Digital technologies in architectural design

This chapter deals with how embedded and emerging digital techniques have been used within architecture, both to help develop ideas in the mind of the &s;design team&s; and then to communicate those ideas to a wider audience. It opens with a wider discussion of information visualisation, in order to make clear the importance of communication, insight and intention within the choice of visualisation method. The chapter describes some of the digital tools and techniques which have developed over the years, and which may help to ameliorate the design and modelling process. Although the early development of Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) concentrated on the production stages of projects, the potential for using digital media and CAAD at the early design stages has been recognised for many decades. In the early 2000s, eCAADe presented work which explored the key issues facing the future of CAAD within education.