Abstract

The Post-Digital Context A Post-Digital In 1995, Mitchell and McCullough posed the question, “ What was Architectural computer-aided design?” as a provocation that a future genera- tion of designers would have forgotten that design methods other Research Agenda than computationally based ones ever existed. Arguably, that time has arrived. In developed countries, many current architec- to Address 21st ture students rely almost exclusively upon digital methods—they Century Challenges use computers to take notes, photograph, sketch, devise com- plex forms, produce design documentation, write, create images and videos of their designs, communicate with collaborators and instructors, and estimate performance to guide their design deci- sions. In this sense, their design approach is post-digital, since digital technologies are omnipresent and transparent. Kolarevic suggests that the post-digital context is defined by a shift from a fascination with the digital toward the simply architectural and the integrative. Arguably, there is less need for inventing new software tools, adapting hardware gadgets to architectural appli- cations, and exploring novel forms that are vaguely habitable. Rather, the suggestion is that those with expertise in computa- tional design embrace research agendas that explicitly address critical social issues and challenges of our era that are amenable to architectural