Constructed realities

Advances in technology have made sophisticated computer design and visualisation tools — once the preserve of the manufacturing industries — available to all at little cost. But what does this mean for the built environment we live in, or how we fit out our homes? Like the gale howling outside the lighthouse, the breakneck speed of technological progress has become such a feature of our lives that we barely notice it any more: the tape collection of recorded music that now fits on a flash drive smaller than your thumb, or the drawings, once painstakingly produced and rolled into tubes to be picked up by couriers, now outputted via PDF and sent over email.