DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Introduction
We, in ACADIA (the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) believe that the
consideration of digital technology in architecture is necessary and unavoidable, given its ubiquity
and widespread effects on architectural practice, teaching and research. Hence, we respectfully
submit this white paper to the NAAB Validation Conference in the hope that by sharing our
insights, NAAB authorities will gain valued information to enlighten their discussions aimed at
improving accreditation standards.
Healthy disciplines remain tolerant of a state of flux by constantly questioning the
inclusion/exclusion, import/export, and collaboration/isolation to/from new ideas, new techniques,
new disciplines, and new technology. At the perimeter of this nebulous exchange, an innovative
digital discourse is emerging that offers some unexpected new conduits to an attentive
discipline of architecture. Topic nodes within this discourse are evolving with a particular set of
important distinctions from one another. Thus, we contend that the digital discourse is
augmented by further specificity such as: Digital Pedagogy, Digital Tools, Digital Production/
Fabrication, Digital Visualization, Digital Projects, Digital Design, Digital Representation, Digital
Thinking, and Digital Practice. While many points of view are represented with these position
writings, all stress the immediacy of acting with strong and proactive consideration of digital
technology. We urge NAAB to color the rhetoric of its discussions with the immediate issues of
digital technology and its impact on architecture. We hope that this white paper will serve as a
useful guide for that discussion.
This white paper is organized into 9 brief position writings. Each section covers a different aspect
of digital technology and the present state-of-the-art issues as seen by leading experts. A brief
biography has been included at the end of this report.
* ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) was formed in1981 for the purpose of
facilitating communication and critical thinking regarding the use of computers in architecture, planning
and building science. A particular focus is education and the software, hardware, and pedagogy involved in
education. ACADIA is also committed to the research and development of computer aides that enhance
design creativity, rather than simply production, and that aim at contributing to the construction of humane
physical environments. ACADIA is the oldest organization of its kind in the world and its activities include
an annual national conference, publications, competitions, and exchange with international sister
organizations. For more information, visit www.acadia.org
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01: Digital Pedagogy :: A- Digital Foundations: Building a Base for Digital Futures
George Proctor
Has “the digital” been absorbed by the discipline or has “the digital” absorbed the discipline?
Depending on your perspective, Architecture either continues to disintegrate or has reformed
around a new definition of “the master builder”. Digital technology has opened a variety of new
career opportunities for the graduates of a digitally advanced architectural education. Some
depictions of this trend have the discipline of architecture continuing to fragment into specialties.
However, software has established platforms from which the activity surrounding a design project
can be directed, managed, and built. But, does the capacity of software to re-center what is
required to make a built environment mean that the design and making of such will fall to the
historic notion of “master builder” or “the architect”?
Much of what applies to the general education of an architect can also be said for the digital
portion of architectural curricula. Some students come to the university with digital media skills,
some are autodidactic, a large number are waiting to be taught and some either struggle to
absorb digital skills or probably do not fit a life in architecture. In the midst of this new landscape,
sketching and drawing freehand has become more important and necessary. Ironically, less time
is provided to build these “old” skills because more time goes to learning a variety of digital skills.
Synthesizing digital media training and tool use into an already demanding professional
curriculum along with the financial demands of upgrading and absorbing changes in this
technology is, overwhelming for students, faculty, pedagogy, and the institution. NAAB
requirements may need to be reorganized to accommodate this paradigm shift.
01: Digital Pedagogy :: B- Connected Courses: Methods of Network Communications
Thomas Seebohm
A recent computer survey sent by the NJIT School of Architecture to thirty-one, mostly American
design schools, including twenty-nine architecture schools, indicated that all but one had
networked design studios. This is clear evidence that digital methods are becoming routine in
architecture schools. In addition, the Internet and web have resulted in new methods of working.
Since the first virtual distance studios, where students collaborated over the internet with students
in other physically remote studios, in 1994 by Wojtowicz and colleagues, such studios have to
relied on web-based databases to store shared design information. This has led to some very
sophisticated connected studios where students exchange and develop each other's designs. A
model for this kind of exchange, and perhaps the most advanced web-based infrastructure for
studio teaching, is the Arc-Line project at ETH in Zurich, part of a university-wide web
infrastructure project called “ETH World.” Here, up to 170 first year architecture students have a
collaborative environment allowing project submission, viewing and reviewing of design projects,
and access to design resources.
Digital design requires digital presentations of which distributed design reviews are an extension.
