I first met the ShopBot folks about a year and a half ago while working as a graduate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the Digitally Fabricated New Orleans Style Shotgun House. The House project was directed by Professor Larry Sass and his Digital Design and Fabrication Research Group, and funded by MIT and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, NYC). However, it was ShopBot’s generous support that made this project a physical reality.  Bill Young completely reconfigured his shop in Virginia to CNC cut the 6,000+ plywood and plastic parts for the house.  He ran his side-by-side ShopBots eight hours each day for three weeks!  We shipped the completed parts on a flat bed semi trailer to New York City, and spent one month assembling the house in Midtown Manhattan.  It was an exciting achievement and the beginning of a great relationship with Bill and the rest of the ShopBot folks, which is why I’m honored to write this column for ShopBot today. 

The Digitally Fabricated New Orleans Shotgun House, MoMA, NYC, 2008.
 

During the MoMA House project, three of us from MIT -- Dennis Michaud, Dr. Larry Sass and I -- had a vision to start a company that would utilize the CAD/CAM design and production system that we developed for the New Orleans House.  After a year of prototype projects conducted outside of MIT including the Austin Shed at the 2008 Maker Faire and the Dog House and Kid’s Playhouse at the 2009 Maker Faire, we are proud to introduce our company, Physical Design Co , to the ShopBot community.

The Austin Shed. Maker Faire Austin, TX, 2008.
 

The Doghouse and Kid’s Playhouse. Maker Faire San Mateo, CA, 2009.
 

The Vision of Physical Design Co.

Our company’s vision is to revolutionize architectural design and production and to make these processes transparent by empowering consumers throughout the world with the online tools and resources that enable them to become the producers of their own creations. 

Not only are there incredible inefficiencies in the current practice of design, fabrication and construction of architecture, but until now these processes have been limited to costly design professionals, wasteful manufacturing facilities and labor-intensive site work.  We experienced these flawed processes first hand as practicing architectural designers, and so, during our research at MIT, we set about to develop a new model for architectural design and production.  The past five years of research that we have conducted at MIT has provided the foundation for making the vision of Physical Design Co. a reality.

ShopBotters and Physical Design Co.

ShopBot and ShopBotters will play no small role in this industry-wide transformation.  A quote from MIT Professor Eric von Hippel has stuck with me since my time at MIT and it reinforces our vision and emphasizes ShopBot’s pivotal role:

“When the cost of high-quality resources for design and prototyping becomes very low, these resources can be diffused widely, and the allocation problem diminishes in significance.  The net result is and will be to democratize the opportunity to create.”

This is precisely what ShopBot has done with its CNC machines: by making the machines widely available, ShopBot has helped to “democratize the opportunity to create.”

The second step in realizing our vision is to unite forward-thinking individuals-- like ShopBotters-- who are passionate about bringing fabrication and manufacturing back to the local level.  In addition to taking advantage of ShopBot opportunities like 100K Garages, which empowers fabricators to cut anything from artistic wall hangings to furniture, Physical Design Co. invites fabricators to join the Physical Design Co. Beta Fabricator Network (BFN).  Membership in the BFN allows fabricators to download CNC cut files of architectural-scale backyard structures like doghouses, kid’s playhouses, tool sheds and even backyard offices and artist studios. 

The third step in “democratizing the opportunity to create,” is to join together professional and amateur designers alike with the BFN members.  Through our web platform, Physical Design Co., designers can download, upload and transform their own 3D digital designs – nearly any SketchUp model of an inhabitable backyard structure – and have it translated into a customized kit of interlocking parts that are locally fabricated by our BFN members and that can be easily assembled by the end user.

With innovative and dedicated companies like ShopBot Tools and emerging fabricator networks like the 100k Garages and the BFN, Physical Design Co. truly believes that this vision will soon be a reality – that architectural design and production will no longer be dependent on costly professionals; that it will not require large, centralized and energy inefficient manufacturing facilities; and that the assembly and construction of our built environment will be so easy that the consumer can do it himself. 

Below is a diagram of how the Physical Design Co. design and production process works – it’s called: Get Physical!

Lastly, I’d like to give a big thank you to ShopBot, and especially to Martha, for inviting me to write this web column.  I’d also like to thank Robert Bridges, for his ongoing support, along with Rich Shanley, of Boise Cascade, for being a major material sponsor of our projects.  If you’d like more information on Physical Design Co. and joining the Beta Fabricator Network, please contact me directly at dan@physicaldesignco.com.

-Dan Smithwick, Cambridge 2009

Physical Design Co. Website

Physical Design Co. Facebook