Design Mediums and Other Phenomena of First Generation CAD Practice

In the majority of architecture firms which use CAD tools, computer technology has been retrofitted to an existing traditional practice, with mixed results. I will addresses some of the more interesting phenomena which occur in first generation CAD practices of this type, taking as a case study one well- established firm in Barcelona which, after more than thirty years of a successful practice, has adopted computer technology to such an extent that it is now very difficult to find even an ink pen in their offices. Less than three years after the introduction of its first computer workstation, the Barcelona office is fully computerized, from carrying out even basic design directly with computer technology, to developing inhouse software and maintaining an internet node via modem. This rapid adoption of the technology, although a relatively smooth one, was not free from strange side-effects. Because of the continuing involvement of a large part of the existing staff, the transition to computer aided design required the appearance of hybrid methodologies which are neither the traditional ones, nor what one might expect to find in the newly established CAD practice