The digital paradox in architectural design: The avoidance of a process of imitation or mimicry, gestures, or make-believe

The study of the design process has grown progressively over the last 30 years. The early pedagogic studies of Bruner (1961) and Schon (1983) set the grounding for more digitally focused studies by Cross (2001), followed by Winn (1993) with a marked increase in studies and research by Ambrose (2009), Clayton (2010), Ozener (2010), Farias (2010) and more recently Decker (2013). However, these studies were all small in scale and remain untested, as their findings were not verified in repeat studies.
The use of CAD in the design process allows the ‘problem finding’ and ‘problem solving’ phases of the design journey to be far more acquiescent.
These previously separate domains are now becoming increasing integrated and the clear lines between the two are now blurred. This readily accessible and seamless environment allows for a greater accuracy and finer levels of manipulation to be achieved. There is a new pedagogic classification occurring when we use CAD in architectural design process... that of depth of learning, these are now explored.