Trends of the most used software and programming languages in Architectural design
If you are a designer or an architect, you use software on a daily basis, you know this influences your design process, and that different software let you achieve different results. Thanks to some software and programming languages available, a designer can exploit data, create complex models and verify the effectiveness of his projects: it is clear that, for example, if I am not able to use a BIM software, I will never be able to create a BIM model.
So, how is it possible to understand how much software is used by architects all over the world?
The world of architecture is extremely fragmented, and there is no global information on the actual spread of software and programming languages. It is, however, possible to exploit the research performed on Google all over the world, with the Google trends platform.
Google Trends and scientific Research.
Google is today one of the largest tech companies in the world, its corporate mission is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”. The company has revolutionized the way in which we access knowledge and today provides each user with customized results based on countless variables: among these, an estimated 20 petabytes per day are the information that users provide freely, plus others that the search engine is able to legally retrieve through the extensive network of services and products offered. So anyone using the search engine has a Digital Twin, a profile that allows Google to provide each of the more than 2 trillions of research carried out every year the best possible answers to our questions. The huge amount of information of searches made through Google is a great asset for the company, which shares part of this data through Google trends, a platform available for free to anyone who wants to understand how often a keyword is searched on Google.
Since Google trends launch in 2006, many researchers have exploited its potential to successfully perform research in various fields, from epidemiology to economics, and of course, many marketing experts use it to understand the market of a product.
If you want to know more about the methods used to analyze data and Google trends, check out the presentation of our research at ArchTheo19 Dakam conference in Istanbul on Researchgate, otherwise keep reading.
5 typologies of tools for Architectural Design
The number of software, plug-ins and programming languages used today by architects is too broad to be enumerated, functionalities offered by each program in many cases intersect, so we have therefore decided to differentiate our research into three typologies of software, based on their main features, and two further typologies including programming languages and visual programming languages used in architecture:
For each of these typologies, we selected the most popular products, with an amount of google research sufficient to be recognized as topics, then we analyzed a period of 10 years, from January 1, 2009, to January 1, 2019, choosing the whole world as area and “Architecture” as category.
General-Purpose CAD Software in Architectural Design
We can see as the most sought on Google is Autodesk Autocad, with a peak in March 2010: since then the number of searches has slowly decreased, almost constantly, maintaining however an average value of 69 of query share. Sketchup is in the second position, with an average of 16, and a trend that despite the slightest variations, remains almost constant compared to the average over the last 10 years. Third, Autodesk 3ds Max, in a slight and constant decrease from the beginning of the analyzed decade, with an average value of 5. Closing our charts: Rhinoceros and Cinema 4D, which turned out to be the least sought after on Google, both with a query share average of 1.
Trends of BIM Software diffusion in architectural design
As shown in fig. 2, Revit is the most searched on Google, with a constantly growing trend from the beginning of the analyzed decade, a peak reached in March 2017 and an average value of 65, in second position Archicad, which in January 2009 was the most searched BIM software, saw the amount of his research drop slightly, with an average value of 28, third place Microstation, going slightly down with an average value of 8, is today closer to Allplan, in fourth place with an average value of 4, last VisualArq, which despite being recognized as an argument by Google Trends, has a query share medium value <1 compared to Revit.?
Trends of Visualization software for Architecture
In this typology of software Vray is undoubtedly the most sought-after, down from the maximum of April 2009, with an average value of 43, afterwards Octane Render, which since release date has grown reaching an average of 14, followed by Maxwell Renderer and Corona renderer, the former, despite the average value of 10, has dropped significantly in the last 6 years, on the contrary Corona render denotes a positive research trend and reaches a ten-year average of 7. Last, Renderman, which reaches an average value of 2. As evident from our graph, there is a greater discontinuity in the search trend, compared to those of the previous typologies, this is undoubtedly an indication of a lower amount of searches than the other type of software.
Trends of Visual Programming Languages for Architectural design
As can be seen from Figure 4, the Visual programing language that has developed the most Google searches during the last decade is Dynamo, which has seen rapid growth since 2014, reaching a peak around mid-2018, with an average of 32 compared to its peak. Second, Grasshopper, which in the last 5 years has seen a slight decrease in Google searches and stands at an average value of 9 compared to the peak reached by Dynamo. Last among the three: generative components, which, despite a number of searches comparable to those of grasshopper in the first two years of the decade analyzed, has slowly disappeared from searches on Google, reaching an average value of 1 query share.
Please note that since not all visual programming languages are recognized as topics by Google Trends, we had to limit our analysis using search terms.?
Trends of Programming languages in Architectural Design
Our Chart (Fig. 5), sees C++ in first position among the most sought-after programming languages in Architecture, with a maximum reached in January 2009, with an average value of 49, followed by C Sharp, 33, next Python, growing and with an average of 18, then visual Basic.net and Ruby, both down, with an average value of 14 and 13 respectively. Even more than in figure 3, relative to rendering tools, a clear discontinuity is evident within the graphs: a clear sign that the amount of research is low and that the diffusion of programming in the Architectural field is still low.
