Between 1975 and 1981 computing moved from corporate mainframe rooms onto individual desks through affordable microcomputers: the kit-built Altair 8800 (1975), the mass-market Apple II (1977) and the IBM PC (1981), which set an enduring hardware standard. Software such as the VisiCalc spreadsheet and early computer-aided design packages made the machines genuinely useful for accounting, analysis and drawing. Prices fell and standards consolidated, putting programmable computers within reach of small firms and households. The PC quickly became a fixture of professional offices.
The personal computer digitised the everyday work of architecture, surveying, engineering and planning, making computer-aided drawing, modelling and data analysis routine and reshaping how the built environment is designed and managed.
See it on the timeline →