ABSTRACT

Information technologies have transformed the way we perceive our human environment. Information technologies were considered outside of the architectural discipline and architects who experimented with digital processes transgressed their disciplinary boundary. The introduction of computation into the design process has produced a dramatic reversal from Jean Piaget’s epistemological model that implied a movement from observations to the building of abstract rules. Computation is increasingly managed by the intensity of calculation where people can produce models that are more and more complex, resulting in their ability to imagine a series of potentials rather than attempt to locate a single idealistic model. Architects in recent history have always had interdisciplinary collaboration with adjacent disciplines of engineering, manufacturing and construction to some degree. Yet the most significant impact on shaping the identity of the architectural profession came from collaborations with painting, technology and theory which are all outside of the built environment.