The Third Industrial Revolution

Abstract

The Third Industrial revolution is a growing phenomenon characterized by the diffusion of digital fabrication devices and the consequent democratization of production. An alternative open-source fabrication ecosystem is gradually developing and challenging the actual production logics and, as consequence, the social organization. The discipline of architecture is a protagonist of this revolution. The imminent diffusion of new productive systems, along with the development of advanced software, allow new possibilities to connect the domains of design and construction, and to realize components given a certain (algorithmic) description, and to synthetically describe the physical environment and its behaviours within the digital environment. The role of the designer in this phase is to extend the potential of the CAD /CAM procedures, and re-appropriate the control in the design-to-construction process to once again engage in the actual manufacturing of building construction and provide high performance, tailored architecture. The open network of digital production supports new design collaborations and manufacturing logics which are able to reconfigure the urban organization of the industrial system and the interaction with citizens, as in the experimental planning of Fab City Barcelona . The use of open-source software and hardware opens up new horizons for more transparent and collaborative development of interventions at different scales and throughout the various stages of the projects formation.