COMPUTATION IN ARCHITECTURE As a pursuit and profession architecture is in the midst of a great transformational process. Traditional methods of design and drafting are being replaced with computer aided methods. The argument which arises from the growing use of these electronic tools is based around a simple question. Does the use of computers in design increase creativity or limit it? To me I still feel limited in some aspects of my initial design by using a computer, but increasingly I can see the constant improvements in the field getting better and better and eventually I think the software will become so good that not using it will limit creative output. Although I suppose I should clarfy further, I understand that computer aided design allows the designer to explore possibilities which otherwise would have been impossible but I guess I’m just less interested in some of these possibilities than I am with other aspects of architecture mainly functionality and materials. “It is possible to claim that a designer’s creativity is limited by the very programs that are supposed to free their imagination.” Terzidis, Kostas (2009). Algorithms for Visual design using the processing Language (Indianapolis, In: Wiley), p. xx
I thought the above quote from the architect Kostas Terzidis was a very important point point that was brought up in the lecture. As it highlights some of the shortcomings of computation in architecture because the designer is inherintly confined to the parameters of any given program. However that isn’t to say that a designer would be able to express all of their original intent without the use of software anyway. One heavily impacted aspect of the design process which is brought up by Yehuda Kalay in ‘Architecture’s New Media...’ is the communication process. The ease with which comunication can be shared has opened up all kinds of possibilities within the field. As Kalay iterates it was the advent of constructional drawings which allowed for the seperation of design from the construction process. The new media with which designers can now use and communicate with has “opened up the design process for more people to become involved”[6].
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