Here, a physically remote critic, connected to the same display over the Internet by some
collaborative software (such as Microsoft Windows Messenger and NetMeeting) participates in
the critique over the web. In architectural practice, the office of Norman Foster (Foster and
Partners) has pioneered the use of “extranets” (a restricted portion of the internet) to enable
collaboration with consultants and distant branch offices.
Clearly, a major issue that all architecture schools face is the provision of an adequate computing
infrastructure. Clearly, schools must provide networking and output devices such as printers,
plotters and projectors and training on their use. Opinions are divided, however, on the provision
of computers. Some schools recommend or even require that students provide their own
computers and software.
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01: Digital Pedagogy :: C - Digital Curriculums: Effective Integration of Digital Courses
Nancy Yen-wen Cheng
An Approach to Digital Design Teaching
Students need to use digital techniques throughout the curriculum to understand how computing
can support architecture's diverse endeavors and thinking modes. In particular, students must be
able to explore and communicate design ideas fluidly using digital and traditional media suitable
to specific queries.
Schools should provide exposure to a palette of current and emerging techniques and foster
development of a personalized set of media skills. Along with basic design and drawing, most
beginners need a guided introduction to digital media. As in language learning, basic skills need
to be immediately applied to problems of increasing complexity. Technical concepts will be most
easily absorbed when they are introduced in support of design tasks on a need to know basis,
with help available on demand. Baseline competency in 2D and 3D expression should be
confirmed by portfolio screening, with remedial support available. Once fluency is reached,
designers are empowered to experiment with media that supports their goals.
To reach fruition, a digital design sensibility must pervade the school culture. Faculty, staff and
students need access to internal knowledge sharing as well as external educational opportunities.
Students need to understand conceptual frameworks and strategies for approaching new
technology, so faculty with broad knowledge are needed as well as instructors experienced in
specific software applications. Peer tutors and small student-teacher rations can make training
exercises work for individuals of differing abilities. A positive learning community is crucial to
making computers effective in architectural education.
02 - Digital Tools
Ganapathy Mahalingam
In the early stages of their engagement of computer technology, architects approached the
technology as an assistive technology that would enhance the practice of architecture. The scope
of the engagement was captured in the phrase ‘computer-aided architectural design.’ In the four
decades since, the role of computer technology in architecture has gained a marked significance.
The scope has now been extended for architects to contemplate ‘totally computer-mediated
architectural design.’
The key in the development of digital tools to enhance the practice of architecture has been the
facility with which the various tasks involved in the practice of architecture have been
represented, enabled or enhanced using computer technology. The digital representation of
architectural entities and the digital manipulation of those entities have provided alternate means
to produce architecture. Drawing, modeling, performance simulation, design collaboration,
construction management and building fabrication are now routinely performed using computerbased
technology. This success has revealed the untapped potential of the computational
representation of architecture.
Advances in computing based on the study of natural processes such as neural processing,
genetic evolution and emergence now suggest that the elusive nature of creative architectural
thought can be articulated enough to be applied in a technologically-mediated environment.
Digital tools may finally reveal what other architectural tools have hitherto concealed – the
architectonics of architecture. Therein lays promise. The future of digital tools rests on the extent
to which architects can accept that exemplary architectural designs can be created in a computermediated
environment and that digital thinking is indeed architectural thinking.
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03 – Digital Production/Fabrication
Branko Kolarevic
The digital age has radically reconfigured the relationship between conception and production,
creating a direct digital link between what can be conceived and what can be built through “file-tofactory”
processes of computer numerically controlled (CNC) fabrication.
It was the complexity of “blobby” forms that drew architects, out of sheer necessity, back into
being closely involved with the production of buildings. In the process, they discovered they have
the digital information that could be used in fabrication and construction to directly drive the
computer-controlled machinery, making the time-consuming production of drawings unnecessary.
The introduction of digital fabrication also enabled architects to produce scale models of their
designs using processes and techniques identical to those used in the industry. Thus, a valuable
feedback mechanism between conception and production was established.
This newfound ability to generate construction information directly from design information is what
defines the most profound aspect of contemporary architecture. The close relationship that once
existed between architecture and construction (what was once the very nature of architectural
practice) could potentially reemerge as an unintended but fortunate outcome of the new digital
processes of production. The digital generation of information to manufacture and construct
buildings can render the present inefficient hierarchies of intermediation unnecessary. As
constructability becomes a direct function of computability, the question is what new instruments
of practice are needed to take advantage of the opportunities opened up by the digital modes of
production.
04 – Digital Visualization
Julio Bermudez
Digital Visualization addresses representational challenges from within and without Architecture.
