Introduction

Virtual representation, free-form surface modelling techniques and numerical control manufacturing, with their intrinsic dynamic and interactive capabilities, have profoundly expanded and enriched the repertoire of geometric shapes, generating innovative design skills and creative languages. There is no doubt about the opportunities for exploration, contamination, relationships and overlapping of ideas, measurements and information, which the continuous evolution of expeditious, parametric and automatic procedures brings to the use of the many products of the information age. Adopting computation as a form of design is profoundly different from simply using tools geared toward increasing the productive capabilities of the designer. This approach implies first of all an extension of design actions to techniques and strategies, whose main strength is measured in the ability to promote new and different ways of thinking.