How Will Generative Design Impact Architecture?

Trial and error. On a napkin, on tracing paper, or on a black CAD background, much of an architect's work is to make and redo lines, shapes, objects, and images. Discard, start over, repeat. Between an initial idea and a final project is a long and exhausting path. This difficulty lies in the root of designing as a process of making infinite decisions, where a change can influence countless other elements and consequently is an exercise in choosing benefits and concessions. These choices can take a number of forms, from determining how much area to cover while minimally impacting the environment to fitting as many work tables in an office as possible without losing good circulation. Each require many studies or considerations to arrive at the most suitable option. For example, the position of a window, even if it looks great on a the façade, can make the location of the bed in a dormitory unfeasible or increase the building's energy consumption.

How Will Generative Design Impact Architecture?
Cortesia de Autodesk Cortesia de Autodesk

Trial and error. On a napkin, on tracing paper, or on a black CAD background, much of an architect's work is to make and redo lines, shapes, objects, and images. Discard, start over, repeat. Between an initial idea and a final project is a long and exhausting path. This difficulty lies in the root of designing as a process of making infinite decisions, where a change can influence countless other elements and consequently is an exercise in choosing benefits and concessions. These choices can take a number of forms, from determining how much area to cover while minimally impacting the environment to fitting as many work tables in an office as possible without losing good circulation. Each require many studies or considerations to arrive at the most suitable option. For example, the position of a window, even if it looks great on a the façade, can make the location of the bed in a dormitory unfeasible or increase the building's energy consumption.

Of course, there are always tight deadlines and budgets throughout any project, with the client often in a hurry and willing to devote limited time to thinking about every possible combination or the precise appropriateness of each decision. This stage is where, increasingly, the concept of Generative Design has appeared in architecture.

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