From “bricks and mortar” to “nuts and bolts”, and on to “codes and pixels”, the scope of architectural design technology, research and education is characterised by continuous expansion. On this journey of enrichment, digitally enabled thinkers help to rethink and to recast the building blocks, perceptive lenses, expressive features and analytical frames of architectural design in particular and of how humans perceive and make choices in general. Acknowledging that the possibilities of current digital processes and tools are far from exhausted, this conference seeks new thoughts, fresh approaches and a surge forward: What comes next?

Digital tools for seeing the new and for choosing what is best are deployed no longer just in the design studio and on the construction site. They mediate performances and experiences of the spaces and constraints of not only the creatively expressible and of the physically inhabitable, but increasingly also of the socially desirable. The organizers of this conference set out to investigate the future role of computer-aided architectural design (CAAD) research in this context.