Kristen Billings
In dreaming up the possible ways the computer could make our lives easier, we
must remember to consider the consequences this ease may bring upon architecture.
In Blobmeister and Animate Form, we are reminded of the positive and negative factors
that come along with the digital revolution for architecture. The machine may omit
the architects involvement and elaboration of the design process of creating and
revising. But it may allow us to explore and gradually approach different design
variations in an entire building realm, rather than in frozen moments. The key factor
to realize is that there must be a hierarchy between the role of the software and the
role of the designer. Without releasing control of the design process to the software,
architects need to become comfortable with using computers in schematic design and
as a tool of generative mediums. New realism of space in schematic design may be
available through computer technology in that the implementations of new factors of
space could engage aspects of time, motion, and statics. “Animate approaches to
architecture envelop traditional models of statics into a more advanced system of
dynamic organizations” (Animate Form, p. 10). New spatial possibilities are now
conceivable through computer software. The rapid advance of computers in design by
computer-aided technology presents architectural design with a new opportunity to
rethink itself. The beneficial characteristics of computer tools in design could cause
negative consequences. There remains a need for an understanding of the designer and
technology, in that the human mind will never run dry of imaginative creativity, but
design done by computers may lead to autonomous design strategies and thus a ceasing
