ABSTRACT | This paper challenges digital preoccupations with precision and control and questions the status of tolerance, allowance and error in post-digital, human-centred architectural production. It uses the participatory action research design-and-build project TOROO, a light-weight bending-active bamboo shell structure, built in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in June 2019, as a demonstrator project to discuss how protean digital design diagrams, named ‘vibrant objectiles,’ are capable of productively absorbing serendipity throughout project crystallisation processes, increasing designer agency in challenging construction contexts with high degrees of unpredictability. The demonstrator project is then used to discuss future research directions that were exposed by the project. Finally, the applicability of working with ‘vibrant objectiles’ is discussed beyond its local project use. Common characteristics and requirements are extracted, highlighting project setup preconditions for which the scope covered by the architect needs to be both broadened and relaxed to allow for feedback from design implementation phases.