The Role of Physical Models in Digital Design Processes

In recent years, designers have used digital media at various points of the design process, which helps expand architectural possibilities. Digital media has changed not only the architectural style, but also the design process (Lynn, 1999). In earlier times, some researchers of design thinking have looked at how the role of physical models played in traditional design processes (Millon, 1994). However, the design process has been changed when media designers used to adjust from traditional to digital. Therefore, visual thinking and cognitive behaviour of designers also change while using physical models in design processes. From the synthesis of the two aforementioned disciplines, we can find that there exists a point of deficiency. That is the cognitive research about designers who use physical models in digital design processes is absent. This is discussed in the current paper.