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 8bf3
authors McCullough, M., Mitchell, W.J. and Purcell, P. (Eds.)
year 1990
title The Electronic Design Studio: Architectural Knowledge and Media in the Computer Era [Conference Proceedings]
source International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design 1989/ ISBN 0-262-13254-0] (Massachusetts / USA), 1989, 505 p.
summary Design is the computation of shape information that is needed to guide fabrication or construction of artifacts. But it is not so straightforward as, say, the computation of numerical information required to balance a checkbook. This is partly because algebras of shapes are not as well understood and precisely formalized as algebras of numbers, partly because the rules for carrying out shape computations tend to be fluid and ill defined and partly because the predicates that must be satisfied to achieve successful termination are often complex and difficult to specify. For centuries architects have carried out shape computations by hand, using informal procedures and the simplest of tools. Over the last two decades though, they have made increasing use of more formal procedures executed by computers. It is still too early to be sure of the gains and losses that follow from this development, but there is no doubt that it raises some challenging questions of architectural theory and some perplexing issues for those concerned with the future of architectural education. This book frames those issues and provides a diversity of perspectives on them. Its contents were initially presented at the CAAD Futures 89 Conference-an international gathering of researchers and teachers in the field of computer-aided architectural design which was jointly sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the MIT Department of Architecture and held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1989. There are four major sections: Theoretical Foundations, Knowledge-Based Design Tools, Information Delivery Systems, and Case Studies: Electronic Media in the Design Studio. In a representative collection of current views, over thirty extensively illustrated papers discuss the experiences of universities in the USA, Europe, Japan, Israel, Canada, and Australia, articulate present theoretical and practical concerns, provide criticism of media and methods, and suggest directions for the future. Architectural educators and architects concerned with the effect of computer technology on the design process will find here an indispensable reference and a rich source of ideas. This book was itself prepared in an electronic design studio. Composition and typography, most image collection and placement, and such editing as was practical within this publishing format, were all performed digitally using Macintosh computers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design during a period of a few weeks in 1989.
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

_id bc8d
authors Mitchell, W.
year 1990
title Digital Design Media
source Ciudad de Bits. Space, Place and the Infobahn
summary In Digital Design Media, Second Edition, architects and related design professionals will find a complete conceptual guide to the multidimensional world of computer-aided design. In contrast to the many books that describe how to use particular programs (and which therefore go out of date very quickly), Digital Design Media constructs a lasting theoretical framework, which will make it easier to understand a great number of programs-existing and future-as a whole. Clear structure, numerous historical references, and hundreds of illustrations make this framework both accessible to the nontechnical professional and broadening for the experienced computer-aided designer. The book will be especially valuable to anyone who is ready to expand their work in CAD beyond production drafting systems. The new second edition adds chapters one merging technologies, such as the Internet, but the book's original content is as valid as ever. Thousands of design students and practitioners have made this book a standard.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id f507
authors Mitchell, W.
year 1990
title The Logic of Architecture: Design, Computation and Cognition
source The MIT Press, Cambridge
summary The Logic of Architecture is the first comprehensive, systematic, and modern treatment of the logical foundations of design thinking. It provides a detailed discussion of languages of architectural form, their specification by means of formal grammars, their interpretation, and their role in structuring design thinking. Supplemented by more than 200 original illustrations, The Logic of Architecture reexamines central issues of design theory in the light of recent advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and the theory of computation. The richness of this approach permits sympathetic and constructive analysis of positions developed by a wide range of theorists and philosophers from Socrates to the present. Mitchell first considers how buildings may be described in words and shows how such descriptions may be formalized by the notation of first order predicate calculus. This leads to the idea of a critical language for speaking about the qualities of buildings. Turning to the question of representation by drawings and scale models, Mitchell then develops the notion of design worlds that provide graphic tokens which can be manipulated according to certain grammatical rules. In particular, he shows how domains of graphic compositions possible in a design world may be specified by formal shape grammars. Design worlds and critical languages are connected by showing how such languages may be interpreted in design worlds. Design processes are then viewed as computations in a design world with the objective of satisfying predicates of form and function stated in a critical language.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id 3824
authors Mitchell, William J.
year 1989
title A New Agenda for Computer-Aided Architectural Design
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1989.027
source New Ideas and Directions for the 1990’s [ACADIA Conference Proceedings] Gainsville (Florida - USA) 27-29 October 1989, pp. 27-43
summary The essential theoretical foundations for today's practical computer-aided design systems were laid more than two decades ago. They have served us well, but they are now sorely in need of revision. This paper suggests some directions that this revision might take. In particular, I focus on the roles of ambiguity and discontinuity in shape interpretation, instability in rules for carrying out shape computations, and nonmonotonicity in critical reasoning. I suggest that the challenge before us is to build a new generation of CAD systems that respond in sophisticated ways to these issues.
series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:58

_id cdd3
authors Mitchell, William J.
year 1990
title A New Agenda For Computer-Aided 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. 1-16
summary Design is the computation of shape information that is needed to guide fabrication or construction of an artifact. This information normally specifies artifact topology (connections of vertices, edges, surfaces, and closed volumes), dimensions, angles, and tolerances on dimensions and angles. There may also be associations of symbols with subshapes to specify material and other such properties. The process of design takes different forms in different contexts, but the most usual computational operations are transformations (unary operations) and combinations (binary operations) of shapes in a two-dimensional drawing or a three-dimensional geometric model. An initial vocabulary of shapes, together with a repertoire of shape transformation and combination operators., establishes the shape algebra within which the computation takes place. The computation terminates successfully when it can be shown that certain predicates are satisfied by a shape produced by recursively applying the transformation and combination operators to the initial vocabulary. These predicates are usually stated in symbolic (verbal or numerical) form. Thus determination of whether a predicate is satisfied usually involves producing a numerical or verbal interpretation of a drawing, then deriving inferences from this interpretation by applying rules or formulae.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

_id 435a
authors Mitchell, William J.
year 1990
title Afterword: The Design Studio of The Future
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. 479-494
summary Things began to change in the mid-1940s, though architects hardly noticed. Scientists and engineers started to speculate that the new electronic technologies which had emerged in the wartime years would profoundly change the character of intellectual work. Vannevar Bush (1945) imagined a device called the Memex, which would function as a personal information server. By the 1950s computers were becoming a commercial reality, and in 1956 Fortune magazine published a remarkably prescient depiction of a machine that we can now recognize as a computer-aided design workstation complete with graphic input devices and a multi-window display showing different views of a three-dimensional object. These wonderful machines were never built, much less put to any practical use, but they established a powerful idea.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

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