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 ab4d
authors Huang, Tao-Kuang, Degelman, Larry O., and Larsen, Terry R.
year 1992
title A Visualization Model for Computerized Energy Evaluation During the Conceptual Design Stage (ENERGRAPH)
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.195
source Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 195-206
summary Energy performance is a crucial step toward responsible design. Currently there are many tools that can be applied to reach this goal with reasonable accuracy. Often times, however, major flaws are not discovered until the final stage of design when it is too late to change. Not only are existing simulation models complicated to apply at the conceptual design stage, but energy principles and their applications are also abstract and hard to visualize. Because of the lack of suitable tools to visualize energy analysis output, energy conservation concepts fail to be integrated into the building design. For these reasons, designers tend not to apply energy conservation concepts at the early design stage. However, since computer graphics is a new phase of visual communication in design process, the above problems might be solved properly through a computerized graphical interface in the conceptual design stage.

The research described in this paper is the result of exploring the concept of using computer graphics to support energy efficient building designs. It focuses on the visualization of building energy through a highly interactive graphical interface in the early design stage.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id 7ce5
authors Gal, Shahaf
year 1992
title Computers and Design Activities: Their Mediating Role in Engineering Education
source Sociomedia, ed. Edward Barret. MIT Press
summary Sociomedia: With all the new words used to describe electronic communication (multimedia, hypertext, cyberspace, etc.), do we need another one? Edward Barrett thinks we do; hence, he coins the term "sociomedia." It is meant to displace a computing economy in which technicity is hypostasized over sociality. Sociomedia, a compilation of twenty-five articles on the theory, design and practice of educational multimedia and hypermedia, attempts to re-value the communicational face of computing. Value, of course, is "ultimately a social construct." As such, it has everything to do with knowledge, power, education and technology. The projects discussed in this book represent the leading edge of electronic knowledge production in academia (not to mention major funding) and are determining the future of educational media. For these reasons, Sociomedia warrants close inspection. Barrett's introduction sets the tone. For him, designing computer media involves hardwiring a mechanism for the social construction of knowledge (1). He links computing to a process of social and communicative interactivity for constructing and desseminating knowledge. Through a mechanistic mapping of the university as hypercontext (a huge network that includes classrooms as well as services and offices), Barrett models intellectual work in such a way as to avoid "limiting definitions of human nature or human development." Education, then, can remain "where it should be--in the human domain (public and private) of sharing ideas and information through the medium of language." By leaving education in a virtual realm (where we can continue to disagree about its meaning and execution), it remains viral, mutating and contaminating in an intellectually healthy way. He concludes that his mechanistic model, by means of its reductionist approach, preserves value (7). This "value" is the social construction of knowledge. While I support the social orientation of Barrett's argument, discussions of value are related to power. I am not referring to the traditional teacher-student power structure that is supposedly dismantled through cooperative and constructivist learning strategies. The power to be reckoned with in the educational arena is foundational, that which (pre)determines value and the circulation of knowledge. "Since each of you reading this paragraph has a different perspective on the meaning of 'education' or 'learning,' and on the processes involved in 'getting an education,' think of the hybris in trying to capture education in a programmable function, in a displayable object, in a 'teaching machine'" (7). Actually, we must think about that hybris because it is, precisely, what informs teaching machines. Moreover, the basic epistemological premises that give rise to such productions are too often assumed. In the case of instructional design, the episteme of cognitive sciences are often taken for granted. It is ironic that many of the "postmodernists" who support electronic hypertextuality seem to have missed Jacques Derrida's and Michel Foucault's "deconstructions" of the epistemology underpinning cognitive sciences (if not of epistemology itself). Perhaps it is the glitz of the technology that blinds some users (qua developers) to the belief systems operating beneath the surface. Barrett is not guilty of reactionary thinking or politics; he is, in fact, quite in line with much American deconstructive and postmodern thinking. The problem arises in that he leaves open the definitions of "education," "learning" and "getting an education." One cannot engage in the production of new knowledge without orienting its design, production and dissemination, and without negotiating with others' orientations, especially where largescale funding is involved. Notions of human nature and development are structural, even infrastructural, whatever the medium of the teaching machine. Although he addresses some dynamics of power, money and politics when he talks about the recession and its effects on the conference, they are readily visible dynamics of power (3-4). Where does the critical factor of value determination, of power, of who gets what and why, get mapped onto a mechanistic model of learning institutions? Perhaps a mapping of contributors' institutions, of the funding sources for the projects showcased and for participation in the conference, and of the disciplines receiving funding for these sorts of projects would help visualize the configurations of power operative in the rising field of educational multimedia. Questions of power and money notwithstanding, Barrett's introduction sets the social and textual thematics for the collection of essays. His stress on interactivity, on communal knowledge production, on the society of texts, and on media producers and users is carried foward through the other essays, two of which I will discuss. Section I of the book, "Perspectives...," highlights the foundations, uses and possible consequences of multimedia and hypertextuality. The second essay in this section, "Is There a Class in This Text?," plays on the robust exchange surrounding Stanley Fish's book, Is There a Text in This Class?, which presents an attack on authority in reading. The author, John Slatin, has introduced electronic hypertextuality and interaction into his