The invariable ability of students to question both the theoretical
implications and practical applications of digital design has been a
critical mechanism in keeping the research at the Avery Digital
Fabrication Lab not just current – but ahead of its time. Industry has
finally seen a shift towards CNC fabrication becoming more widely
accepted and implemented, for reasons of both aesthetics and efficiency,
while Building Information Modeling has concurrently grown as one of
the most widely used instruments of digital design, both in academia and
in practice. Within the academic realm, Columbia students have
continued to challenge the given methodologies of software in order to
apply digital tools to their research, rather than the reverse. The
integration of CNC fabrication into parametric modeling, BIM and other
organizational hierarchies has challenged working models of fabrication
at the scale of the prototype as well as the building, offering a level
of complexity and specificity thought to be impossible until recent
years.