Maker Architecture: Learning by Fabricating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The rise of digital fabrication in architecture represents an enriching collaboration between industry and pedagogy, bringing production techniques closer to the classroom. The research analyzes the relationships between technological progress and the learning-by-doing methodology at the turn of the century, focusing on emerging phenomena in the technological sphere (personal computer and internet), the social sphere (Maker Movement) and the environmental sphere (decarbonization). The objective is to examine the pedagogical experience linked to the development of the architectural project in the fields of education, research and the profession, from the heritage of the traditional Bauhaus workshop to the appearance of the global network of distributed laboratories Fab Lab. For the study, international cases built in the beginning of the 21st century have been selected, which are born from interdisciplinary experimentation where you learn by manufacturing on a real scale through the use of digital tools in the process. From the chosen architectural practices, common characteristics are extracted that allow describing the concept of Maker Architecture and a new theory of doing that is directly related to active teaching methodologies.