courses. His article maps the transformations in "the content and nature of work, and the workplace itself"-- which, in this case, is not industry but an English poetry class (25). Slatin discovered an increase of productive and cooperative learning in his electronically- mediated classroom. For him, creating knowledge in the electronic classroom involves interaction between students, instructors and course materials through the medium of interactive written discourse. These interactions lead to a new and persistent understanding of the course materials and of the participants' relation to the materials and to one another. The work of the course is to build relationships that, in my view, constitute not only the meaning of individual poems, but poetry itself. The class carries out its work in the continual and usually interactive production of text (31). While I applaud his strategies which dismantle traditional hierarchical structures in academia, the evidence does not convince me that the students know enough to ask important questions or to form a self-directing, learning community. Stanley Fish has not relinquished professing, though he, too, espouses the indeterminancy of the sign. By the fourth week of his course, Slatin's input is, by his own reckoning, reduced to 4% (39). In the transcript of the "controversial" Week 6 exchange on Gertrude Stein--the most disliked poet they were discussing at the time (40)--we see the blind leading the blind. One student parodies Stein for three lines and sums up his input with "I like it." Another, finds Stein's poetry "almost completey [sic] lacking in emotion or any artistic merit" (emphasis added). On what grounds has this student become an arbiter of "artistic merit"? Another student, after admitting being "lost" during the Wallace Steven discussion, talks of having more "respect for Stevens' work than Stein's" and adds that Stein's poetry lacks "conceptual significance[, s]omething which people of varied opinion can intelligently discuss without feeling like total dimwits...." This student has progressed from admitted incomprehension of Stevens' work to imposing her (groundless) respect for his work over Stein's. Then, she exposes her real dislike for Stein's poetry: that she (the student) missed the "conceptual significance" and hence cannot, being a person "of varied opinion," intelligently discuss it "without feeling like [a] total dimwit." Slatin's comment is frightening: "...by this point in the semester students have come to feel increasingly free to challenge the instructor" (41). The students that I have cited are neither thinking critically nor are their preconceptions challenged by student-governed interaction. Thanks to the class format, one student feels self-righteous in her ignorance, and empowered to censure. I believe strongly in student empowerment in the classroom, but only once students have accrued enough knowledge to make informed judgments. Admittedly, Slatin's essay presents only partial data (there are six hundred pages of course transcripts!); still, I wonder how much valuable knowledge and metaknowledge was gained by the students. I also question the extent to which authority and professorial dictature were addressed in this course format. The power structures that make it possible for a college to require such a course, and the choice of texts and pedagogy, were not "on the table." The traditional professorial position may have been displaced, but what took its place?--the authority of consensus with its unidentifiable strong arm, and the faceless reign of software design? Despite Slatin's claim that the students learned about the learning process, there is no evidence (in the article) that the students considered where their attitudes came from, how consensus operates in the construction of knowledge, how power is established and what relationship they have to bureaucratic insitutions. How do we, as teaching professionals, negotiate a balance between an enlightened despotism in education and student-created knowledge? Slatin, and other authors in this book, bring this fundamental question to the fore. There is no definitive answer because the factors involved are ultimately social, and hence, always shifting and reconfiguring. Slatin ends his article with the caveat that computerization can bring about greater estrangement between students, faculty and administration through greater regimentation and control. Of course, it can also "distribute authority and power more widely" (50). Power or authority without a specific face, however, is not necessarily good or just. Shahaf Gal's "Computers and Design Activities: Their Mediating Role in Engineering Education" is found in the second half of the volume, and does not allow for a theory/praxis dichotomy. Gal recounts a brief history of engineering education up to the introduction of Growltiger (GT), a computer-assisted learning aid for design. He demonstrates GT's potential to impact the learning of engineering design by tracking its use by four students in a bridge-building contest. What his text demonstrates clearly is that computers are "inscribing and imaging devices" that add another viewpoint to an on-going dialogue between student, teacher, earlier coursework, and other teaching/learning tools. The less proficient students made a serious error by relying too heavily on the technology, or treating it as a "blueprint provider." They "interacted with GT in a way that trusted the data to represent reality. They did not see their interaction with GT as a negotiation between two knowledge systems" (495). Students who were more thoroughly informed in engineering discourses knew to use the technology as one voice among others--they knew enough not simply to accept the input of the computer as authoritative. The less-advanced students learned a valuable lesson from the competition itself: the fact that their designs were not able to hold up under pressure (literally) brought the fact of their insufficient knowledge crashing down on them (and their bridges). They also had, post factum, several other designs to study, especially the winning one. Although competition and comparison are not good pedagogical strategies for everyone (in this case the competitors had volunteered), at some point what we think we know has to be challenged within the society of discourses to which it belongs. Students need critique in order to learn to push their learning into auto-critique. This is what is lacking in Slatin's discussion and in the writings of other avatars of constructivist, collaborative and computer-mediated pedagogies. Obviously there are differences between instrumental types of knowledge acquisition and discoursive knowledge accumulation. Indeed, I do not promote the teaching of reading, thinking and writing as "skills" per se (then again, Gal's teaching of design is quite discursive, if not dialogic). Nevertheless, the "soft" sciences might benefit from "bridge-building" competitions or the re-institution of some forms of agonia. Not everything agonistic is inhuman agony--the joy of confronting or creating a sound argument supported by defensible evidence, for example. Students need to know that soundbites are not sound arguments despite predictions that electronic writing will be aphoristic rather than periodic. Just because writing and learning can be conceived of hypertextually does not mean that rigor goes the way of the dinosaur. Rigor and hypertextuality are not mutually incompatible. Nor is rigorous thinking and hard intellectual work unpleasurable, although American anti-intellectualism, especially in the mass media, would make it so. At a time when the spurious dogmatics of a Rush Limbaugh and Holocaust revisionist historians circulate "aphoristically" in cyberspace, and at a time when knowledge is becoming increasingly textualized, the role of critical thinking in education will ultimately determine the value(s) of socially constructed knowledge. This volume affords the reader an opportunity to reconsider knowledge, power, and new communications technologies with respect to social dynamics and power relationships.