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Stumbling, Backtracking, and Leapfrogging: Two Decades of Introductory Architectural Computing

On any journey of exploration a backward look can achieve several objectives. First, it can be a cautionary action that records an escape route in case forward progress becomes untenable. Second, it can be an encouragement in that the view down the mountain shows how far one has come so that the journey up the mountain seems more achievable. Third, the view backwards may engender memories that should be recorded and preserved for future journeyers. We have journeyed far enough on the path of architectural computing education to profit from Our collective concept of computing and its relevance to architecture has undergone dramatic shifts in emphasis. A review of popular texts from the past reveals the biases and emphases that were current. In the seventies, architectural computing was generally seen as an elective for data processing specialists. In the early eighties, personal computers and commercial CAD systems were widely adopted. Architectural computing diverged from the “batch” world into the “interactive” world. As personal computing matured, introductory architectural computing courses turned away from a foundation in programming toward instruction in CAD software. By the late eighties, Graphic User Interfaces and windowing operating systems had appeared, leading to a profusion of architecturally relevant applications that needed to be addressed in introductory computing. The introduction of desktop 3D modeling in the early nineties led to increased emphasis upon rendering and animation. The past few years have added new emphases, particularly in the area of network communications, the World Wide Web and Virtual Design Studios. On the horizon are topics of electronic commerce and knowledge markets. This paper reviews these past and current trends and presents an outline for an introductory computing course that is relevant to the year 2000.