Custom Components in Architecture: Strategies for Customizing Repetitive Manufacturing

This book offers architects strategies in the design and manufacturing of custom, repetitively manufactured building components.

A total of 36 case studies from around the globe demonstrate the diversity of CRM in architecture and are contributed by architecture firms, including Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Kengo Kuma & Associates, Abin Design Studio, Behnisch Architekten, Belzberg Architects, and many more. The book is organized by manufacturing process and covers the use of various types of glass, clay, plastic, metal, wood, plaster, and concrete. Each process is described with diagrams and text and expanded with one or more examples of customized building components. Projects included are of buildings of various types, sizes, and clients, and many deviate from the typical manufacturing process as they include a secondary process (e.g. casting glass, then slumping it), special tooling modifications (e.g. dams used to subdivide a mold), post-production processes, or other notable manufacturing features. Each case study includes a project overview, behind‐the‐scenes images of the component manufacturing, and original diagrams that illustrate how those components were customized.

Custom Components in Architecture will be essential reading for any architect interested in building design details and keeping up-to-speed on material advances. Upper-level students of digital architecture, fabrication, and building technology will also find this a useful tool.

Dana K. Gulling is a professor at North Carolina State University, School of Architecture and is a licensed architect. Her scholarship and teaching is at the intersection of building technology and design. She has won two national book awards and a national teaching award.