At University we are encouraged to create provoking, abstract, sensitive, conceptual and sometimes impossible design briefs and projects, testing the limits of the designer and the possibilities of architecture; skills that should never be forgotten.. BW: What and who does a crit typically involve?.
This US-based ‘manufacturing on demand’ company links customers wanting components (including BMW, General Electric, NASA, Dell and Bosch), to a network of 5,000 suppliers across the USA, Europe and Asia.Typically, a client uploads a request for a proposal via 3D models or technical drawings and specifications.
This is distributed to pre-qualified suppliers who have the capability and capacity to respond.A price is calculated within seconds (for straightforward processes such as CNC machining) to a day or so for more complex requests.Xometry has a huge amount of pricing data from which it can generate instant quotes which can be validated or refined with vendors.
Once the price is agreed, the selected suppliers produce the components to set specifications and arrange delivery..This ‘manufacturing as a service’ could have significant benefits for a Platform approach to construction.
What can we learn?.
Xometry uses a widely distributed network of suppliers who can respond to requests which suit their capabilities and capacity.These days she finds the meaning too ambiguous.
In 2005, she bought a 76-year-old company that built steel and concrete volumetric modular, as well as some assemblies.They worked on a huge variety of projects: telecommunications, data centres, schools, hospitals, generator enclosures, and embassies for the government.
Marks notes that people tend to think standardised design is something new, but it isn’t.It’s just an idea that’s coming back, growing in scale, and becoming more mainstream.. Another issue we have in the construction industry, she explains, is that when we talk about this type of industrialised construction work, we tend to focus on the projects we consider to be the sexy, quirky ones.