General comparison of Architectural Design Software trends
To understand which of the five types of instruments are most sought online, we have this time chosen the maximum time range allowed by Google trends, from 2004 to 2019, we selected the highest average values queries in each typology: Autodesk Autocad for general-purpose CAD Software, Autodesk Revit for BIM Software, V-Ray by Chaos Software for Rendering Software, Dynamo for Visual Programming Languages and C++ for Programming Languages.
As evident from the Chart, Revit and therefore BIM Software are constantly growing in interest, with a 52 average value of query share, higher than general-purpose CAD software and in particular Autocad, which is slightly going down with an average value of 19, then Vray and C++, which reach an average of 1 and Dynamo with an average value of query share <1 in architecture compared to Revit in the last 15 years.?
It's easy to note how until the middle of 2006 Autocad, although already in decline, had more searches than Revit. Around June the BIM Software exceeded Autocad, and never stopped growing till the end of the analyzed period.
Performing the same analysis, not just in the Architecture category, but including all Google search categories (fig.8) we see a classification reversal: with the peak reached at the beginning of 2004, C ++, determines the maximum value of the query share, its graph decreases considerably from 2004 to 2012, maintaining an average query share value of 36. In second position Autocad, with an average value of 22, slightly decreasing, with a trend which is very similar to that found in figure 7 for google searches related to architecture category, therefore Revit, which marks a slight increase and an average of 2.
Vray instead has a decreasing trend with an average of 2, and dynamo is almost invisible with a query share <1. Within the graph, we have also considered it appropriate to add Python, for a better understanding of the evolution of interests around programming languages in contemporary society.
Conclusions of our research on Trends in software for Architectural Design
Looking at Google searches in the Architecture category on different types of software, if the hypothesis that the increase in search terms is positively correlated to the increase in competitive performance, it is clear that Revit has become the most “interesting” software within the BIM type in the last decade, outperforming competitors and getting closer to become a standard in the fragmented world of architectural practices. By contrast, Autocad, despite the reduced capacity and expandability for the computational design, maintains a role in CAD for architecture, surpassing more powerful and versatile tools, such as Rhinoceros, which is widely used within many protagonists of contemporary architecture. That of rendering software is, despite the supremacy of Vray, the typology in which the rise of new players, particularly Corona Renderer, has been easier, even if the discontinuity of searches shows a low interest compared to other typologies of software.
Results related to visual programming languages?were the most unexpected among those analyzed: if Generative Components is actually less used in recent years even in the major architectural firms, Grasshopper has become the VPL excellence among researchers and computational designers, because its greater possibilities in terms of expandability and community compared to Dynamo, which is younger, utilized within Revit and has developed the most Google searches during the last decade.
Diffusion of programming in Architecture, despite the scientific research carried out within the University and some major architectural firms of the world and the enormous potential demonstrated, remains low, witnessed by the strong discontinuity in interest, and the clear difference between the search queries inside architecture category, and those in all Google categories, where Python has obtained a great interest.
The comparison between the most searched queries for each typology confirms the positive trend for BIM in Architecture, which has largely exceeded that for CAD software, still used in other sectors of design and engineering. Programming languages and rendering software, given the low amount of research compared to BIM and CAD, are less known skills. This leads us to reflect on roles differentiation within worldwide agencies, where, taking into account Google search queries, BIM competencies are increasingly requested, also because BIM is becoming a legal requirement in several countries all over the world. On the contrary, computational designers and programmers, figures currently necessary for the adoption of strategies related to artificial intelligence and the use of big data, seem to be still little diffused in everyday practice in architecture. This denotes that, despite the early diffusion of digital in Architecture, we are still far from the spread of new methods of digital architectural design capable of marking the advent of a new architecture.
On the contrary, in our interpretation, the way digital tools are used marks a further differentiation among few big firms, able to invest time and resources in the adoption, development, and extension of these tools and the numerous small studies, where the adoption of digital methods meet great resistance. At the same time, the role of software houses is increasingly evident in Architecture, and it's clear how, despite the wide range of commercial and open-source digital tools, the number of companies capable of arousing interest of architects with their digital “products” is limited to a few hyper-specialized players, as already happened in other fields of design, where the market of software is dominated by just one company.
To know more about this research, the methods used to analyze data, a larger explanation of the tables, you can read and download the full paper:
Architects as tool consumers: Discovering trends in software and programming languages for architecture with google trends, written by Giuseppe Gallo, Fulvio Wirz and Giovanni Francesco Tuzzolino.
Associate Professor (Ph.D. TU Delft, M.Arch, B.Sc.) | Director of Hi-DARS lab
4 年Thanks Giuseppe Gallo! Interesting work looking forward to reading the full version.
Architect and Sustainability Consultant
5 年Thank you for sharing,