Architectural design exposed: from computer-aided drawing to computer-aided design

Computer programs for architects and designers still do not ‘understand’ very much about what they are modelling or representing. In this paper the argument is put forward that as computer-aided design systems show increasing intelligence by employing data structures that more closely represent the way buildings go together, designers will find that they are relieved of manual tasks of representing the building design. This will be achieved by some restriction on the range of possible building solutions that the computer will be able to model and thus raises the question of architectural style imposed by computer. In addition, as manual representation is increasingly handed to the machine, creative design will emerge more clearly distinguishable as a fundamentally human skill.