Abstract
This paper describes the conceptual underpinnings of a infrastructure currently in development which aims to provide a computational environment for productive and creative human and computer co-creation of architectural design artefacts in an open, networked collaborative system. It identifies some key collaborative activities in design and looks to combine these within a system geared towards the productive utilisation of various agents involved towards developing a range of good design options. It takes as a conceptual foundation the application and hybridisation of evolutionary, ecological and economic principles. This approach is outlined with special emphasis on aligning with, and maximising the benefit of, an internet/network based infrastructure, connecting the design agents, supporting human/machine parity. The contribution for this paper is to assess the creative design context of the AEC industry, especially at early conceptual and ideation stages, and compare this against existing tools and paradigms used during creative design, to propose a new technological intervention to support these activities.