With the increasing development and utilization of design technology for architecture,
different design methodologies have emerged. The current design research has focused
on computationally-mediated design process (Kolarevic, 2005; Hensel et al., 2004;
Littlefield, 2008; and Datta et al., 2009), which is essentially concerned with form
finding and building performance simulation, i.e., structural, environmental,
constructional and cost performance through the integration of physics and algorithms.
Since their emergence, design practices are increasingly aided by and dependent on
the technology and have resulted in a major paradigm shift (Al Qawasmi and Karim,
2004). It opens new territories of formal exploration in architecture and radically
reconfigured the relationship between design and production, creating a direct digital connection between what can be imagined and designed, and what can be built
through ‘file-to-factory’ processes of Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC)
fabrication (Kolarevic, 2005). According to Luebkeman and Shea (2005), this process
“enables to improve design quality in less time with reduced cost, and can make new
levels of complexity and new aesthetics possible. These emerging digital technologies
have led to new design processes which evoke ‘digital innovation’ in global architectural
practices whereby computer-aided architectural design technologies are used not only
as a tool for drafting and design, but as an instrument for delivering complex projects
that are less in cost, within the time and prescribed quality”.
However, while advancement of the new technology has the potential for
dramatically improving design and productivity, the literature shows that substantial
technical and organizational barriers exist that inhibit the effective adoption of these
technologies (Intrachooto, 2002; Johnson and Laepple 2004; and Leach and Guo,
2007). Along with this line of thought, literature on the subject shows that several
design practices are not fully utilizing these technologies. Despite the abundant
availability of digital technologies, digital innovation does not occur because not much
knowledge and resources are transferred from one project to another. This occurs
when the purpose between projects is dissimilar or projects do not include members of
the previous team who has relevant skills or knowledge of the technology. Additionally,
Cory and Bozell (2001) found that though architects and designers have acknowledged
that the advent of computer-aided architectural design in the design process can save
an abundance of time and energy, these tools are not being utilized to their full
potential. As pointed out by Fallon (2004), the benefits of intelligent modeling to the
design process are increased productivity, reduced cycle time, better work flow and
life cycle applications, but these technologies are not fully utilized.
|
