Combinatorial Architecture

Abstract

Architects have always tried -using the means available to them- to find strategies for mastering the formal, geometric and constructive structures that take part in the design process, by fixing a limited number of elements and defining the laws that connect them to one another: a combinatorial process that, for centuries, was essentially based on drawing and models. These traditional tools made it possible to maintain a specific balance between the idea, the hand that drew it, the scale of representation and the instructions given to the builder; or in other words, between the design and the spatial and constructive execution of the building. However, over the past several years, manual drawing has been inevitably substituted for computer-assisted design, which for both technical and economic reasons has since extended almost universally. What began as just a new tool for drawing, is now substantially modifying the historic connections between the design and the architectural production, to such an extent that some people believe that we are immersed in a digital revolution that not only affects the manner of representation, but also the formation of creative processes that the designer would be incapable of devising without their assistance.