Abstract
In recent years, the development of digital design methods and structural analysis has made it possible to design complex building shapes. However, the construction of such buildings requires advanced knowledge of production, interaction with actual craftsmen, and verification of construction methods through mock-ups. Despite this, however, design education in Japanese universities is often limited to proposals at the predesign and schematic design stages, and students have few opportunities to study the design development and construction stages. However, in recent years, computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools have become relatively inexpensive and can be handled easily, even by beginners. Therefore, practical training programs intended to familiarize students with manufacturing techniques using such machines are becoming increasingly popular at Japanese universities. This paper reports on the content of a practical training program intended to provide students with practical experience from production to design in the field of manufacturing by using CNC machine tools and other digital fabrication equipment to create a mock-up of a complex curved surface for a building and simulate the process of construction production in the design development and construction management. It is difficult to create curved surfaces using only digital fabrication, and manual processes, such as bending wooden boards along curved surfaces, are required. Therefore, students were required to combine digital fabrication knowledge with hands-on manufacturing skills, including hand-bending and experiential learning, which helped students think about the necessary processes for constructing the shapes they designed.