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id acadia06_455
id acadia06_455
authors Ambach, Barbara
year 2006
title Eve’s Four Faces interactive surface configurations
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2006.455
source Synthetic Landscapes [Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture] pp. 455-460
summary Eve’s Four Faces consists of a series of digitally animated and interactive surfaces. Their content and structure are derived from a collection of sources outside the conventional boundaries of architectural research, namely psychology and the broader spectrum of arts and culture.The investigation stems from a psychological study documenting the attributes and social relationships of four distinct personality prototypes: the Individuated, the Traditional, the Conflicted, and the Assured (York and John 1992). For the purposes of this investigation, all four prototypes are assumed to be inherent, to certain degrees, in each individual. However, the propensity towards one of the prototypes forms the basis for each individual’s “personality structure.” The attributes, social implications and prospects for habitation have been translated into animations and surfaces operating within A House for Eve’s Four Faces. The presentation illustrates the potential for constructed surfaces to be configured and transformed interactively, responding to the needs and qualities associated with each prototype. The intention is to study the effects of each configuration and how each configuration may be therapeutic in supporting, challenging or altering one’s personality as it oscillates and shifts through the four prototypical conditions.
series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 2006_040
id 2006_040
authors Ambach, Barbara
year 2006
title Eve’s Four Faces-Interactive surface configurations
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2006.040
source Communicating Space(s) [24th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-5-9] Volos (Greece) 6-9 September 2006, pp. 40-44
summary Eve’s Four Faces consists of a series of digitally animated and interactive surfaces. Their content and structure are derived from a collection of sources outside the conventional boundaries of architectural research, namely psychology and the broader spectrum of arts and culture. The investigation stems from a psychological study documenting the attributes and social relationships of four distinct personality prototypes; the “Individuated”, the “Traditional”, the “Conflicted” and the “Assured”. (York and John, 1992) For the purposes of this investigation, all four prototypes are assumed to be inherent, to certain degrees, in each individual; however, the propensity towards one of the prototypes forms the basis for each individual’s “personality structure”. The attributes, social implications and prospects for habitation have been translated into animations and surfaces operating within A House for Eve’s Four Faces. The presentation illustrates the potential for constructed surfaces to be configured and transformed interactively, responding to the needs and qualities associated with each prototype. The intention is to study the effects of each configuration and how it may be therapeutic in supporting, challenging or altering one’s personality as it oscillates and shifts through the four prototypical conditions.
keywords interaction; digital; environments; psychology; prototypes
series eCAADe
type normal paper
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 2325
authors Chilton, John C.
year 1992
title Computer Aided Structural Design in Architectural Instruction
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.443
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 443-450
summary In schools of architecture there is a tendency to associate the use of computers solely with the production of graphic images as part of the architectural design process. However, if the architecture is to work as a building it is also essential that technical aspects of the design are adequately investigated. One of the problem areas for most architectural students is structural design and they are often reluctant to use hand calculations to determine sizes of structural elements within their projects. In recent years, much of the drudgery of hand calculation has been removed from the engineer by the use of computers, and this has, hopefully, allowed a more thorough investigation of conceptual ideas and alternatives. The same benefit is now becoming available to architectural students. This is in the form of structural analysis and design programs that can be used, even by those having a limited knowledge of structural engineering, to assess the stability of designs and obtain approximate sizes for individual structural elements. The paper discusses how the use of such programs is taught, within the School of Architecture at Nottingham. Examples will be given of how they can assist students in the architectural design process. In particular, the application of GLULAM, a program for estimating sizes of laminated timber elements and SAND, a structural analysis and design package, will be described.
series eCAADe
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id 6cfd
authors Harfmann, Anton C. and Majkowski, Bruce R.
year 1992
title Component-Based Spatial Reasoning
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.103
source Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 103-111
summary The design process and ordering of individual components through which architecture is realized relies on the use of abstract "models" to represent a proposed design. The emergence and use of these abstract "models" for building representation has a long history and tradition in the field of architecture. Models have been made and continue to be made for the patron, occasionally the public, and as a guide for the builders. Models have also been described as a means to reflect on the design and to allow the design to be in dialogue with the creator.

