The Software Beats the Hardware

Abstract

The paper is based on ongoing reflections concerning the importance of information technology in architecture. Such reflections are necessary to develop research concerning the use of information technology in architectural design, so as to shift the focus from purely technological development to an actual field of research. The result of these reflections to date suggests that research into the significance of information technology in architecture must go via sociological research on the subject, since information technology has become a social factor. The central element in such research will be to identify and specify how the virtual world which is developing can be articulated in relation to the physical world. One of the ways of doing this is to use metaphors.