Computing in Design Education: ACADIA Conference Proceedings

Progress is being made towards integrating computing into architectural design. This progress is not being made in a coordinated and systematic manner, which is actually a positive factor. Architects will never be scientists or engineers, who hold the distinguishing characteristic of being masters of the scientific method. We have never been so incumbered, although we certainly have given it our best effort. Architects are creative problem solvers, primarily driven by intuition, while coming from a sense of the past and the logic of the present. Our initial attempts at integrating computing into the studio, as evidenced by this collection of papers, is very diverse, based on differing pedagogical assumptions, and the achieving of significantly different results. This would appear to be evidence of a revolutionary approach to the problem rather than a scientific evolutionary approach. Terrific! This is when we as architects are at our best. Although we reach a great number of emphatically dead ends, the successes and discoveries achieved along the way are significant. The diversity and quality of papers submitted suggest that we are indeed pursuing the task of integration in our typical, individual, intuitive, logical manner. I commend all of the authors who submitted proposals and thank them for expanding the envelope of integration into their personal exploration