SPAN Lecture at the Distributed Intelligence in Design Symposium, Manchester, UK

Architectural design and production is becoming more and more a digitally-networked practice, and an outcome of  distributed activities within and across organisations that involves various collaborative interactions and embedding intelligence into the formation, organisation, performance and actualisation of spaces. 

Recent introduction and coupling of digitally mediated design and production environments facilitated a radical deviation from the traditional ways of using representations, knowledge assets, organisational forms and standards. At the core of the technological shift lies the 3D knowledge rich Parametric Design and Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools/systems. These systems offer radically new methodologies to merge design with execution. The relationship between the designer, the organisational structure of the collaborating parties and their interaction with different tools (e.g. Parametric design and BIM tools) at different stages of the design process and the extent to which this interaction contributes to innovation vary. Different tools and systems suggest different workflows and support different organisational structures and methodologies. As architectural design/production moving towards a more dynamic and process oriented model for digital practice, both the profession and the academy is in the process of coming terms with these new forms of thinking.