How do we build a future where personal digital fabrication is utilised towards the common good? The project explores how the rise of personal digital fabrication and the ability to make (almost) anything anywhere influences architecture and, how this principle could be incorporated into the development of abandoned sites.

As sophisticated digital manufacturing and scanning tools become more affordable and readily available, how will users in commons, such as FabLabs, apply these new tools to produce decentralised architecture?

The project strategically situates itself at Cardington Airfield, which was formally used to manufacture large airships. The site is perfectly positioned for re-development and housing as these airfields are already linked with the needed infrastructure. My proposal explores an alternative to the current development on the site, where small scale housing and community spaces are constructed from the reuse of the existing structures and foraged materials.

With the need to ‘build back better’, perhaps a moonshot idea that encapsulates a technologically-driven common, in combination with local resources and archaic approaches to construction, could transform these derelict sites across the UK.