Redefining Process: An Exploration of Digital Design, Fabrication, and Assembly through the Creation of a Bicycle Station

Abstract

Digital technology has allowed new territories, unthinkable decades ago to be explored. It has not only allowed architects to dream up and generate complex fluid designs through the use of 3D modeling software, but it has also allowed architects to give physical form to the digital realm through techniques in digital fabrication. This thesis investigates a process of digital design, fabrication, and assembly through the exploration of carbon fiber as a building material and how it can be used to give physical form to the digital realm. This process is tested through the design of a bicycle station that is to be located in two different urban conditions in Washington, D.C. The first explores prefabricated carbon fiber surface and how it can be inserted into existing architecture. The second explores small-scale and large-scale prefabricated carbon fiber surface and how it can be fabricated and applied to new architecture.