Data:
Numerical values, information, represented in a form suitable for processing by a computer
Scape:
A scene; a view. Often used in combination: landscape; mindscape...
Data are typically the results of the quantitative and numerical evaluation of a system, an environment... Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which information and knowledge can be derived. Design - and even more so, architecture - are dealing with data (numbers) in all levels of its conception. The computer represents a unique tool to display these data and it enhances these displays with time-based parameters. These data-driven scapes provide us with an analytic tool far beyond traditional display methods and anticipate the complex decisional and supervising process of design. These 'scapes' become even more relevant considering the design influenced by material and immaterial flows such as infrastructure, communication and computation. Yet, besides being an operational tool, these scapes can even become artefacts by themselves and position the designer as a catalyst of a process and an initiator of inFORMation architecture.