Re:Thinking BIM in the Design Studio - Beyond Tools… Approaching Ways of Thinking

The application of digital design methods and technologies related to BIM and Integrated Practice Delivery are altering the how and what of architectural design. The way contemporary architecture is conceived and made is being transformed through the digital methods, processes and applications used in BIM. How architectural education and the design studio model evolve to reflect, interpret, translate, or challenge the multiplicitous and simultaneously variable modes of contemporary practice present opportunity and risk to this generation of digital scholars, educators and practitioners. Might we re-conceive the design studio as a venue in which a critical dialogue about how the many facets of architectural design practice are engaged? The possibilities afforded by BIM and Integrated Practice Delivery and digital design technologies are increasingly affecting what we make and simultaneously how we make as architects. Digital modeling of both geometry and information is replacing (or displacing) digital drawing. We see diminishing returns of the value of transforming three-dimensional spatial/formal ideas into two-dimensional conventional abstractions of those complex ideas. This comprehensive thinking promoted by BIM processes is one of the key advantages of using BIM leading to true design innovation. The reiterative learning process of design promoted in BIM promotes a rethinking of design studio education.