The Next Architect
A new twist on the future of design
With the sweeping changes on the horizon including Artificial Intelligence, it is time for new working models, a new plan. This book is the perfect companion document to add content to your next meeting or think tank. While written for architects all professionals will benefit. Highly recommended for firms, departments, and students.
The desire to shape our environment and create new and better spaces in which to live, work, and play is an innate human trait. Design can be applied to a wide range of problems and solutions can take a variety of forms, including both objects and processes. Properly understood, design is a team sport, and its power is almost unlimited. The Next Architect takes a critical look at today's conventional practices and offers a new view of how owners, architects, engineers, consultants and contractors can leverage their talents to achieve dramatically better results. That is the power of design thinking.
Leveraging design technology
New technologies are changing design deliverables from lines on paper to an integrated data base. The database not only describes the attributes of a building, but it can also incorporate other relevant data such as quantity take-offs, coordination of engineered systems, cost, etc. The data can be assembled in a variety of ways, including 3-D format, so that conventional construction documents (plans, sections, elevations) are no longer the primary medium of communicating design intent. In addition, the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) when applied to creative problem solving, while still in its infancy, will likely lead to a seismic shift in how design gets done. AI is already being applied with great success to processes that were previously believed to be beyond its capacity. Quantum computing holds the promise to exponentially expand AI’s ability to process huge amounts of data, and there is no theoretical barrier to applying this capacity to the design process. It’s highly likely that the more mundane and technical aspects of design could and should be easily automated. The use of enhanced design technology will change the way that the next generation of architects will get trained, thus changing the game for everyone.
About the authors
James P. Cramer, Hon. AIA, Hon. IIDA, CAE, is a former Executive Vice President/ Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects, as well as the founder of the Design Futures Council and DesignIntelligence. He is also the author of Design + Enterprise: Seeking a New Reality in Architecture. He is on the faculty of the Georgia Tech College of Design where he teaches the popular course, Entrepreneurship in Professional Practice.
Scott Simpson, FAIA, is a former President & CEO of The Stubbins Associates. He is a Richard Upjohn Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. An award-winning architect, Mr. Simpson has published more than 200 articles dealing with issues of innovation in the design professions. He teaches at the Advanced Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Order information
The Next Architect is $27 USD per copy. Please contact us to place bulk orders. Orders from the form below ship within the United States, please contact us to order outside the US.