Architects as Innovators: Harnessing the Power of Digital Design and Construction

The shift towards digital design and construction in architecture seems to be omnipresent and irreversible. The opportunities that come along with this digital evolution appear to be vast but still sub optimally used by different stakeholders within the realization of architecture. This opens the opportunity to connect the data these specialists create in one single, digital seamless flow of data describing the complete lifecycle of a real estate project. It seems that architects could play a pivotal role in this shift. There may be a central role and as such the opportunity to add extra value in the creation of a streamlined digital workflow while touching a more fundamental issue, namely how architects can strengthen their position from which they can claim and protect their creativity and aesthetic concerns under capitalist conditions. In this article these thoughts are excavated and discussed by introducing some of the work of Studio RAP.