Materializing design: the implications of rapid prototyping in digital design

Rapid prototyping (RP) today is absorbed into practice and is being recognized as a significant technology for design. This paper attempts to formulate key aspects of the design methodological framework that are coalescing with RP's capability to build artifacts as part of the creative design process. In doing so, it attempts to formulate questions and issues of RP as a design medium that supports the full spectrum of digital design as a paperless process. These issues have been the resultant of early experimental and hands-on involvement with RP technologies in research and educational environments. In this paper, a DDF method (Digital Design Fabrication) is introduced. The DDF method is a two-stage process of working that integrates generative computing and RP into one process. Together they support a process to generate diverse candidate artifacts as solutions to design problems. Through a presentation of issues, procedural observations, and research findings, a range of potential applications of the DDF model are defined and presented. It demonstrates a process of design situated between conceptual design and real-world construction.