructure (machines and fabrica- needs and cultural influences on the creative process. tion technologies available in the laboratory), oper- The central question of this investigation is if due ating and work data (current activities, workshops, to decentralized and multiscalar activities, techno- courses, uses of digital fabrication and applications logical appropriation, hybrid processes and the lack of the fabrication processes/fabricated objects). The of a strong connection between research and indus- information compiled was an original opportunity to trial sectors, besides political issues and economic look at what was going on in the fields of architecture situation, these factors have led us with few initia- and design to show for the first time a comprehensive tives using digital fabrication technologies towards mapping of the Latin American scenario. the 4.0 industrial revolution. The investigations and Since then, the project has been unfolded based exhibitions mentioned below are part of an ongo- on the following strategies: a) setting up of a ing project in order to understand this evolving pro- database about digital fabrication laboratories in cess, mapping and analyzing the regional context Latin America (academic spaces, Fab Labs and design related to digital fabrication laboratories in the ar- offices); b) systematic review of publications; c) struc- eas of design, architecture and building construc- tured surveys to the laboratories (formulary based tion, oriented to investigate academic research lines, on Google Forms); d) continuous updating of the manufacturing, infrastructure, professionals involved database (collecting data from scientific publications and networking. This article intends to present dis- and information on the webpages); e) qualitative and cuss and analyze a brief history of this project since quantitative analysis of the collected data; f) elabora- the first (2015) to the last exhibition carried out last tion of maps, diagrams and charts from the data; g) year (2018) by means of: 1) the results of an exten- organization of exhibitions; h) publication of scien- sive, long-term and continuous research about dig- tific articles. ital fabrication in Latin America; 2) overview of the A central element of the research and extension recent context of digital fabrication laboratories in project is the organization of triennial exhibitions fo- Latin America; 3) assess guidelines on technical and cusing on the recognition of digital fabrication state political issues concerning technological appropria- of the art in the region and the scientific and tech- tion and the applications of new technologies of fab- nological spreading of their applications. The exhi- rication. bitions are composed of videos and models, as well as information panels that display the textual and graphic material produced from analysis of the re- 798 | eCAADe 37 / SIGraDi 23 - Matter - FABRICATION AND CONSTRUCTION 2 - Volume 2 Figure 1 Location of Labs based on the research and in Homo Faber Exhibitions between 2015-2018 sulted database, having an itinerant character. In tures, facilities and technologies, activities, types of order to amplify the access to the research results, prototypes, uses and areas of application; thirdly, to each exhibition occurs with the release of a catalog draw a network of people and institutions, recover- (printed and digital version) as well as a video repos- ing connections and the genealogy of these fab labs; itory on the web [2], [3]. and fourthly, to present some fab labs that are in- tertwined with local questions.” (Sperling, Herrera & A RECENT STATE OF THE ART OF DIGITAL Scheeren 2015). FABRICATION: HOMO FABER EXHIBITIONS During that year, the number of active MIT Fab Labs in Latin America was composed of 39 labora- AND CURRENT RESEARCHES tories, based on the information available on “fa- At the beginning of 2014 the research project was blabs.io” map [1]: Argentina (7), Brazil (14), Chile (4) started following the settled objectives of the study: Colombia (5), Ecuador (2) and Peru (7). In order to ex- “firstly, to draw the cultural, social and economic con- pand this background, the investigation was driven text of implementation of digital fabrication labora- to map several other fabrication laboratories that tories in the region; secondly, to synthesize relevant were not participating in this network. For this pur- data from correlations between organizational struc- Matter - FABRICATION AND CONSTRUCTION 2 - Volume 2 - eCAADe 37 / SIGraDi 23 | 799 pose, the survey was submitted