Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	8775
authors	Cigolle, Mark and Coleman, Kim
year	1990
title	Computer Integrated Design: Transformation as Process
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 333-346
summary	To bring together poetry, magic and science, to explore beyond preconceptions, to invent spaces and forms which re-form and inform man's experience, these are the possibilities of architecture. Computer integrated design offers a means for extending the search, one which integrates both conceptual and perceptual issues in the making of architecture. The computer may assist in generating constructs which would not have been created by conventional methods. The application of computer techniques to design has to date been focused primarily on production aspects, an area which is already highly organizable and communicable. In conceptual and perceptual aspects of design, computer techniques remain underdeveloped. Since the impetus for- the development of computer applications has come from the immediate economics of practice rather than a theoretically based strategy, computer-aided design is currently biased toward the replication of conventional techniques rather than the exploration of new potentials. Over the last two years we have been involved in experimentation with methodologies which engage the computer in formative explorations of the design idea. Work produced from investigations by 4th and 5th year undergraduate students in computer integrated design studios that we have been teaching at the University of Southern California demonstrates the potential for the use of the computer as a principal tool in the exploration of syntax and perception, space and program. The challenge is to approach the making of architecture as an innovative act, one which does not rely on preconceived notions of design.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	ef95
authors	Fregier, Marius
year	1989
title	Do You Need Weapons to Keep out of "Artichaud Melanie" - Or How to Teach Prolog Programming to CAD System Design Students
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 8.1.1-8.1.9
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.u3g
summary	A course aimed on the use of prolog for studying, prototyping and developing CAD systems is presented. This course is based on a practical training. Its objectives, topics, teaching method and applications are briefly introduced . Exercises focussed on interests and.capabilities of CAD designers are presented. These exercises follow a progression which integrate Step by step, different aspects of the application fields. At list these exercises lead to a single application concerned with intelligent graphics.
keywords	Education in CAD System Construction, Graphical Extensions to Prolog, Experts Systems, Graphical Interactive Capture of Data, Intelligent Graphic
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	2613
authors	Frew, Robert S.
year	1990
title	The Organization of CAD Teaching in Design Schools
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 387-392
summary	This paper is the result of a survey of European CAD teaching that was conducted in 1987 and 1988. It makes comparisons with teaching at the Yale School of Architecture, and goes on to analyze the issues that should be addressed in a CAD program in a school of architecture.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	6bfa
authors	Bijl, Aart
year	1989
title	Evaluation and Representation
source	December, 1989. 11 p. : ill. includes bibliography
summary	In this paper the author will consider four key concepts: design, evaluation, models, and representation. In combination, definitions of these concepts impinge on each other and they are further conditioned by the author intention to represent design knowledge within computers. The issue of human-computer interaction then becomes critical to the usefulness of knowledge representations for designers
keywords	CAD, representation, design, evaluation
series	CADline
last changed	1999/02/12 15:07

_id	b4c4
authors	Carrara, G., Fioravanti, A. and Novembri, G.
year	2000
title	A framework for an Architectural Collaborative Design
source	Promise and Reality: State of the Art versus State of Practice in Computing for the Design and Planning Process [18th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-6-5] Weimar (Germany) 22-24 June 2000, pp. 57-60
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2000.057
summary	The building industry involves a larger number of disciplines, operators and professionals than other industrial processes. Its peculiarity is that the products (building objects) have a number of parts (building elements) that does not differ much from the number of classes into which building objects can be conceptually subdivided. Another important characteristic is that the building industry produces unique products (de Vries and van Zutphen, 1992). This is not an isolated situation but indeed one that is spreading also in other industrial fields. For example, production niches have proved successful in the automotive and computer industries (Carrara, Fioravanti, & Novembri, 1989). Building design is a complex multi-disciplinary process, which demands a high degree of co-ordination and co-operation among separate teams, each having its own specific knowledge and its own set of specific design tools. Establishing an environment for design tool integration is a prerequisite for network-based distributed work. It was attempted to solve the problem of efficient, user-friendly, and fast information exchange among operators by treating it simply as an exchange of data. But the failure of IGES, CGM, PHIGS confirms that data have different meanings and importance in different contexts. The STandard for Exchange of Product data, ISO 10303 Part 106 BCCM, relating to AEC field (Wix, 1997), seems to be too complex to be applied to professional studios. Moreover its structure is too deep and the conceptual classifications based on it do not allow multi-inheritance (Ekholm, 1996). From now on we shall adopt the BCCM semantic that defines the actor as "a functional participant in building construction"; and we shall define designer as "every member of the class formed by designers" (architects, engineers, town-planners, construction managers, etc.).