The term "model" in the above paragraph has been used in various ways and in this context is defined as any representation through which design intent is expressed. This includes accurate/ rational or abstract drawings (2- dimensional and 3-dimensional), physical models (realistic and abstract) and computer models (solid, void and virtual reality). The various models that fall within the categories above have been derived from the need to "view" the proposed design in various ways in order to support intuitive reasoning about the proposal and for evaluation purposes. For example, a 2-dimensional drawing of a floor plan is well suited to support reasoning about spatial relationships and circulation patterns while scaled 3-dimensional models facilitate reasoning about overall form, volume, light, massing etc. However, the common denominator of all architectural design projects (if the intent is to construct them in actual scale, physical form) are the discrete building elements from which the design will be constructed. It is proposed that a single computational model representing individual components supports all of the above "models" and facilitates "viewing"' the design according to the frame of reference of the viewer.

Furthermore, it is the position of the authors that all reasoning stems from this rudimentary level of modeling individual components.

The concept of component representation has been derived from the fact that a "real" building (made from individual components such as nuts, bolts and bar joists) can be "viewed" differently according to the frame of reference of the viewer. Each individual has the ability to infer and abstract from the assemblies of components a variety of different "models" ranging from a visceral, experiential understanding to a very technical, physical understanding. The component concept has already proven to be a valuable tool for reasoning about assemblies, interferences between components, tracing of load path and numerous other component related applications. In order to validate the component-based modeling concept this effort will focus on the development of spatial understanding from the component-based model. The discussions will, therefore, center about the representation of individual components and the development of spatial models and spatial reasoning from the component model. In order to frame the argument that spatial modeling and reasoning can be derived from the component representation, a review of the component-based modeling concept will precede the discussions of spatial issues.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:49

_id 831d
authors Seebohm, Thomas
year 1992
title Discoursing on Urban History Through Structured Typologies
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.157
source Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 157-175
summary How can urban history be studied with the aid of three-dimensional computer modeling? One way is to model known cities at various times in history, using historical records as sources of data. While such studies greatly enhance the understanding of the form and structure of specific cities at specific points in time, it is questionable whether such studies actually provide a true understanding of history. It can be argued that they do not because such studies only show a record of one of many possible courses of action at various moments in time. To gain a true understanding of urban history one has to place oneself back in historical time to consider all of the possible courses of action which were open in the light of the then current situation of the city, to act upon a possible course of action and to view the consequences in the physical form of the city. Only such an understanding of urban history can transcend the memory of the actual and hence the behavior of the possible. Moreover, only such an understanding can overcome the limitations of historical relativism, which contends that historical fact is of value only in historical context, with the realization, due to Benedetto Croce and echoed by Rudolf Bultmann, that the horizon of "'deeper understanding" lies in "'the actuality of decision"' (Seebohm and van Pelt 1990).

One cannot conduct such studies on real cities except, perhaps, as a point of departure at some specific point in time to provide an initial layout for a city knowing that future forms derived by the studies will diverge from that recorded in history. An entirely imaginary city is therefore chosen. Although the components of this city at the level of individual buildings are taken from known cities in history, this choice does not preclude alternative forms of the city. To some degree, building types are invariants and, as argued in the Appendix, so are the urban typologies into which they may be grouped. In this imaginary city students of urban history play the role of citizens or groups of citizens. As they defend their interests and make concessions, while interacting with each other in their respective roles, they determine the nature of the city as it evolves through the major periods of Western urban history in the form of threedimensional computer models.

My colleague R.J. van Pelt and I presented this approach to the study of urban history previously at ACADIA (Seebohm and van Pelt 1990). Yet we did not pay sufficient attention to the manner in which such urban models should be structured and how the efforts of the participants should be coordinated. In the following sections I therefore review what the requirements are for three-dimensional modeling to support studies in urban history as outlined both from the viewpoint of file structure of the models and other viewpoints which have bearing on this structure. Three alternative software schemes of progressively increasing complexity are then discussed with regard to their ability to satisfy these requirements. This comparative study of software alternatives and their corresponding file structures justifies the present choice of structure in relation to the simpler and better known generic alternatives which do not have the necessary flexibility for structuring the urban model. Such flexibility means, of course, that in the first instance the modeling software is more timeconsuming to learn than a simple point and click package in accord with the now established axiom that ease of learning software tools is inversely related to the functional power of the tools. (Smith 1987).

