Rapid prototyping for architectural models

Rapid prototyping (RP) technology has developed as a result of the requirements of manufacturing industry. There are a number of other application areas where RP has been used to good effect and one of these is architectural modelling. However, such application areas often have different requirements from what is offered by the current technology. This paper describes work carried out by the authors to investigate potential applications for architectural modelling, as well as an attempt to explore the limits of the technology. It will go on to discuss how the technology may be developed to better serve the requirements of architects.