keywords	Architectural Design Process, Collaborative Design, Knowledge Engineering, Dynamic Object Oriented Programming
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://www.uni-weimar.de/ecaade/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	235d
authors	Catalano, Fernando
year	1990
title	The Computerized Design Firm
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 317-332
summary	This paper is not just about the future of computerized design practice. It is about what to do today in contemplation of tomorrow-the issues of computercentered practice and the courses of action open to us can be discerned by the careful observer. The realities of computerized design practice are different from the issues on which design education still fixes its attention. To educators, the present paper recommends further clinical research on computerized design firms and suggests that case studies on the matter be developed and utilized as teaching material. Research conducted by the author of this paper indicates that a new form of design firm is emerging-the computerized design firm-totally supported and augmented by the new information technology. The present paper proceeds by introducing an abridged case study of an actual totally electronic, computerized design practice. Then, the paper concentrates on modelling the computerized design firm as an intelligent system, indicating non-trivial changes in its structure and strategy brought about by the introduction of the new information technology into its operations - among other considerations, different strategies and diverse conceptions of management and workgroup roles are highlighted. In particular, this paper points out that these structural and strategic changes reflect back on the technology of information with pressures to redirect present emphasis on the individual designer, working alone in an isolated workstation, to a more realistic conception of the designer as a member of an electronic workgroup. Finally, the paper underlines that this non-trivial conception demands that new hardware and software be developed to meet the needs of the electronic workgroup - which raises issues of human-machine interface. Further, it raises the key issues of how to represent and expose knowledge to users in intelligent information - sharing systems, designed to include not only good user interfaces for supporting problem-solving activities of individuals, but also good organizational interfaces for supporting the problem-solving activities of groups. The paper closes by charting promising directions for further research and with a few remarks about the computerized design firm's (near) future.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/03 17:58

_id	417a
authors	Cipriani, R., Lagomarsino, A.D., Stagnaro, A., Valenti, E. and Sambolino, T.
year	1990
title	Some Years' Experience Teaching CAAD
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 347-361
summary	In the conventional way of teaching architecture, it is common to think of design as the final synthesis of an intellectual process (composizione in Italian) integrating different elements from different curriculum subjects: history, structural analysis., technology, regional and urban planning, and so on. These elements, being comprehensive of their specific domains, together build the project. This process is supported by a long traditional that cannot easily be modified; however, we must not consider it to be the only one. Architectural practice should be much more. The Scuole di Architettura has walked a long and difficult road in the last thirty years., with a significant widening of interest in social, political, and economic issues. There have been recurring attempts at epistemological reformulation in some areas. There has been an acknowledgment of a crisis in contemporary town planning and a dimming of several certitudes that had developed with the birth and growth of the modernist school. And there has been a weakening of the promises that had given life to the vigorous discussion about town and regional planning. All of this leads to a reconsideration of the meaning and the deeper assumptions that the project implies, a question mark at the center of the human sciences that architectural practice involves. The old tradition., which assigned composition a central role in the project, is no longer sufficient because it is related to a reductive reading of epistemology that views human sciences as defining segments of physical knowledge of the actual world. Contemporary reflection on the difference between understanding and unfolding, together with the attention given to interpreting a moment as compared to purely describing one, gives to the project the task of inquiry instead of solution.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/03 17:58

_id	600f
authors	Cortes, Chaves Camila
year	1989
title	Design Software of the '90s
source	Architectural and Engineering Systems. July, 1989. vol. 5: pp. 30
summary	The design firm of the '90s will have the ability to use the right tool for the right task, permitting tailored resources to be used more effectively. This mean portable, modular and multiuser software running on machines specifically designed for a particular environment with the option to tap other sources. Designers will enter the 21st century using integrated design knowledge-based support systems with knowledge-based inferencing systems, information management systems for text and graphics, a CAD/modeling package, and a flexible user interface with speech recognition, eye tracking and manual input device. Some of these are discussed in this article
keywords	practice, construction, systems, software, integration
series	CADline
last changed	1999/02/12 15:07

_id	e3b0
authors	Cottone, Antonio and Buscemi, Maria Rosa
year	1989
title	And if We Take a Bacxward Step...
