Computational Tools in Architecture and Their Genesis: The Development of Agent-based Models in Spatial Design

Résumé En

Based on the assumption that socio-technical networks of computation in architecture exist and must be analyzed deeper in order to understand the impact of algorithmic tools on the design process, the present paper offers a foray into it, drawing on science studies methodologies. The research explores in what regard multi-agent systems (MAS) are representative as much from the existence of these socio-technical networks as of how their development influences the tension between tacit and explicit knowledge at play in procedural design processes and of the strategies architectural designers develop to resolve this tension. A methodology of analysis of these phenomena is provided as well as results of the application of this method to MAS, leading to a better understanding of their development and impact in CAAD in the past two decades. Tactics of resolution shaped by early MAS users enable, through a double appropriation, a skillful implementation of architectural practice. Furthermore, their approach partially circumvents the establishment of technical biases tied to this algorithmic typology, at the cost of a lesser massive democratization of the algorithmic tools developed in relation to it.