Da produção industrial à convencional: uma experiência com fabricação digital e compartilhamento na favela

Abstract

This research investigates the possibilities of using digital manufacturing in architecture produced through production systems other than the construction industry, trying to understand the problem in relation to the concept of variety, especially as addressed by cybernetics (ASHBY, 1956). The initial assumption is that the development of mass architecture, which in Brazil is based predominantly in capitalist manufacture, tends to result in a very limited variety, of repeated and standardized solutions, mainly due to the fact that this system is divided into a reproductive part of large scale and a small part of centralized decision-making. In short, the low variety is the result of a mutual limitation between the operative part and the reproductive, which in turn is a result of the concentration of decision-making power. However, as this concentration is an essential element of the production model of the decision maker, the problem of the variety can only be treated on their secondary branches. The existence of cooperatives that use the same work organization in manufacturing demonstrates, however, that the collective ownership of the means of production does not mean itself the adoption of a more dialogical and diverse work. In this sense, the various movements of collaboration and dissemination of knowledge in networks, based on information and communication technologies, lead to new possibilities of reversing the concentrated decision making process that questions both the traditional concept of ownership, as the traditional organization of labor (Mastny et al, 2012). One of the situations where problems of low industrial diversity appear in an extreme form is the production of housing in slums and communities where a context of high complexity, both morphological as social organization, makes hard the use of industrial processes for design and construction. In this context, the digital manufacturing technology seems to be an interesting answer for dealing with flexibility and non-standard solutions, especially considering the possibility of being produced home at low cost and have shared use through community workshops. These possibilities are evaluated through action research, concluding that the first step to reverse centralized decision is to promote dialogue between the cutting edge technologies and core technologies, and not the application of one over the other. Community workshops are pointed as potential tools for promoting that dialogue between the different skills that are divided into different social classes.