Inform Form Perform

Nate Holland1
1University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Graduate Student MBA/MArch

“Within contemporary architectural design, a significant shift in emphasis can be detected – a move away from an architecture based on purely visual concerns towards an architecture justified by its performance.” (Leach). Architects have developed and employed parametric design strategies to both address these performance related concerns and improve their production.

Though these strategies have improved architectural design, they are not being used to their full extent in the design process. Author propose taking the use of computers in aiding architectural design one step further; information and data should INFORM the project, driving the creation of a building FORM enabling it to PERFORM at higher levels than traditional design.

As architects continue to improve these tools, owners and developers tend to choose an opposing strategy. They often finance cheaply built (and poorly designed) buildings in an effort to reduce the upfront costs of the project. However, in economics reducing costs is only part of a sound financial decision.

The other half of the equation is increasing the revenue generated by the project. Author further propose that by investing in an informed design/decision making process, investors would be able to fund projects that perform better and sustain significantly higher revenues.