Convergence

INTRODUCTION DESIGN IN A TIME OF SIMULTANEITY, SUPERINTEGRATION, AND CONVERGENCE

This convergence will be recognized as the largest, most complex, and most surprising event on the planet up until this time.

—Kevin Kelly¹

There is today a pronounced and accelerated convergence in architecture. This convergence is occurring in building design, fabrication, and construction because of doers, not thinkers, and in practice, not academia. It is about solution-centric individuals engaging in real-time problem solving, not in abstractions. The nature of this convergence, where things are converging, and what that convergence means for architecture is the subject of this book.

The emergent forces and technologies that have come together in the second decade of the twenty-first century have developed to the point where real-time integration of all facets of the design and construction process is now possible. Computational tools, collaborative work processes, and the cloud make real-time/right-time convergence today a reality. However, tools aren’t the only things causing this convergence: it’s also due to the maturity of the design community. Those who have been at this for a while, as they attest throughout this book, recognize a convergence of forces, technologies, and workflows not only in their own work, but throughout the profession and industry.

There is even another force at work: millennials. No longer restricted to use of the tools created and distributed by software manufacturers, ...