ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the built environment through the lens of computers. It is divided into two parts. The first one examines what and how computers see the world, identifying a clear output, which is a simplified, discrete and machine-processed version of the world we experience as humans. A number of case studies illustrate the mechanisms underpinning the process by which computers read the environment and how they see it. A number of algorithms and their implementations are explained and commented upon. Whilst the first part of the chapter presents a number of machine-ready data to expose the translation of the intelligible and sensible world as seen by humans into a discrete and data-based system for machines, the second part explains how such data are used. In particular, it explores how designers, architects and urban planners use these data in their space-shaping activities, through the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and City Information Modelling (CIM) technologies.
