Curating Complexity: The Role of Sentience in Parametric Design

Final Remarks Regardless of the method or tool employed, any design tasks demands the use of heuristic knowledge - intelligence acquired over years of experience and exposure. Parametric strategies and related modes of computational design are often criticized to be emotionless form generators, simply either automating redundant tasks or deriving form from arbitrary performance objectives. In reality, the parametric process demands a high level qualitative input throughout all facets of the design process. The role of the sentient decision maker still equally as crucial in a digital paradigm - the work of the designer has simply mutated in accordance with the new tools and processes that are employed. This same transformation is evident in the architecture of the digital era as well, where expression is now deeply rooted in (and emerges from) digital experimentation and human interpretation.

In parametric design, expression is derived from functional and aesthetic design intentions in combination with the technologies capable of generating solutions outside the intellectual capacity of the designer. In both the traditional and parametric design approach, the designer is tasked with the contextualization of information – the process of collecting, deciphering, identifying and organizing data toward a particular objective. In the parametric approach, expression is the result of a synergetic relationship between the human creator and the computational tool. In architectural discourse of the digital era, expressive value stems not from arbitrary creativity or computational determinism, but from creative computation and computational creativity. (Kotnik, 2010) The computational tool should therefore be considered a prosthetic to the architectural imagination, not a inhibitor. Fundamentally, computational design still involves a systemic series of rationalizations and commitments in pursuit of a simplified solution. The architect’s role in a parametric paradigm is to mediate between the technological tool and the architectural considerations first outlined by Vitruvius centuries ago. The digital architect must entwine functional, performative and expressive considerations into an abstract description for design. As such, the traditional notion of the architect as a demiurgic designer is transforming in parallel with the topical design tools; the architect of the digital era is emerging as a controller of processes, becoming a curator of complexity.