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 9.15.1.9.15.8
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.f6i
summary	In these years the researches on the computer science applied to the building have had a considerable development. The applications concern the whole design process, from the programming to the design and from the execution control to the programmed maintenance with a great deal of problems solved using expert systems. It doesn't seem that the same care of men and means has been dedicated to the architectural design theory, to its deep roots which motivate it and to its peculiarity in comparison with other fields in which now the design, with the aid of the computer, is the only one possible. The designer of architectural objects has been always helped by design assistants: it is enough to think that the sixteenth century treatises are a group of rules, descriptions, solutions to design problems and that they represent the "knowledge" of the age. As the knowledge increased those treatises amplified to the encyclopaedic dimensions of the nineteenth-century handbooks and of those of the first years of this century, while new professional figures rose, the teaching developed and the building art became more and more complex.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	a235
authors	Danahy, John W.
year	1990
title	Irises in a Landscape: An Experiment in Dynamic Interaction and Teaching Design Studio
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 363-376
summary	The capacity of most computer-aided design systems is inadequate to represent landscape architectural ideas and compute landscape scenes quickly. As part of our teaching agenda, we decided to write software for the Silicon Graphics Iris workstations to tackle this problem directly. This paper begins with a discussion of our concerns about the use of CAD tools in the representation of landscape architectural space. Secondly, we discuss the approach that Toronto takes to computing and teaching with particular emphasis on the use of computers to support an integrated representational work environment. Finally, a fourth-year design studio that used our software is reviewed. Static illustrations of the system are presented here, although there is a videotape that demonstrates the dynamic nature of the system.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	e365
authors	Danahy, John
year	1989
title	Intuition & Computer Visualization in an Urban Design Studio
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 4.2.1-4.2.6
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.i5v
summary	This paper will present prototypical software being used in the teaching of urban design to students and for use by professionals in the early stages of a project. The system is intended to support a heuristic approach to design. That is, it supports a process of refining ideas and understandings through a process of trial and error. The support or aid to design comes in the form of a didactic real-time programme. Its power lies in its ability to provide instantaneous response to operations on the data that can allow one to develop three-dimensional spatial ideas in an intuitively driven manner. This condition appears to occur for both novice and expert computer operators. The presentation will present our experience to-date in using conventional computer graphic tools to represent design ideas and contrast it with a video demonstration of ow prototypical dynamic urban design modelling software for the Silicon Graphics IRIS computers.
keywords	Intuition, Visualization, Urban Design, Modelling, Real-Time
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	0f73
authors	Ervin, Stephen M.
