Information Architecture: Presentation and Representation Rudi Stouffs and Bige Tunçer Architecture and CAAD, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ETH Zürich, HIL D 74.3, CH-8093 Zürich-Hönggerberg, Switzerland stouffs@arch.ethz.ch, tuncer@arch.ethz.ch +41-1-633-2997, 3612, 1050 (fax) Though still in its infancy, the world-wide web has the potential to make a profound impact in the field of architecture. Next to the physically built and virtually built, we recognize an information architecture that shapes and characterizes the spaces in which we work and collaborate on the computer. In this paper, we consider the web as an information and collaboration environment and attempt to assess its strengths and shortcomings. We present a research project for a web-based information, communication and collaboration system for the Swiss building industry, and describe a concept for representational flexibility that is particularly suited to support information exchange in such a collaborative environment. 1 Introduction The world-wide web provides us with the unique opportunity to redefine architectural design. Architecture has always had a special affection to the built environment, physical architecture, such that “good” architecture gets measured by the buildings that survive (before and after construction). Works of architectural design that never make it beyond the design stage, most often get forgotten except in the minds of the designers who created these. Recently, virtual architecture has enabled us to experience unbuilt architecture almost as effectively as the built counterparts. However, it hasn’t necessarily altered architecture as such. The web has that potential. Information that gets distributed over the web does not suffer from such physicality. Content and, primarily, presentation define the popularity of any information presented on the web. Can architecture play a role on the web that extends beyond the virtually-built? There are remarkable similarities between architecture as we know it and the web. Concepts as circulation, spaces, privacy, functionality, etc., play a role as importantly on the web as in the built environment. Architects can use their knowledge and skills in the development of a virtual world on the internet as well, or maybe even better, than in the real world. After all, the immediate feedback the web can generate enables a more effective evaluation than can be achieved in the physical world. Information architecture on the internet needs not to look anything like artifacts built, or designed with the intention to be built. New concepts and ideas can be tested that may culminate into an entirely new architecture. Where are the new boundaries to this (information) architecture? Potentially, there are none, except induced by the technology needed to present and provide access to this information. The opportunities for both the provider of information and the user or receptor are obvious. The provider has the ability to bring more information to a larger audience, but needs to worry whether the information is presented in a suitable way such that its target audience will be able to find it