Architects as tool consumers: discovering trends in software and programming languages for Architecture with Google Trends

Abstract

Architect professional figure and skills have undergone innumerable evolutions throughout human history, and although the architect's task is always substantially to design buildings and spaces, the use of digital tools has undoubtedly marked the greatest change in architectural design since the Renaissance, if not since the time of Vitruvius (Sacchi 2018). However, when we talk about the relationship between architecture and digital tools, we immediately think about projects of some contemporary architects and researches of some important academics come to mind. Digital tools are now everywhere within the fragmented world of architecture: from multinationals firm with offices in the major cities of the world to small provincial studios, it is difficult if not impossible to find a “non-digital” designer. The massive diffusion of digital technology has radically changed the architectural process in the last 30 years: from concept to representation, 3D modeling through CAD software up to the production of BIM models. For each of these purposes, there are now tools, made by international software houses, or by architects through programming languages, with the aim of facilitating and speeding up their work. The knowledge of certain software has become a fundamental requirement for professional practice so that it seems in place a further differentiation of roles within architectural firms (Peters 2018). With this article we aim to understand trends in the dissemination of software among architects, not only inside the major Architectural firms but from the whole fragmented world of architecture, exploiting the records of Google searches, analyzed through the Google Trends platform.