Principles

The Founding Principles of the Digital Continuum.

Digital Continuum

The digital continuum represents the emergence of a design space in which the classical oppositions between matter and idea, form and information merge. By definition, a continuum is a space that creates continuity between elements that exist separately: space and time, software and hardware, project and its realization. An integrated digital design space represents the possibility of an in-depth renewal of the science and techniques of the design of inhabited spaces.

Models and complexity

It is in a context marked by the acceleration of ecological and digital transitions that the world of architecture and construction has today entered a phase of profound change. Associated with the principle of Building Information Modeling (BIM), the principle of a digital continuum provides the framework for a new design logic, one that is in tune with the complexity of the world, and that succeeds the classical, sometimes reductive, models of modernity.

Flow-based modeling

With the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) standard, the digital design space has acquired a data model that makes it possible to respond to interoperability issues. It is on the basis of this foundation that the evolution of the digital continuum has now entered a new phase of development: on the hardware side with research into construction mechatronics, and on the software side around principles such as flow-based modeling.

Design platforms

The principle of a BIM model evolving in a digital continuum is what the architecture and construction industry has set itself as an evolutionary horizon: a deep integration of networked technologies, open models and collaborative design spaces. Just as the Internet has been structured around protocols defined by a community of actors, the future of the AEC sector's design space lies in the contemporary open source model.