Examples of Use of Computers for Architecture

Architectural traditionalism, with its emphasis on handwork, drawing and precise modeling, has been slow to turn to computers. But now that the rush has begun, computer visualization is opening new areas for design, community integration and an emerging architectural role in cyberspace's electronic world. In the studio and on the building site, firms of all sizes are finding that ability to use the right computer software has become indispensable for gaining clients and making practices easier to run. A look at the field presents many examples.

With its rounded curves, jagged edges and multiplicity of upthrust geometric shapes, the model for the Walt Disney Concert Hall's addition to the Los Angeles Music Center looks more like a city in the clouds than a complex whose distorted geometric shapes have been plotted on a computer screen. Conceived as an Eiffel Tower for a city without a center by architectural master Frank Gehry, if built as planned the massive structure will add the pizzazz of such elemental modern erections as the Louvre pyramid and the Sydney Opera House to a dully institutional section of downtown Los Angeles (Betsky, 1995, p. 23).

But in October 1995, as massive cost overruns were expected to balloon total project costs from a projected $132 million to $265 million or more, there was doubt about whether the project could, would and should be built. An $81.5 million garage remained the only completed element of an increasingly troubled project. Groun

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y well received by our clients. The more computers we get, the more work we get, the more people we get. The Phoenix architectual market is thriving and we've been able to position ourselves well to meet the increased demands and increased expectations of our clients as a result of computerizing our practice (Architectural Record, 1994, November, p. A6). Using ArchiCAD, Orcutt/Winslow modeled the Phoenix Valley and used data to "do a flyby and zoomed into one of our buildings." Full animation will come next-"our clients love it." on the administrative side, "our people are editing their minutes in the field and then sending them to the clerical staff for proofing. Sixty to 70% of our documents are done by the architects themselves" (Architectural Record, 1994, November, p. A6) . Tips about the transition to computerization are offered by another architectural principal, Norma DeCamp Burns, FAIA, Burnstudio Architects PA, Raleigh, North Carolina. Burns describes how she began to design on the screen using overlays the way she was accustomed to use tracing paper: "I developed the design on the computer from the beginning, after a series of sketches on tracing paper which developed the parti. At that point, I decided to try th

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