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:56

_id 8d37
authors Bradford, J.W., Ng, F.F. and Will, B.F.
year 1992
title Models and Hypermedia for Architectural Education
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.019
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 19-42
summary Hypermedia uses the hypertext style of interactive navigation through computer-based multimedia materials to provide access to a wealth of information for use by teachers and students. Academic disciplines concerned about the enlightenment of future designers of the built environment require an additional medium not yet available in hypermedia - interactive 3-D computer models. This paper discusses a hypermedia CAI system currently being developed at the University of Hong Kong for use in architectural education. The system uses interactive 3D computer models as another medium for instructional information, and as user orientation and database access devices. An object oriented, 3-D model hierarchy is used as the organizational structure for the database. A prototype which uses the system to teach undergraduate architecture students about a traditional Chinese temple is also illustrated. The prototype demonstrates the use of a computer as the medium for bilingual English and Chinese instruction.

keywords 3-D Modelling, Architectural Education, Computer Aided Instruction, Hypermedia, Multimedia
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 6e99
authors Hoffer, Erin Rae
year 1992
title Creating the Electronic Design Studio: Development of a Heterogeneous Networked Environment at Harvard's Graduate School of Design
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.225
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 225-240
summary The migration of design education to reliance on computer-based techniques requires new ways of thinking about environments which can effectively support a diverse set of activities. Both from a spatial standpoint and a computing resource standpoint, design studios must be inevitably reconfigured to support new tools and reflect new ways of communicating. At Harvard's GSD, a commitment to incorporating computer literacy as a fundamental component of design education enables us to confront these issues through the implementation of a heterogeneous network imbedded in an electronic design environment. This evolving prototype of a new design studio, its development and its potential, will be the subject of this paper. A new style design environment is built upon an understanding of traditional techniques, and layered with an awareness of new tools and methods. Initially we borrow from existing metaphors which govern our interpretation of the way designers work. Next we seek to extend our thinking to include allied or related metaphors such as the library metaphor which informs collections of software and data, or the laboratory metaphor which informs workspace groupings, or the transportation metaphor which informs computer-based communications such as electronic mail or bulletin boards, or the utility services metaphor which informs the provision of network services and equipment. Our evaluation of this environment is based on direct feedback from its users, both faculty and students, and on subjective observation of the qualitative changes in communication which occur between and among these groups and individuals. Ultimately, the network must be judged as a framework for learning and evaluation, and its success depends both on its ability to absorb our existing metaphors for the process of design, and to prefigure the emerging metaphors to be envisioned in the future.

series eCAADe
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id 88ca
authors Kane, Andy and Szalapaj, Peter
year 1992
title Teaching Design By Analysis of Precedents
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.477
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 477-496
summary Designers, using their intuitive understanding of the decomposition of particular design objects, whether in terms of structural, functional, or some other analytical framework, should be able to interact with computational environments such that the understanding they achieve in turn invokes changes or transformations to the spatial properties of design proposals. Decompositions and transformations of design precedents can be a very useful method of enabling design students to develop analytical strategies. The benefit of an analytical approach is that it can lead to a structured understanding of design precedents. This in turn allows students to develop their own insights and ideas which are central to the activity of designing. The creation of a 3-D library of user-defined models of precedents in a computational environment permits an under-exploited method of undertaking analysis, since by modelling design precedents through the construction of 3-D Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) models, and then analytically decomposing them in terms of relevant features, significant insights into the nature of designs can be achieved. Using CAAD systems in this way, therefore, runs counter to the more common approach of detailed modelling, rendering and animation; which produces realistic pictures that do not reflect the design thinking that went into their production. The significance of the analytical approach to design teaching is that it encourages students to represent design ideas, but not necessarily the final form of design objects. The analytical approach therefore, allows students to depict features and execute tasks that are meaningful with respect to design students' own knowledge of particular domains. Such computational interaction can also be useful in helping students explore the consequences of proposed actions in actual design contexts.
series eCAADe
last changed 2022/06/07 07:52

_id 2c22
authors O'Neill, Michael J.
year 1992
title Neural Network Simulation as a Computer- Aided design Tool For Predicting Wayfinding Performance
source New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992. pp. 347-366 : ill. includes bibliography
summary Complex public facilities such as libraries, hospitals, and governmental buildings often present problems to users who must find their way through them. Research shows that difficulty in wayfinding has costs in terms of time, money, public safety, and stress that results from being lost. While a wide range of architectural research supports the notion that ease of wayfinding should be a criterion for good design, architects have no method for evaluating how well their building designs will support the wayfinding task. People store and retrieve information about the layout of the built environment in a knowledge representation known as the cognitive map. People depend on the information stored in the cognitive map to find their way through buildings. Although there are numerous simulations of the cognitive map, the mechanisms of these models are not constrained by what is known about the neurophysiology of the brain. Rather, these models incorporate search mechanisms that act on semantically encoded information about the environment. In this paper the author describes the evaluation and application of an artificial neural network simulation of the cognitive map as a means of predicting wayfinding behavior in buildings. This simulation is called NAPS-PC (Network Activity Processing Simulator--PC version). This physiologically plausible model represents knowledge about the layout of the environment through a network of inter-connected processing elements. The performance of NAPS-PC was evaluated against actual human wayfinding performance. The study found that the simulation generated behavior that matched the performance of human participants. After the validation, NAPS-PC was modified so that it could read environmental information directly from AutoCAD (a popular micro-computer-based CAD software package) drawing files, and perform 'wayfinding' tasks based on that environmental information. This prototype tool, called AutoNet, is conceptualized as a means of allowing designers to predict the wayfinding performance of users in a building before it is actually built
keywords simulation, cognition, neural networks, evaluation, floor plans, applications, wayfinding, layout, building
series CADline
last changed 2003/06/02 13:58