year	1990
title	Designing with Diagrams: A Role for Computing in Design Education and Exploration
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 107-122
summary	Environmental designers, design educators and design students using computers are a constituency with a set of requirements for database structure and flexibility, for knowledge representation and inference mechanisms, and for both graphical and non-graphical operations, that are now articulatable and to-date largely unmet. This is especially so in the area called 'preliminary' or 'schematic' design, where our requirements are related to, but different from, those of our colleagues in mechanical and electrical engineering, whose needs have dominated the notable developments in this area. One manifestation of these needs is in the peculiar form of graphics called diagrams , and the ways in which environmental designers (architects, landscape architects., urban designers) use them. Our diagrams are both similar to and different from structural, circuit, or logical diagrams in important ways. These similarities and differences yield basic insights into designing and design knowledge, and provide guidance for some necessary steps in the development of the next generation of CAD systems. Diagrams as a form of knowledge representation have received little scrutiny in the literature of graphic representation and computer graphics. In the following sections I present an overview of the theoretical basis for distinguishing and using diagrams; examine some of the computational requirements for a system of computer-aided diagramming; describe a prototype implementation called CBD (Constraint Based Diagrammer) and illustrate one example of its use; and speculate on the implications and potential applications of these ideas in computer-aided design education.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/03 17:58

_id	4104
authors	Ervin, Stephen McTee
year	1989
title	The structure and function of diagrams in environmental design :a computational inquiry
source	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
summary	The design process often begins with a graphical description of the proposed device or system and sketching is the physical expression of the design engineer's thinking process. Computer Aided Design is a technique in which man and machine are blended into a problem solving team, intimately coupling the best characteristics of each. Solid modelling is developed to act as the common medium between man and the computer. At present it is achieved mainly by designing with volumes and hence does not leave much room for sketching input, the traditional physical expression of the thinking process of the design engineer. This thesis describes a method of accepting isometric free hand sketching as the input to a solid model. The design engineer is allowed to make a sketch on top of a digitizer indicating (i) visible lines; (ii) hidden lines; (iii) construction lines; (iv) centre lines; (v) erased lines; and (vi) redundant lines as the input. The computer then processes this sketch by identifying the line segments, fitting the best possible lines, removing the erased lines, ignoring the redundant lines and finally merging the hidden lines and visible lines to form the lines in the solid in an interactive manner. The program then uses these lines and the information about the three dimensional origin of the object and produces three dimensional information such as the faces, loops, holes, rings, edges and vertices which are sufficient to build a solid model. This is achieved in the following manner. The points in the sketch are first written into a file. The computer than reads this file, breaks the group of points into sub-groups belonging to individual line segments, fits the best lines and identify the vertices in two dimensions. These improved lines in two dimensions are then merged to form the lines and vertices in the solid. These lines are then used together with the three dimensional origin (or any other point) to produce the wireframe model in three dimensions. The loops in the wireframe models are then identified and surface equations are fitted to these loops. Finally all the necessary inputs to build a B-rep solid model are produced.
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	ab63
authors	Gross, Mark D.
year	1990
title	Relational Modeling: A Basis for Computer-Assisted Design
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 123-136
summary	Today's computer assisted design (CAD) systems automate traditional ways of working with tracing paper and pencil, but they cannot represent the rules and relationships of a design. As hardware becomes faster and memory less expensive, more sophisticated fundamental software technologies will be adopted. This shift in the basis of CAD will provide powerful capabilities and offer new ways to think about designing. Recently parametric design, a technique for describing a large class of designs with a small description in code, has become a focus of attention in architectural computing. In parametric CAD systems, design features are identified and keyed to a number of input variables. Changes in the input values result in variations of the basic design. Based on conventional software technologies, parametric design has been successfully applied in many design domains including architecture and is supported by several commercial CAD packages. A weakness of parametric techniques is the need to predetermine which properties are input parameters to be varied and which are to be derived. Relational modeling is a simple and powerful extension of parametric design that overcomes this weakness. By viewing relations as reversible rather than