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Innovation in prefabrication with new technologies in product development of building components together with the important role materialization is playing in the education of architectural engineers and building technology designers are the main motifs for full scale material prototyping in the Master track of Architectural Engineer and the Master track Building Technology at the Technical University Delft faculty of Architecture. The chair ‘Product Development (and design of Components)’ headed by professor Mick Eekhout from the very beginning in 1992 acknowledged the importance of material prototyping in the education of technical oriented architectural designers. For professor Mick Eekhout, director of Octatube of Delft, a design & build company specialized in innovative façades and roofs in architecture, is essential in any innovative product development of building components. Started in 1995 with a small group of students, a provisional staff and workshop, 15 years of full-scale material prototyping provided more than 750 graduates with this very valuable experience of design and build innovation. The knowledge of and the hands-on experience in getting any technical design into reality controlling the material properties and available production techniques equipped these graduates eminently as technical and innovative designers in the realm of architecture. In education of this type of engineers it is no use to design and prototype the usual, the familiar. Instead the innovation with all the risk of failure is far more instructive. To get the stronger effect in the desired education the students in small groups are prototyping their own design ideas. The development of the education in our Master tracks is showing smaller groups of students prototyping more innovative designs in a shorter span of time. It goes without saying that the costs of these material educational exercises are often a multitude of normal design and engineering courses. In the more than 15 years of its existence there was a continuous battle to get faculty funding. Originally the Chair had ample means, but after a rigorous slandering of tits size due to unforeseen and ad hoc management games, the extra over funds came from the department. To keep such a facility going means commitment from the department and the faculty, which had to be forced in 1995, but later was never actually doubted. Most of our alumni have stated that the experience with this design and build process opened their mind for an innovative way of thinking that is such an important element in the toolbox of the architectural and technical engineer. For this type of architectural engineer the aesthetics of a building or a building component is in a reciprocal relation to the materialization. |
