For a new humanism of technological innovation in the design of the built environment.

This paper offers a reflection on the dialectical relationship between technological innovation and the culture of design for the built environment, hypothesizing a scenario in which the outdated interpretation of the merely instrumental role of technology may be plausibly recognized and overcome. Because it is increasingly complex, sophisticated, and pervasive in the life of and in the space inhabited by people, technology requires a renewed, humanistic approach in order to be governed, selected, and used, for the purpose of improving people’s fragile living conditions on the planet. On the other hand, people are, in and of themselves, characterized by continuous exploration and invention to extend their abilities through technique, and given the uncertain future facing us, technique will once again be our friend, renewing a relationship that may be called one of philotechny rather than of pure fideism – or of anachronistic antagonism – towards technique. Although starting from a specific, low level of technology, the construction sector is absorbing the extraordinary, accelerated advances of the technologies belonging to the digital sphere; this may help guide the construction industry towards a new form of production, and at the same time it may transform the designer’s tasks, roles, and responsibilities. The designer of the future that faces us will have to be able to operate collaboratively within a system of vast competences, which will be mediated by the potency and accessibility of new tools and methods belonging to the digital technologies.