‘Disciplinary’ Digital Visualization is used to explore, understand and communicate architectural
information associated with the production of buildings. 3D modeling, rendering, animation and
VR as well as the power of digital media to permit the seamless integration of various data types
are unleashing completely new ways to display architecture. As digital power continues to
increase and get cheaper, portability and wi-fi networks take root, and visualization work
becomes even more main stream, we can expect growing changes in the way the design process
is conducted, buildings are presented and documented, and the public and 3rd party’s demands
from professional services. This demands a more conscious research/pedagogies aimed at
developing new representation conventions.
‘Interdisciplinary’ Digital Visualization is a rapidly expanding area of expertise with competency
ranging from artificial environments (e.g., video game worlds, cinematographic stage sets, web
and other cyber environments) to abstract data representation constructs (i.e., information
architecture), This type of work has already generated quite a number of new jobs, educational
programs and research projects in many industries, schools and universities. Whether or not this
type of knowledge implies a different type of architect (e.g., information architect) is subject to
debate. What is beyond argument is the fact that the need for this kind of expertise will only grow
in the coming years. Therefore, it is imperative that architecture programs pay serious teaching
and research attention to the areas of digital visualization.
05 – Digital Projects: Defining Digital Architecture
Kevin R. Klinger
Architecture is presently engaged in an impatient search for solutions to critical questions about
the nature and the identity of the discipline, and digital technology is a key agent for prevailing
innovations in architecture. Although, this is really nothing new, as new technology has always
been a catalyst for new ideas in architecture. A positive digital future in architecture requires a
clearer definition of principles and skills necessary to maintain a rigor in emerging digital projects
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What is digital architecture? Architectural ideas have found new forms of digital representations,
as information reconfigures into digital visualizations, and projects evolve further as digital
fabrications. However, using digital technology doesn’t necessarily constitute creating digital
architecture. Ideas are still scrutinized by the author(s). Thus, a responsibility for a critical
dimension still falls upon the author(s). Any new categorizations of architecture must connect
equally with the critical as well as the technological skill base of the authors. Just as there is a
difference between building and architecture, there is also a distinct difference between digitally
generated projects and digital architecture.
digital principles+rigor: Does the tool path limit the density of the ripple? Did I choose a suitable
algorithm for that surface? …A clear and critical definition of new principles has yet to
materialize in the wake of these new tool driven terminologies. I submit that digital architecture
projects still come to life through the lens of a familiar architectural process—as a critical problem
solving activity that results in projects represented with a rigor and depth of idea and intention,
albeit with a highly sophisticated digital tool skill set. Without new principles, many projects
remain impenetrable and thus intimidating, or merely “interesting.” Without a rigor and critical
dimension, the projects will remain only exercises in software.
digital skills: Digital architecture requires proficiency with a specific foundation set of digital skills
such as: 2D composition, vector graphics, image manipulation, 3D modeling: surface modeling,
solid modeling, video editing, motion graphics, rendering, animation, parametrics, drafting,
communications, layout, printing, presentation, database operations, web interface, CAM-based
fabrication, performance analysis: lighting, structures, systems, etc. However, innovative digital
projects will not sacrifice the development of this skill set at the expense of a critical problemsolving
dimension. Thus, we must carefully consider the guidelines for what truly constitutes a
digital “architecture” project.
06 – Digital Design
Peter Anders & Wassim Jabi
Describing design as a sequence of steps cannot convey the complexity of social interactions that
it embodies. Design is not merely a process, but a co-evolution of efforts and events in various
places and times —both synchronous and asynchronous. Designers share their values, effort
and expertise within design settings via artifacts that further the design process. Increasingly,
these design settings in academia, research, and professional practice combine physical and
virtual modalities such as immersion, projection, and a range of interaction technologies. Peter
Anders has described such spaces as cybrids: hybrids that integrate virtual and physical space.
In these settings, designers use overlapping physical and virtual artifacts and tools to arrive at a
co-operative design resolution. Within collaborative design, these artifacts take on an additional
role. As embodiments of design ideas and actions, they become media for communication.
Donald Schon asserts that design should be considered a form of making, rather than primarily a
form of problem solving, information processing or research. Indeed the line separating creation
from design is becoming increasingly blurred. For the design artifact itself may become a part of
the design proposal — its virtual presence incorporated within a cybrid structure or object. We
may in the future see a proliferation of cybrid settings that support collaborative, digital design.
The technologies for this already exist in collaborative tools, networked computing, scanning and
immersive media. However, it will take a creative vision to see how these disparate tools and
devices can integrate within the ideal design setting.