_id 46c7
id 46c7
authors Ozel, Filiz
year 1992
title Data Modeling Needs of Life Safety Code (LSC) Compliance Applications
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.177
source Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 177-185
summary One of the most complex code compliance issues originates from the conformance of designs to Life Safety Code (NFPA 101). The development of computer based code compliance checking programs attracted the attention of building researchers and practitioners alike. These studies represent a number of approaches ranging from CAD based procedural approaches to rule based, non graphic ones, but they do not address the interaction of the rule base of such systems with graphic data bases that define the geometry of architectural objects. Automatic extraction of the attributes and the configuration of building systems requires 11 architectural object - graphic entity" data models that allow access and retrieval of the necessary data for code compliance checking. This study aims to specifically focus on the development of such a data model through the use of AutoLISP feature of AutoCAD (Autodesk Inc.) graphic system. This data model is intended to interact with a Life Safety Code rule base created through Level5-Object (Focus Inc.) expert system.

Assuming the availability of a more general building data model, one must define life and fire safety features of a building before any automatic checking can be performed. Object oriented data structures are beginning to be applied to design objects, since they allow the type versatility demanded by design applications. As one generates a functional view of the main data model, the software user must provide domain specific information. A functional view is defined as the process of generating domain specific data structures from a more general purpose data model, such as defining egress routes from wall or room object data structure. Typically in the early design phase of a project, these are related to the emergency egress design features of a building. Certain decisions such as where to provide sprinkler protection or the location of protected egress ways must be made early in the process.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 08:00

_id 6f8a
authors Pittioni, Gernot
year 1992
title Concepts of CAAD-Instruction
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.363
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 363-376
summary Today we can look back on several years of data processing support in architecture. When computer aided architectural design - CAAD - entered the field there was a lot of utter confusion in the beginning, a lot more than usually in other more technical application-fields of CAD. The architect is a very special CAD-user, as he is a very special member of all those other very analytical and scientific faculties around. There is a lot of tradition involved, tradition that has got its roots far back in medieval and classic periods and is rich of art and creativity and intuition. Mostly lots more of this than scientific analysis, exact research, and similar stuff. We could spot a large number of architects who would have been horrified when they are confronted with the analytic research of the very basic problem as how architects are designing - the methods, the procedures and the ways of thinking. And there CAAD was entering the architects' studios. No question that this caused a lot of trouble. CAD in architecture is a very provoking subject as the new tool is going to gain ground against the tradition of centuries of handmade architectural designs and drawings. And there we don't even touch the future aspects of the computer's architectural design support - what about the imminent threat of computer support in the holy domain of architectural creativity and intuition. What about the uneasy idea of CAAD in connection with artificial intelligence? The problem of CAAD-education has been largely neglected through a number of years. If there existed a certain horror looking at the mere idea of CAD-support in architecture, horror became to outrage, when university education was discussed. In our days we can stay a good deal more relaxed, when we speak of CAAD education - we not only got used to it, we are convinced, that the whole subject is of high importance.

keywords Concepts of Education
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 08:00

_id 63aa
authors Pozo, José Manuel
year 1992
title The Use of Graphic Data Bases in the Teaching of Geometry
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.133
source CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 133-136
summary The paper doesn't intend to provide relevant innovations in the field of processing program designs or software technology. Although I respect other opinions, I feel that the uncontested aid which using computers to teach architecture means should preferably and primarily be oriented towards searching for ways to better transmit and explain what we have, up to now, been teaching through other means.

