Computational Approaches in 21st Century Architectural Design: Defining Digital Representation Methods

The studies on design and design methods increased towards the end of the twentieth century in industrialized societies, however, the act of design started to be carried out with different auxiliary tools. The digital and algorithmic structure behind the computer has begun to provide the designer with different possibilities outside of the traditional drawing environment. After this period, the queries and discussions on the content of the design, its components, the intellectual process of the designer, and similar issues gradually increased. Within this scope, new theories and methods have emerged. In today's design, especially with digital technologies, transformations in theory and practice in the design process have brought new methods with them. Architects and designers have now become design tool developers rather than using use of the design tool. Based on this, the assistive tools that determine the current architectural design style is aimed to be explored in this paper. The study contributes to the field by (i) exploring these tools and their latent features, (ii) assessing the pros and cons of these tools, and (iii) last, implementing these design tools on the case studies.