07 – Digital Representation: Architecture, Technology, and Representation
Frederick Stacy Norman and Lisa Tilder
As digital technologies and connective systems begin to redefine traditional notions of place,
space and time, how might Architecture itself transform? Over the past century, extreme
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conceptual and spatial transformations have come about in relation to the introduction of
mechanical reproduction, computer graphics and redundant systems, however Architecture and
representation have remained somewhat constant. This is evident in the continuity of traditional
architectural representation methods that draw primarily from Renaissance models - though the
original impetus from which such projection methods evolved no longer bear the same
significance to culture. How do contemporary models of communication, mass production,
distribution and imaging influence the conception and production of Architecture? How might
hybrid models influence architectural production, from pre-manufactured housing to consumer
products, brand identity to mass-market advertising? Below are three aspects of contemporary
representation that explore emerging connections between architecture, media, representation
and culture.
Drawing: Whether handcrafted, computer-translated or computer-generated, drawing provides us
with abstraction capable of communicating architectural design ideas. With the increase in digital
media and availability of computer graphics applications and hardware, the medium of the
drawing is changing. With a change in mediums analog to digital, should that impose a change in
how we draw, what we draw, and the intended use of a drawing? Will the two-dimensional
flattened image give way to intelligent three-dimensional digital models for construction?
Modeling + fabrication: Digital media is providing an opportunity to return a sense of materiality to
an immaterial realm. The relationship between architectural design and production are brought
closer together given the fluidity and accuracy of digital tools. Computer-aided design and
computer-aided fabrication processes provide the means to create new forms of architectural
practice and challenge traditional methods of project delivery.
Presentation graphics + new media: As computing technologies have begun to be absorbed into
the popular realm, the general public has become acclimated to an inundation of media.
Relationships between architect/client may be facilitated by the use of popular or experimental
media such as television, computer games, and the web. Architects might look to popular media
for techniques of communication to the general public.
As methods of representation change, Architecture’s definitive boundaries transform.
Relationships between disciplines may join more readily, forging collaborative partnerships.
Students now enter architectural education and the profession from a technologized generation
more facile and familiar with digital tools and environments, and they begin to effect
representational changes in both education and the profession from the bottom up.
08 – Digital Thinking
Mahesh Senagala
The computer has gone from being an isolated box to become part of a gigantic digital network of
networks, which shapes our collective future. The way and pace at which we connect,
communicate, memorize, imagine and control the flows of valuable information have changed
forever. There are at least six digital phenomena that directly affect the architectural world:
miniaturization (of all that can be shrunk), ubiquity (being everywhere, global), realtime
(communing globally in realtime, which is 1/10th of a second), noospherization (networking everything),
virtuality (all that is solid melts into knowledge), and anamnesia (inability to forget).
Temporal contiguity and temporal connectivity have taken precedence over spatial and
geographical contiguity. The strands that animate our life today emanate from spatially distant but
temporally contiguous/connected places. These phenomena have squeezed, stretched,
restructured, reconfigured, and redistributed most major human institutions. Consequently, the
built world’s role, importance and nature have changed. Architecture as traditionally understood
has become more marginalized than before. Many practices, however, have been repositioning
themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities beyond the bounds of traditional
architectural practice. Design, practice, fabrication and construction are increasingly becoming
networked affairs. The new measures of architecture are connectivity and speed. The
architecture of a new world needs to recognize these transformations and think differently.
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09 – Digital Practices
Raffi Tomassian & John Marx
Technical competence in computer technology has become a conditio sine qua non of landing a
job at a respectable architectural practice. By itself, though, this does not imply that all
architectural practices are now doing their work in a revolutionary way. In their overwhelming
majority they have been forced into the digital domain by the ubiquity of technology itself. The
digital file has replaced the drawing as the information backbone in building profession. However,
the common convertible currency of this information down the construction process is still lines on
paper, albeit physically produced by incredibly sophisticated devices.
A few practices are looking beyond the drafting and visualization solutions offered by digital
technology and finding themselves reshaped in the course of this interaction. The problems that
those practices solve today are less related to design than to organization and project
management. This reflects the uniqueness of practice among the other architecturally related
endeavors, such as theory or education.
Technology has a revolutionary potential in architectural practice, but an ingrained psychological
stigma needs to be abolished first. A torrent of energy will be unleashed when the legal
framework of the industry stretches to accommodate the digital model as a legitimate appendix to
or replacement of the traditional bid documents. Until the profession finds a non-mediated route
between digital design and digital fabrication, the changes in the practice will be more cosmetic
than internal.