one-way, any set of properties can be chosen as input parameters. For example, a relational model that calculates the shadow length of a given building can also be used to calculate the building height given a desired shadow length. In exercising a relational model the designer is not limited to a pre-selected set of input variables but can explore and experiment freely with changes in all parts of the model. Co is a relational modeling environment under development on the Macintosh-II computer, and Co-Draw, a prototype CAD program based on Co. Co's relationaI engine and object-oriented database provide a powerful basis for modeling design relations. Co-Draw's interactive graphics offer a flexible medium for design exploration. Co provides tools for viewing and editing design models in various representations, including spreadsheet cards, tree and graph structures, as well as plan and elevation graphics. Co's concepts and architecture are described and the implications for design education are discussed.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	a920
authors	Kulcke, Richard
year	1989
title	CAAD in the Architectural Education of the Fachhochschulen in the Federal Republic of Germany
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 4.3.1
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.w7a
summary	For over 10 years the author has been a teacher in the field of "computer application in architecture" at the Fachhochschule. Since 1985 he regularly has been taking part in the conferences of A.I.I.D.A. (Arbeitskreis INFORMATIK IN DER ARCHlTEKTENAUSBILDUNG). All the faculties of architecture at the Fachhochschulen (about 10) can send their representatives of CAAD to the conferences. A.I.I.D.A. has been having 2 conferences a year since 1985. At the last conference in Wiesbaden a paper with statements of A.I.I.D.A. for the further education in CAAD was finished. The author presents and explains this paper. On the other hand he shows the actual education program of CAAD of his faculty. The education in CAAD started in 1972 with basic information without practical elements. Now the practical work with the workstation is talking most of the time . The computer application is available for subjects like Building Economics, Building and Structure Design and others. With his assistant the author developed programs of the field of Building Economics. In 1986 he started introduce CAD with AutoCAD in the education program. Now also other colleagues start to integrate CAAD into their subjects.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	6152
authors	Longhi, Domenico
year	1989
title	A System for Building Design Information Management
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 9.11.1-9.11.8
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.b7n
summary	Computer assistants to building process management are not able nowadays to efficiently work out the problems generated by the increased complexity of designing. Actual difficulties depend, on one hand, on the fact D.B.M.S. that have been developed on other environments than CAAD, and on the other hand, on the fact that architectural design process is scarcely formalized. At the Department of T.E.C.A., at the University of Rome, a PhD research program is aimed to overcome difficulties, working out techniques of information management based on Knowledge Engineering and particularly on Knowledge Base Management Systems and Expert Database Systems. At present a prototype system is being developed, that can manage existing technical information, connected with buiIding process.
keywords	Information Management, Data Base, Computer Assistants, BuiIding Process
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	2bcc
authors	Mark, Earl
year	1989
title	A Contrast in Pedagogy: The M.l.T. Versus Harvard Approach to Computer Aided Design
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 5.1.1-5.1.9
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.d8b
summary	This is a period of relative detente among academics in the field of computers and architecture, advocating the use of computers in a design studio is today received more politely than, as in the past, when it was received like a declaration of war. Among some research groups at M.I.T. and Harvard to first engage In this field, the approaches were so dissimilar to one another that they could be considered as constituting separate schools of thought. Over time, however, a number of paths have led to a similar direction, if not agreement among principal investigators. The lack of sharply competing ideologies today may be a little less exciting: however, the enormous growth of the academic discipline seems now to allow for a fruitful exchange of ideas between positions that no longer seem mutually exclusive. Two views are important, among others, at M.I.T. and Harvard. The classic M.I.T. view looks upon the AI Lab as a microcosm for examining how architects think. Underlying this view is the position of 'lets examine the way architects think about design and build tools which can reflect that process'. Another point of view, as expressed at Harvard, is speculative on what architects seem to do in design practice and education, rather than speculative on the nature of thinking per se. Both views seem ultimately to be concerned with representing architectural design knowledge within computers. And in the rob of computers as a design medium. This paper examines how the M.I.T. view and the Harvard view have superficially been associated with separate research directions. As these contrasting points of view incorporate many common themes. The author finds that it may be possible to take an eclectic position in teaching computer aided design.
