The Digital in Architecture Report:

Then, Now, and in the Future


The Digital in Architecture report was published to explore the impact of digital technology and its larger movements across time. Longform text is easier to absorb in print, so we decided we’d  publish this in a large-scale newspaper format, which made it both dynamic for readers, and kinder on the eyes. To read online, see here at SPACE10.com.

Today within architecture, digital tools — from machine learning to fabrication technologies, from artificial intelligence to Big Data — are becoming more and more ubiquitous and pervasive, and quickly.


Increased interest in the impact these technologies are having, and will have, in our daily lives has rapidly expanded the use of these tools in architecture schools, small, independent firms and international, corporate practices.


From augmented reality for construction to 3D printing architectural models to using artificial intelligence within the design process, it is increasingly rare that an architectural project does not use some kind of digital tool either for design or fabrication. This is also the case when we experience the built environment. The digital is everywhere; from the infrastructure we use to navigate the world to the objects we use to communicate.


This fundamental shift is not lost on the architecture industry. ‘In the future, digital tools will come closer to our human bodies, enabling us to more conveniently access and utilise digital information in our daily lives,’ says architect and designer Soomeen Hahm. ‘Interactivity and connectivity to virtual data and digital information will be stronger than ever before.’

In this context, the increasing proliferation and promise of digital technologies are huge opportunities to shift our shared understandings of the world from an architectural perspective.


How can the digital aid in the creation of new spatial models that are more equitable or inclusive? How have digital design and digital fabrication innovated not only designing and making, but also how we experience the built environment? Are digital tools mere methods that can solve technical problems, or can we extrapolate their potential to change the way we design, build and inhabit our world for a more sustainable future?

These are just a few of the questions guiding the creation of this report.

To address a body of work of this scale, SPACE10 teamed up with architecture theorist Mollie Claypool and information design, Giorgia Lupi at Pentagram Design, New York. While Claypool authored the piece, Giorgia and her team at Pentagram designed the physical version — as well as the data visualisation included within the pages. Giorgia Lupi and her team of designers consolidated the history you’ll read into an ebbing and flowing illustration which guides you through key buildings, architectural movements, digital developments, and more.

Creative brief, concept, design direction, partnership selection: Georgina McDonald
Graphic design and data visualisation: Giorgia Lupi, Pentagram Design
Author and architectural historian: Mollie Claypool
Copy editor: Polina Bachlakova