Abstract

The poetic aspects of integrating digital tools into design making have been discussed at length over the past few years. The methods employed reveal new paths towards creativity, where play and interpretation create an inviting environment for design. The fact that form can be quickly generated through small changes in function variables suggests an evolutionary process. In this respect, digital design may be mimicking nature and its generation of form. In addition, the application of animation to architectural representation appears to have introduced the concepts of growth and change. A new view of architecture emerges, one that emphasizes the transient and improvisational over the static and planned. Therefore, the use of digital tools has the potential to generate new and innovative design solutions through its singular and inevitable introduction of the unexpected. The whole creative process is revealed to be a tripartite interplay of the instrumental (the mathematic-algorithmic nature of the modeling tool), the accidental (an outcome of the user’s playful and subliminal dispensation) and a monitoring reasoning towards a meaningful result. An example is presented of the dynamic relationship which can develop between, a user and a software tool that leads to creative design. The result is illustrated by a series of step-by-step sketches, renderings and video.