However, the novelty and advantages of reccuring to this new instrument should not make us fall into the mistake of letting it be used as a substitute of teachers' and students' work. The computer is simply another instrument; of great potential efficacy, but nevertheless just an instrument.

series eCAADe
last changed 2022/06/07 08:00

_id ecaadesigradi2019_449
id ecaadesigradi2019_449
authors Becerra Santacruz, Axel
year 2019
title The Architecture of ScarCity Game - The craft and the digital as an alternative design process
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2019.3.045
source Sousa, JP, Xavier, JP and Castro Henriques, G (eds.), Architecture in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution - Proceedings of the 37th eCAADe and 23rd SIGraDi Conference - Volume 3, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, 11-13 September 2019, pp. 45-52
summary The Architecture of ScarCity Game is a board game used as a pedagogical tool that challenges architecture students by involving them in a series of experimental design sessions to understand the design process of scarcity and the actual relation between the craft and the digital. This means "pragmatic delivery processes and material constraints, where the exchange between the artisan of handmade, representing local skills and technology of the digitally conceived is explored" (Huang 2013). The game focuses on understanding the different variables of the crafted design process of traditional communities under conditions of scarcity (Michel and Bevan 1992). This requires first analyzing the spatial environmental model of interaction, available human and natural resources, and the dynamic relationship of these variables in a digital era. In the first stage (Pre-Agency), the game set the concept of the craft by limiting students design exploration from a minimum possible perspective developing locally available resources and techniques. The key elements of the design process of traditional knowledge communities have to be identified (Preez 1984). In other words, this stage is driven by limited resources + chance + contingency. In the second stage (Post-Agency) students taking the architects´ role within this communities, have to speculate and explore the interface between the craft (local knowledge and low technological tools), and the digital represented by computation data, new technologies available and construction. This means the introduction of strategy + opportunity + chance as part of the design process. In this sense, the game has a life beyond its mechanics. This other life challenges the participants to exploit the possibilities of breaking the actual boundaries of design. The result is a tool to challenge conventional methods of teaching and leaning controlling a prescribed design process. It confronts the rules that professionals in this field take for granted. The game simulates a 'fake' reality by exploring in different ways with surveyed information. As a result, participants do not have anything 'real' to lose. Instead, they have all the freedom to innovate and be creative.
keywords Global south, scarcity, low tech, digital-craft, design process and innovation by challenge.
series eCAADeSIGraDi
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 49bf
authors Johnson, Robert E.
year 1992
title Design Inquiry and Resource Allocation
source New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992. pp. 51-65 : ill. tables. includes bibliography
summary This paper proposes that the primary role of resource allocation in design is to assist design decision makers in ordering preferences and exploring trade-offs. Most existing cost evaluation paradigms focus on assessing costs after design decisions are made. This view unnecessarily restricts the active participation of economic knowledge in design decision-making. The approach described in this research suggests that the exploration and definition of values and references should be the major focus of economic analysis within the design process. A conceptual framework for this approach is presented along with several examples that illustrate the use of this framework. Computational approaches are suggested which play a central role in clarifying preference and exploring trade-offs during design
keywords economics, architecture, building, construction, resource allocation, design, cost, evaluation
series CADline
last changed 2003/06/02 13:58

_id c5d7
authors Kuffer, Monika
year 2003
title Monitoring the Dynamics of Informal Settlements in Dar Es Salaam by Remote Sensing: Exploring the Use of Spot, Ers and Small Format Aerial Photography
source CORP 2003, Vienna University of Technology, 25.2.-28.2.2003 [Proceedings on CD-Rom]
summary Dar es Salaam is exemplary for cities in the developing world facing an enormous population growth. In the last decades, unplanned settlements have tremendously expanded, causing that around 70 percent of the urban dwellers are living now-a-days in these areas. Tools for monitoring such tremendous growth are relatively weak in developing countries, thus an effective satellite based monitoring system can provide a useful instrument for monitoring the dynamics of urban development. An investigation to asses the ability of extracting reliable information on the expansion and consolidation levels (density) of urban development of the city of Dar es Salaam from SPOT-HRV and ERS-SAR images is described. The use of SPOT and ERS should provide data that is complementary to data derived from the most recent aerial photography and from digital topographic maps. In a series of experiments various classification and fusion techniques are applied to the SPOT-HRV and ERS-SAR data to extract information on building density that is comparable to that obtained from the 1992 data. Ultimately, building density is estimated by linear and non-linear regression models on the basis of an one ha kernel and further aggregation is made to the level of informal settlements for a final analysis. In order to assess the reliability, use is made of several sample areas that are relatively stable over the study period, as well as, of data derived from small format aerial photography. The experiments show a high correlation between the density data derived from the satellite images and the test areas.
series other
email
last changed 2003/03/11 20:39

_id 9d0c
authors McVey, G., McCrobie, D., Evans, D., McIlvaine Parsons, D., Templar, J. Konz, S. and Caldwell, B.
year 1992
title Interactions between Environmental Design and Human Factors Specialists ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN: Panel
source Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting 1992 v.1 pp. 575-577
summary Most of the interactions between human factors specialists, such as ergonomists, and environmental specialists such as facility planners and architects tend to be task specific and do not follow any accepted process. Consequently, the success of such interactions are usually a function of serendipity rather than informed expectation. It is anticipated that by gathering such specialists in an open discussion, relevant issues may be addressed and successful interaction procedures introduced and discussed. Such a forum is desirable for developing an understanding of the differences, educational and operational, between environmental design specialists, and human factors specialists, as well as for exploring the ways their communications can be enhanced. It is anticipated that by sharing their experiences with the attendees, the presenters will identify relevant on-going knowledge transfer activities, and also introduce and discuss practical problem-solving and communication methods that can be used with assurance by the attendees themselves when faced with similar problems in the future. This panel will focus on issues that arrive out of situations where human factors specialists and environmental design specialists are joined together in project development. The specialties represented include architecture, facility planning, environmental psychology, ergonomic research, industrial design and engineering, and equipment and furniture design and manufacturing.
series other
last changed 2002/07/07 16:01

