An investigation of the emerging knowledge in digital design from a multidisciplinary perspective

Over the past few decades, the CAD/CAM/CAE paradigm, which initially emerged outside the realm of the building industry, has introduced new concepts and techniques for the generation and realization of complex building forms and components. This paper reviews and assesses the emerging knowledge elements in design with a special focus on digital free-form architecture. While doing so, we exclude a mere syntactical analysis which describes only the formal properties of this new complexity. Rather, we propose to evaluate how complexity and variety is generated, represented and fabricated. Therefore, the paper seeks to identify the emerging design knowledge in relation to its link with technology, and the changing norms of design with regard to the inclusion of technology in both mental and material creation processes. A contextual framework is developed to structure and organize the knowledge elicitation and analysis. Within this framework, the paper identifies and evaluates the emerging elements of knowledge with reference to different organizational contexts. Additionally, the emerging knowledge is identified not only within the isolated working domain of the architect but according to the extent to which each stakeholder (e.g. structural engineer, manufacturer, etc.) contributes to the evolution of the design and the collective creation of knowledge.