Practice 2006: Toolkit 2020

Abstract

This paper discusses advances in computing applications as they affect the design of the built environment. It presents emergent applications selected from Arup's current projects, examines the changing nature of the profession, and concludes with a preview of research leading to Arup's vision of the designer's toolkit for 2020. Applications address in the first instance the vertical integration of the supply chain and secondly the horizontal integration across the different design disciplines. This paper further explores the link between three dimensional representation and analysis, automated generation of representation, computational design optimization and Realtime synthetic environments. Of integral importance to the continuing innovation in computational applications are of course the people who use the tools. We describe four emergent specialists: toolmakers, custodians, math modellers and PhD candidates embedded in the practice. The vision of Toolkit 2020 ranges from persisting hardware limitations for near-realtime design regeneration, to the emergence of open source freeware. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.