Short Bios of Contributors
Peter Anders is an architect, educator, information design theorist and author of Envisioning Cyberspace.
He is currently a fellow of the University of Plymouth CAiiA-STAR Ph.D. program. Anders is director of
MindSpace.net, an architectural practice specializing in media/information environments and has presented
his research and projects in a variety of international venues.
Julio Bermúdez (March & PhD Minnesota) is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah College of
Architecture & Planning. His research and pedagogic work focuses on the interaction between design
process and digital media as well as the application of architectural concepts to data environments. His
work has been widely published, exhibited and/or performed in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to being a
member of the ACADIA and SIGRADI steering committees, Bermudez is in the advisory board of Leonardo.
Nancy Yen-wen Cheng (B.A. Yale, M.Arch. Harvard) researches how digital media can enrich the
architectural design process at the University of Oregon. She currently investigates mobile tools for
capturing places. She is active in the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice group, the International
Journal of Architectural Computing and ACADIA.
Wassim Jabi is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Jabi is a
Ph.D. candidate and holds an M.Arch. with distinction from The University of Michigan. Jabi is currently the
coordinator of the third year undergraduate design studios at NJIT and teaches electives on computer-aided
design. He has published several articles on computer-supported collaborative design. Jabi is a long-time
member of the Association for Computer-Aided Design In Architecture (ACADIA). He is also a member of
the editorial board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC).
Kevin Klinger is presently the Conference Chair for the ACADIA22 Conference 2003 in Indianapolis hosted
by Ball State University: http://www.bsu.edu/acadia. He is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Ball
State University. Kevin’s teaching and research interests revolve around the social, cultural, and formal
transformations of architecture and urban environments resulting from the influences of new technologies
and the subsequent emerging digital discourse(s) in architecture.
Branko Kolarevic (DDes, MdesS-Harvard, Dipl.Ing.Arh.-Belgrade) teaches design and digital media
courses. Prior to joining Penn in 1999, he taught at several universities in North America and Asia. He has
lectured worldwide on digital media in design, and has authored and edited several books. He is a former
president of ACADIA.
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Ganapathy Mahalingam is currently an Associate Professor of Architecture and Architecture Program
Director in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at North Dakota State University. He
holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Florida. Professor Mahalingam has firsthand experience
in the creation of digital tools for architecture, having created software for the preliminary design of
proscenium-type auditoriums. The creation of the software involved the definition of an algorithmic process
for auditorium design based on acoustical, functional and programmatic performance parameters
John Marx, AIA is a Design Principal and Partner at, San Francisco based, Form4 Architecture. He has
designed over 150 buildings in 11 different countries. Mr. Marx has lectured around the world on “Digital
Practice”, including Kyonggi University, Seoul, the Technion, Israel, UC Berkeley, and the University of
Sydney.
Frederick Stacy Norman is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Ball State University. He is also the
Site Chair for the ACADIA22 Conference 2003 held in Indianapolis. Frederick was also co-Chair of the 2002
Digital Design Exhibition: http://www.bsu.edu/dde. Frederick is the recipient of the 2003/4 Paul Rudolph
Visiting Assistant Professor, Auburn University, School of Architecture
Prof. George Proctor directs the digital media curriculum at Cal Poly, Pomona. He has taught digital media
courses and design studios in digital design methods since 1993. His writings are in the area of digital tool
use in studio and design education. Proctor Chaired the 2002 ACADIA Conference at Cal Poly Pomona.
Thomas Seebohm is registered architect and an Associate Professor of Architecture in the School of
Architecture of the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He specializes in digital design
technologies and is currently focusing on these areas: digital design pedagogy; rule-based generative
design and expert systems; double shell tensegrity structures, digital lighting design; and interactive, realtime,
3D architectural and urban modeling in stereo
Mahesh Senagala is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Texas, San Antonio and runs
an international practice. His areas of expertise include systems theory, cybernetics, sustainability and
design computing. He has written and lectured extensively about digital culture, thinking and architecture.
Lisa Tilder is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at The Ohio State University Knowlton School of
Architecture, where she teaches architectural design, computer graphics and seminars that address the
relationship of technology, design and representation. As an educator and architect, Tilder’s work pursues
the critical relationship of technology to architecture and culture through various means: web-based projects,
interactive constructions and installations, competitions and building projects.
Raffi Tomassian, UBA, is an Architectural Designer at Cincinnati based Glaserworks. He has won awards
at two international competitions. His work on the Cincinnati Zoo Kids’ Shop received the local AIA chapter
Honor Design Award and has been featured in several publications. He is a frequently invited critic of
academic assignments