71 Direct Building Manufacturing of Homes with Digital Fabrication Lawrence Sass Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Chapter 5 ABSTRACT Architecture, engineering, and construction industries maintain a long standing desire to enhance de- sign communication through various forms of 3D CAD modeling. In spite the introduction of Building Information Modeling (BIM), designers and builders expect varying amounts of communication loss once construction has started due to indirect construction techniques or hand based methods to manu- facture buildings. This is especially true for houses and small structures, buildings that makeup the core of villages and suburbs. Unfortunately, paper documentation and reading 3D CAD models on screen continue the trend of indirect production defined in most manufacturing industries as error. The emerging application of CAD/CAM within design and construction industries provides hope for elevated com- munication between design and building. With CAD/CAM, it is possible to manufacture buildings of all types and sizes directly from CAD files similar to mass produced artifacts, thus reducing complexity in communication between parties. This chapter is presentation of one process of direct manufacturing from CAD and the emerging possibilities for small building production using digital fabrication. The chapter will focus on houses to illustrate the potential of direct manufacturing of buildings from CAD data. 1. INTRODUCTION For centuries, architects and builders have pursued systematic ways to design and deliver homes at low cost in production and high quality in output. New arguments around home production are di- DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-180-1.ch005 rected at machine based manufacturing of build- ings opposing common handcraft construction techniques (Kiernan & Timberlake 2005). This process, typically described as prefabrication, is a century old, westernized system of home production in factories by assembly of large units with cranes on site. It has survived many decades of reinvention while also struggling for Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.