ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a description why difference is important to shaping architectural design theory from modernism to today. Specifically, the presentation is in relation to the shift in how difference is understood from modernism to now through both philosophical considerations and computational approaches. The chapter will begin by presenting the historical contexts proceeding and giving rise to modernism and then follow this trajectory through to the current influences that philosophy has on the emerging design theories and how advanced computation is influencing that shaping. Within this reflection is a presentation of how architecture can be seen as having three distinct aspects, argued here as elements that are internal to the enterprise, that are always present: form, program and material. This chapter serves to highlight how these theories have impacted these three internal aspects of the discipline and frames how theory emerged from new conversations and responded to the old ones. In other words, the chapter will present a narrative as to why it is that an affinity emerged between these contingent elements at a particular time and how it has affected the way architects have shaped design theory around notions of difference.