_id avocaad_2001_20
id avocaad_2001_20
authors Shen-Kai Tang
year 2001
title Toward a procedure of computer simulation in the restoration of historical architecture
source AVOCAAD - ADDED VALUE OF COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Nys Koenraad, Provoost Tom, Verbeke Johan, Verleye Johan (Eds.), (2001) Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst - Departement Architectuur Sint-Lucas, Campus Brussel, ISBN 80-76101-05-1
summary In the field of architectural design, “visualization¨ generally refers to some media, communicating and representing the idea of designers, such as ordinary drafts, maps, perspectives, photos and physical models, etc. (Rahman, 1992; Susan, 2000). The main reason why we adopt visualization is that it enables us to understand clearly and to control complicated procedures (Gombrich, 1990). Secondly, the way we get design knowledge is more from the published visualized images and less from personal experiences (Evans, 1989). Thus the importance of the representation of visualization is manifested.Due to the developments of computer technology in recent years, various computer aided design system are invented and used in a great amount, such as image processing, computer graphic, computer modeling/rendering, animation, multimedia, virtual reality and collaboration, etc. (Lawson, 1995; Liu, 1996). The conventional media are greatly replaced by computer media, and the visualization is further brought into the computerized stage. The procedure of visual impact analysis and assessment (VIAA), addressed by Rahman (1992), is renewed and amended for the intervention of computer (Liu, 2000). Based on the procedures above, a great amount of applied researches are proceeded. Therefore it is evident that the computer visualization is helpful to the discussion and evaluation during the design process (Hall, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998; Liu, 1997; Sasada, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1998). In addition to the process of architectural design, the computer visualization is also applied to the subject of construction, which is repeatedly amended and corrected by the images of computer simulation (Liu, 2000). Potier (2000) probes into the contextual research and restoration of historical architecture by the technology of computer simulation before the practical restoration is constructed. In this way he established a communicative mode among archeologists, architects via computer media.In the research of restoration and preservation of historical architecture in Taiwan, many scholars have been devoted into the studies of historical contextual criticism (Shi, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995; Fu, 1995, 1997; Chiu, 2000). Clues that accompany the historical contextual criticism (such as oral information, writings, photographs, pictures, etc.) help to explore the construction and the procedure of restoration (Hung, 1995), and serve as an aid to the studies of the usage and durability of the materials in the restoration of historical architecture (Dasser, 1990; Wang, 1998). Many clues are lost, because historical architecture is often age-old (Hung, 1995). Under the circumstance, restoration of historical architecture can only be proceeded by restricted pictures, written data and oral information (Shi, 1989). Therefore, computer simulation is employed by scholars to simulate the condition of historical architecture with restricted information after restoration (Potier, 2000). Yet this is only the early stage of computer-aid restoration. The focus of the paper aims at exploring that whether visual simulation of computer can help to investigate the practice of restoration and the estimation and evaluation after restoration.By exploring the restoration of historical architecture (taking the Gigi Train Station destroyed by the earthquake in last September as the operating example), this study aims to establish a complete work on computer visualization, including the concept of restoration, the practice of restoration, and the estimation and evaluation of restoration.This research is to simulate the process of restoration by computer simulation based on visualized media (restricted pictures, restricted written data and restricted oral information) and the specialized experience of historical architects (Potier, 2000). During the process of practicing, communicates with craftsmen repeatedly with some simulated alternatives, and makes the result as the foundation of evaluating and adjusting the simulating process and outcome. In this way we address a suitable and complete process of computer visualization for historical architecture.The significance of this paper is that we are able to control every detail more exactly, and then prevent possible problems during the process of restoration of historical architecture.
series AVOCAAD
email
last changed 2005/09/09 10:48

_id 0719
authors Shiffer, M.J.
year 1992
title Towards a collaborative planning system
source Environment and Planning B, Volume 19, 1992, pp. 709-722
summary This article begins by exploring the problem of combining the elements of group cognition, access to media, and access to tools into a holistic planning process. It then discusses a way in which technology can be used to help combine these activities by incorporating graphical interfaces, associative information structuring, and computer-supported collaborative work into a microcomputer-based Collaborative Planning System (CPS). Methods for the development of a CPS are proposed and two systems are explored as examples. It is concluded that increased access to relevant information, aided by the implementation of a CPS, can ultimately lead to greater communication amongst participants in a group planning situation. This will ultimately have a positive effect on the quality of plans and decisions.
series journal paper
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

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