Transformation of representation in computational design processes

During design process, the designer feels the need to embody design ideas in his mind to share with others, especially himself. Not only in architecture, but also in other design disciplines, representation tools are employed for this. It can be argued that the representation history is based before the architectural history when people are thought to have used the visuals to communicate before they develop an auditory language. From a historical point of view, it's seen that different types of representations are used in different periods and societies. In ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, the scaled plans on papyrus are the first examples of architectural representations. In the Middle Ages, architects made wooden models in the light of information they had from existing buildings and used them in structural tests and presentations to their clients. The discovery of the perspective in Renaissance is one of the important developments in representation. With the use of perspectives, a way has been found to represent the global world on a two dimensional surface and to perceive it from the view of the human. The physical models used for analysis and presentation in the Middle Ages, have involved in design phase in this period by determining the mass voids and occupancy rates. With the developments in computer technology in the early 1970s, there was also a change in the fields of information and communication, all of which enabled the emergence of new design tools. In the 1990s, considerable improvements were made in representation-design relation. Observing that computers are also actively involved in the production process in different areas such as shipbuilding, some architects have noticed that the computer can be used not only as a representation of designed products but also as an aid in the design process. As a result, "computer-aided drawing" has left its place to "computer-aided design". A number of different digital design methods have emerged with the involvment of computer-aided design an operational representations in architectural practice. In this study, these design methods grouped according to their representations into formative, generative and performance models and aprroached under titles as; parametric, animation systems, evolutionary systems, shape grammers and performance-based design methods. Becoming effective of the performative turn that started in the mid-20th century in art and literature in architecture in 21st century, combined with the possibilities of the digital design technologies, performance-based design has become a frequently used design approach. In the last part of this study, the design process of performance-base design examples such as Shanghai Tower, Copenhagen Elephant House, Kunsthaus Graz Modern Art Museum, Smithsonian Enstitute Courtyard Enclosure were discussed in detail and how the building performance might differ according to expectations was explained. The approach of the computational representations in the computer aided design systems to the reality of the design product increases the efficiency of the performance-based design method by providing more reliable information from the performance analyses. Due to the ecological conditions we are in, we are expected to see more examples in the future of performance-based design, where sustainable architecture is also an important driving force in moving away from being an option. Performance-based design is thougt to be the pioneer of future architecture, with the addition of generative principles and use of virtual prototypes.