The digital habitus of architecture: Internet usage during the early design phase

The rapid growth of the new media tools, transformations in the production of information and communication technologies in the last ten years, has resulted in academic and scientific intellectual transformations in the production of architectural design knowledge and formations. Access to digital design tools and internet applications that provide information in a liberal and democratic way is thought to be important for the designers in the early design process. Although the design process is not happening entirely on digital media, finding the information needed to solve the design problem increases the need for internet tools. With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, online interaction is much faster then before, and it is easier to find and encounter comparative and precedent design projects thanks to the algorithms of social networking applications. Within the scope of the literature review, firstly, discussions about digital media and digital design research were given. Later on, research was conducted to explore and compare the differences between digital media and analog media. Finally, experimental work carried out with the designers related to the search for images and information, which is a precedent in the design process, was given. Particularly, the studies about how the internet is used during the idea generation stage of design process and the studies of examining the search behaviors of designers were given place. Later, new media tools and social network sites, such as Pinterest and Instagram, were considered as a concept of designer's searching process. Some academic articles and some studies of new media researchers also were included. The diversity of mobile digital displays support us to acquire digital data and information everywhere at any moment. Even though the change of architectural design agenda and architectural culture requires a long-term change, the digital design and visualization tools in online environments make the development of the means of representation of architecture and design products possible in a short time. For this reason, providing visual images and information in online spaces and using them, can be considered as the routine activities of the designers. Social networking applications take on a task that brings designers and other users closer together. This suggests that we should question the practices which separate the designers from the other users while using the internet for their design purposes. Therefore, it is to be described what the online practice of design process through digital media tools we have defined as digital habitus of architecture, may be. Here, the digital differences, in other words 'distinctions', the differences that distinguish designers from other online users and designers are discussed. In this study, the digital habitus tried to be explained by a limited number of examples. It is desirable to make an introduction by discussing the factors that make up the distinctions of digital habitus of architecture. The types of capital such as digital or informational, and theconditions that make up this capital accumulation may be the subject of research separately in order to obtain these privileges. Architects and designers, whom we have defined as people having a digital capital, are important for this reason because of the type of capital that privileges digital habitus. In this thesis, we define that relations between digital skills and digital accuracy in digital design tools causes the digital distinction among designers. This digital design media tools were classified as an online and offline tools. Then, they were leveled by their digital distinction factors. While digital distinction levels of these tools are determined, different criterias are used for online and offline digital tools. Digital design tools are leveled by their computability level such as algorithmic or parametric software tools which were defined in some studies before. So, the algorithmic design tools were accepted as an highest level in creating digital distinctions among designers in terms of computability. However, representational design tools, such as CAD systems, were accepted as lowest level in terms of digital distinction. By doing this leveling, it was intended to show which rules and what kind of capitals are important and make a difference in the digital habitus of architecture. Since our study is an Grounded Theory praxis, it is necessary to apply new conceptual explanations and new research methods in the course of the data obtained. For this reason, it was tried to understand the online research practices of the students within the scope of survey research, in-depth interviews and online experiments among the design group determined as senior students of ITU Architecture Faculty. By doing this, it was aimed to show whether there is a relationship between the use of digital tools, which is determined as digital awareness level, and online researches. A similar level of awareness has been found between students' competences in digital media and the way they express their online practices. For this reason, it was thought that the usage ratio of digital media tools and the level of digital proficiency support the digital 'capital', which may be effective in accessing the difference information and images on the online environment. The online experiment was conducted with four different participants, two sketches, one digital and one analogue model, and one digital model, providing an unlimited online research. All of the students were provided with unlimited internet usage during the design process. Throughout the design process, their movements and design actions were recorded by external camera and screen recording. After the experiment condition, all recordings have been viewed and evaluated. The evaluation model could be considered as content analysis. All documents obtained from experiments such as recordings, design proposals, digital or online actions, hand gestures etc. were utilized to make a coherent inferences. As a result of the experiment, it was observed that students who only sketched did not develop motivation to do internet search during the design process. Therefore, the behavioral attitudes required by the media in which the design was carried out was interpreted as affecting searching and the design proposal. In this sense, as in the conceptualization of architectural digital habitus, it has been seen that digital tools and the design process of digital format can be considered as a total complementary practice. In other words, as the level and frequency of use of digital media tools increases, online research and information acquisition strategies are expected to vary and diverge. It can be said that using digital design tools effectively and being experienced in online searching are not independent fields in terms of being part of digital habitus. Of course, a greater number of designers and experiment and survey studies should be conducted to make a more general conclusion. Observing a real non-fictional design process can lead more efficient results. Exploring digital design processes and online practices in remote collaborative design models or professional team work can help us understand our digital habitus. However, observations and conclusions made within the limited universe of the thesis can be a guide for future research.