Architectural design on the treshold of the digital age:

Revolution or regression from a dialogical view point

Abstract

One thing should be perfectly clear: I am not against the use of the computer in architectural design. On the contrary, I think that each technological advancement is a blessing for architects if, and only if, it is correctly used. Of course, in order to be correctly used, any technological advancement implies new theories and innovative points of view about human development. I think we have these new theories and these innovative points of view, but I also think that architects today are eager to use the computer without any theoretical training. A lot of them consider theories to be obstacles for a free use of the computer, more than a way of improving the design processes. They are wrong, and this is the aim of my brief contribution. Which are these "new theories”? I will present some of them very shortly. The dialogical theory by M. Bakhtin is not strictly new, because it was conceived at the beginning of the twentieth century, but English translations of Bakhtin's book are very recent, and the impact of the dialogical theories is still on its way today. (Muntañola, J. 2007a, 2006) (Camic, C. and Joas, H. eds. 2004) (Ponzio, A. 1998).