The consequences of automation technology on industry are currently widely discussed in terms of future tasks, work organisation and working environments. Even though various novel education programmes specialise in digital fabrication, relatively little has been written on concepts for a deeper integration of digital technologies in the architectural curriculum. This paper gives an overview of interdisciplinary educational approaches and digital project development techniques and describes a teaching method featuring intensive collaboration with research and industry, an iterative teaching method employing digital production of large-scale prototypes and a moderated self-learning process. We describe two examples of teaching initiatives in particular that were undertaken at TU Munich and ETH Zurich and analyse their results in terms of physical outcomes, teaching accomplishments, resource efficiency and connection to research. We discuss the relationship between necessary teaching intensity, project size and complexity of digital fabrication equipment and conclude by giving an outlook for future initiatives.