Community Architect: Future Industries -What Drives the next 20 Years of Change?

Some Rambling Thoughts on the future:

1. Less Expensive computer chips, eventually the cost of computer chips will be so low that the ability to skin a building in computer chips will become a reality. This will have implications and opportunities to affect the skin of buildings and will also impact who controls the skin. Architectural facades/ skins will become even more responsive to their environment. However the skin could also become a battle over control and design, is the skin now owned by the developer, the PR department, the advertising agency, branding? The Architect may develop the skin, but control of that skin may land in the hands of others and change how and what a building may look like, day to day, season by season, , tenant by tenant, owner by owner.

2. Robotics- will affect the cost of labor and push some people out of work, fortunately the need for robotic and AI designers and maintenance staff will increase. This could include impact those involved in the construction industry and the movement of materials and resources. Robots will have the ability to construct buildings utilizing direct digital model information and have already been utilized for building a freeway wall. Robots do not take lunch breaks and currently do not have a union.

3. 3D printing- the ability to design, construct and install components in real time by printing 3D objects at the job site will affect construction and other industries. The ability to build custom prosthetics or other medical components will impact the way we provide and deliver care. THe ability to order a 3D file from Amazon or it's replacement and then instead of delivery, the printer builds it at your home, office or school.

4. Self driving cars- will impact the need for and the use of parking structures as well as the need for uber, taxi and truck drivers. Maybe now is the time to design parking structures that can be easily converted to other uses in the future, when the need for storing cars will be reduced significantly. It will also impact the design of housing as we reduce the need for parking under high density structures and the need for attached and detached garages for single family homes. Time to turn the garage into a VR/AR environment.

5. AI- self learning computers will impact many industries including healthcare diagnosis and other industries requiring real time data. In architecture perhaps the cost of designs can be calculated in real time, providing designers and owners with a building that performs to their metrics (energy savings, labor savings, operational efficiency, philanthropy/ brand).

6. VR and Augmented reality- will affect how we design buildings, travel (will we ), education and gaming. The question is will we become Wall-E, and become even less social by crawling into a VR / simulated world.

Provocative thoughts. Even before the technologies you mention are commercially available, we are primed for their arrival. We are already accustomed to designing with simulations (Rhino, Revit, etc.) and are losing the material  aspects of architecture. Drawing and physical model-making are no longer a necessary part of the design process. Our bodies are not involved in design any more. Designing with such media blurs the line between simulation and reality. A simulation's value lies in the fact that it behaves like the building we're designing. The building and the digital model can become almost interchangeable. The more dependent we become on technology, the more our work is determined by our technologies. Measurable metrics become our only design goals. How will we make sure that technology serves us and not the other way around?

Provocative thoughts. Even before the technologies you mention are commercially available, we are primed for their arrival. We are already accustomed to designing with simulations (Rhino, Revit, etc.) and are losing the material  aspects of architecture. Drawing and physical model-making are no longer a necessary part of the design process. Our bodies are not involved in design any more. Designing with such media blurs the line between simulation and reality. A simulation's value lies in the fact that it behaves like the building we're designing. The building and the digital model can become almost interchangeable. The more dependent we become on technology, the more our work is determined by our technologies. Measurable metrics become our only design goals. How will we make sure that technology serves us and not the other way around?