Oracles, draughtsmen, and agents: the nature of knowledge and creativity in design and the role of IT

We have been using the term ‘computer-aided design’ now in architecture for about four decades. But how accurate and realistic is this? Have we really managed to get computers to actually aid creative design and how effective is it? This paper discusses how we support the central creative design process itself. It does this by exploring the implications of what we know so far about the cognitive processes involved in the human design process. It outlines some of the sub-systems we will need in order to develop true comprehensive computer-aided architectural design. e had computer-aided design in architecture now for over four decades. During this time, the computer has been used in several quite different roles, some of which will be discussed here. However, so far, the contribution the computer has made to supporting creative design remains patchy and uncoordinated [B.R. Lawson, CAD and creativity: does the computer really help? Leonardo 35 (3) (2002) 327–331]. Why is this and what, if anything, can we do about it? One clue to this is that some four decades ago we also knew very little about the design process compared with our contemporary understanding [B.R. Lawson, How Designers Think, Oxford, Architectural Press, 1997.[2]]. Cerulli, C., C. Peng, et al. (2001). Capturing Histories of Design Processes for Collaborative Building Design Development: Field Trial of the ADS Prototype. Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2001. B. de Vries, J. van Leeuwen and H. Achten. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers: 427-438.