This paper argues that prevailing approaches to CAD software have been fashioned to support modes of reasoning only of secondary importance to design activity, and that, due to some recent developments in computer vision, this state of affairs may be about to change. Surveying the current state of CAD tools, a critical position is developed based upon the best current understanding of the cognitive processes related to design.

Following a high-level overview of some of the important developments in computer vision, and a curated set of examples of the applications these developments are finding in practices loosely related to architectural design, we draw out a number of parallels between machine learning (ML) and design thinking. We expect that this will serve as a guide to future research at the intersection of ML and architectural design tools.

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