keywords	Constraints, Shape Grammars, Representational World, Emergent Form. Design Thinking, Design Habit
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://palladio.arch.Virginia.EDU/~arch-con/exhibit/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	69b2
authors	McCartney, Allan
year	1989
title	Terrain Modelling Using AutoCad
source	CAAD: Education - Research and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 87-982875-2-4] Aarhus (Denmark) 21-23 September 1989, pp. 9.4.1-9.4.8
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1989.x.w0q
summary	This paper describes the use of a widely-used CAD drafting system, in conjunction with a specialist contouring package, to provide a low-cost facility for terrain modelling, volumetric calculation, and landscape visualisation. One such system is in use at the Department of Architecture & Landscape, Manchester Polytechnic, to enable graduate students on the Landscape Design course to explore the visual and quantitative implications of design proposals, particularly when related to large scale landscape modelling. It is also in commercial use by professional surveyors, waste management contractors, local authorities etc. In addition to AutoCAD, two further packages are employed, one to recover coordinates from existing AutoCAD drawings, and the other to generate contours and volumes from those, or other coordinate data files. The first known as BADGER (Basic AutoCAD Data Grabber & Exchange Routine), and the other is SURVCAD CONTOURS - a contouring program capable of converting large coordinate data files (2500 + points) to a 2.5D terrain model.
keywords	Terrain Modelling, Landscape Visualisation, CAD, Volumetrics
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	07aa
authors	McIntosh, John and Pihlak, Madis
year	1990
title	The Thousand-Acre Sketch Problem
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 427-440
summary	An unusually large sketch problem in urban design was given to an undergraduate studio class to introduce visualization techniques and to explore fundamental urban design principles. This thousand-acre sketch problem was distributed to students on a floppy disk as a three- dimensional computer model. The availability of a large number of Macintosh IIs and access to a pre-release version of the three-dimensional modeling program ModelShop allowed us to conduct this prototype electronic studio. This paper looks at the productivity gains experienced by our students during this project and discusses the increased level of understanding witnessed in student performance. More importantly, this sketch problem is examined as a philosophical parable for several pedagogical issues of design education in the microcomputer age.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	e91f
authors	Mitchell, W.J., Liggett, R.S. and Tan, M.
year	1990
title	Top-Down Knowledge-Based Design
source	The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [CAAD Futures ‘89 Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-262-13254-0] Cambridge (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, pp. 137-148
summary	Traditional computer drafting systems and three- dimensional geometric modeling systems work in bottom-up fashion. They provide a range of graphic primitives, such as vectors, arcs, and splines, together with operators for inserting, deleting, combining, and transforming instances of these. Thus they are conceptually very similar to word processors, with the difference that they operate on two- dimensional or three-dimensional patterns of graphic primitives rather than one-dimensional strings of characters. This sort of system is effective for input and editing of drawings or models that represent existing designs, but provides little more help than a pencil when you want to construct from scratch a drawing of some complex object such as a human figure, an automobile, or a classical column: you must depend on your own knowledge of what the pieces are and how to shape them and put them together. If you already know how to draw something then a computer drafting system will help you to do so efficiently, but if you do not know how to begin, or how to develop and refine the drawing, then the efficiency that you gain is of little practical consequence. And accelerated performance, flashier color graphics, or futuristic three-dimensional modes of interaction will not help with this problem at all. By contrast, experienced expert graphic artists and designers usually work in top-down fashion-beginning with a very schematic sketch of the whole object, then refining this, in step-by-step fashion, till the requisite level of precision and completeness is reached. For example, a figure drawing might begin as a "stick figure" schema showing lengths and angles of limbs, then be developed to show the general blocking of masses, and finally be resolved down to the finest details of contour and surface. Similarly, an architectural drawing might begin as a parti showing just a skeleton of construction lines, then be developed into a single-line floor plan, then a plan showing accurate wall thicknesses and openings, and finally a fully developed and detailed drawing.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

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