Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

CAD drafting software was originally developed in the 1960s and since the 1970s, with more affordable computers, became widely spread in the architecture and construction industries. For that to happen, a simplification of the programs had to occur, which Mitchell (1990) identified as an inflection point in the history of CAD, and after which “the wider possibilities were largely ignored”. Around the year 2000 CAD development split in two new directions: one towards Building Information Modelling, a type of CAD software that is object-oriented and adds more intelligence to drawings, associating information to geometric entities, and another one towards Parametric Design, which involves both the manipulation of geometric parameters and algorithmic thinking, facilitating conceptual design explorations. Many authors have claimed that, as a more abstract environment, Parametric Design has more generative potential and can promote creativity, while BIM would inhibit it due to parametric limitations and the need to specify too much detail since the early stages of the design process. Other authors, however, have claimed that BIM can also support creative design with its collaborative tools and, more recently, the generative environments that have been incorporated into this type of software. The aim of the present paper is to review the literature on Parametric Design and BIM software, in order to compare their tools and processes, and answer the following research question: can computational design concepts be implemented in BIM software since the early stages of design? Revit software will be used as a basis for experiments.