ARIEL COOKE

Architecture is a process, but do we truly understand what it looks like? How do we untangle the web of connections and relationships that take us from the first meeting with a client to a finished building?

Think back to any project you've completed. From start to finish, there's a series of steps and sub-steps, each leading to the next. Every decision, every drawing, and every adjustment is part of a larger chain of inputs and outputs that bring buildings to life. If we mapped it out, we’d see a picture of the process, with tangles and knots representing every planned and unplanned connection.

Every building follows a unique roadmap, but if we were to map out several projects from start to finish we would start to see patterns, steps that repeat, and sequences that we can study and optimize. Easier said than done, right? Visualizing the entire architectural process as a series of steps can be daunting. That’s where visual scripting can help us, well, visualize.

Visual scripting tools like hashtag#Grasshopper, hashtag#Dynamo, and hashtag#xGenerative Design make coding accessible by packaging different code functions into a clean interface with inputs and outputs. If we want to create a cube, all we need is its desired location and dimensions. These simple inputs run through a black box of code, and out comes a cube. What's in the box? It’s the process that translates those inputs into 3D geometry, optimized and neatly packaged for reuse. From there, we can take that cube, use it as an input in another node, and stack three cubes in a spiral. By connecting simple steps, we can build something more complex—just as in architecture, where decisions accumulate into a detailed and intricate design: inputs, processes, and outputs. This is, in essence, workflow design.

So how do we improve the process? In coding, refactoring means restructuring existing code to make it cleaner, more efficient, and easier to maintain, all without changing its external behavior. In architecture, this means refining the steps we take without sacrificing the creativity and uniqueness that define great design. Refactoring architecture isn’t about producing the same building over and over—it’s about making the process more efficient so we can create great spaces more effectively.

Architecture is a beautiful process, but it’s also one that can be refined. By breaking it down and improving each step, we can create buildings that are both unique and scalable. With housing demand growing, this approach could be a key to delivering more homes without compromising on quality.

As we refine the architectural process, how can we make design repeatable and scalable while ensuring that standardization enhances, rather than limits, creativity? How can we balance these forces to meet growing demands without compromising on quality?