Towards machine learning for architectural fabrication in the age of industry 4.0

Machine Learning (ML) is opening new perspectives for architectural fabrication, as it holds the potential for the profession to shortcut the currently tedious and costly setup of digital integrated design to fabrication workflows and make these more adaptable. To establish and alter these workflows rapidly becomes a main concern with the advent of Industry 4.0 in building industry. In this article we present two projects, which presents how ML can lead to radical changes in generation of fabrication data and linking these directly to design intent. We investigate two different moments of implementation: linking performance to the generation of fabrication data (KnitCone) and integrating the ability to adapt fabrication data in realtime as response to fabrication processes (Neural-Network Steered Robotic Fabrication). Together they examine how models can employ design information as training data and be trained to by step processes within the digital chain. We detail the advantages and limitations of each experiment, we reflect on core questions and perspectives of ML for architectural fabrication: the nature of data to be used, the capacity of these algorithms to encode complexity and generalize results, their task-specificness versus their adaptability and the tradeoffs of using them with respect to conventional explicit analytical modelling.