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	a93f
authors	Eisenman, P.
year	1992
title	Visions unfolding: architecture in the age of electronic media
source	Domus, 1/92
summary	During the fifty years sinee the Second World War, a paradigm shift has taken place that should have profoundly affected architecture: this was the shift from the mechanicai paradigm to the electrorlic one. This change can be simply understood by comparing the impact of the role of the human subject on such primary modes of reproduction as the photograph and the fax; the photograph within the mechanical paradigm, the fax within the electronic one. In photographic reproduction the subiect still maintains a controlled interaction with the object. A photograph can be developed with more or less contrast, texture or clarity.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	cf2009_poster_09
id	cf2009_poster_09
authors	Hsu, Yin-Cheng
year	2009
title	Lego Free-Form? Towards a Modularized Free-Form Construction
source	T. Tidafi and T. Dorta (eds) Joining Languages Cultures and Visions: CAADFutures 2009 CD-Rom
summary	Design Media is the tool designers use for concept realization (Schon and Wiggins, 1992; Liu, 1996). Design thinking of designers is deeply effected by the media they tend to use (Zevi, 1981; Liu, 1996; Lim, 2003). Historically, architecture is influenced by the design media that were available within that era (Liu, 1996; Porter and Neale, 2000; Smith, 2004). From the 2D plans first used in ancient egypt, to the 3D physical models that came about during the Renaissance period, architecture reflects the media used for design. When breakthroughs in CAD/CAM technologies were brought to the world in the twentieth century, new possibilities opened up for architects.
keywords	CAD/CAM free-form construction, modularization
series	CAAD Futures
type	poster
last changed	2009/07/08 22:12

_id	caadria2020_242
id	caadria2020_242
authors	Martin Iglesias, Rodrigo, Voto, Cristina and Agra, RocÃo
year	2020
title	Design in the Age of Dissident Cyborgs - Xenofuturism as caring-curing practices
source	D. Holzer, W. Nakapan, A. Globa, I. Koh (eds.), RE: Anthropocene, Design in the Age of Humans - Proceedings of the 25th CAADRIA Conference - Volume 2, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 5-6 August 2020, pp. 233-240
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2020.2.233
summary	This paper synthesizes several years of research in the field of the theory of architecture and design, and its subsequent undergraduate and graduate teaching. Specifically, it is a work that reflects on how architecture and design should face the three most important paradigmatic phenomena of our present and near future. Paradigms as things we think with, rather than as things we think about (Agamben, 2008), or in other words, it matters what ideas we use to think of other ideas (Strathern, 1992). These phenomena refer to environmental, technological and anthropological aspects, and the strategies to cope with them, involving alternate design thinking and practice in which futurabilities and futurizations depart from the displacement generated by post-utopian visions based on dissidence and subalternity.
keywords	Chthulucene; Cyborg Design; Dissident Futures; Futurization; Xenofuturism
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_id	e8f0
authors	Mackey, David L.
year	1992
title	Mission Possible: Computer Aided Design for Everyone
source	Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 65-73
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.065
summary	A pragmatic model for the building of an electronic architectural design curriculum which will offer students and faculty the opportunity to fully integrate information age technologies into the educational experience is becoming increasingly desirable. The majority of architectural programs teach technology topics through content specific courses which appear as an educational sequence within the curriculum. These technology topics have traditionally included structural design, environmental systems, and construction materials and methods. Likewise, that course model has been broadly applied to the teaching of computer aided design, which is identified as a technology topic. Computer technology has resulted in a proliferation of courses which similarly introduce the student to computer graphic and design systems through a traditional course structure. Inevitably, competition for priority arises within the curriculum, introducing the potential risk that otherwise valuable courses and/or course content will be replaced by the "'newer" technology, and providing fertile ground for faculty and administrative resistance to computerization as traditional courses are pushed aside or seem threatened. An alternative view is that computer technology is not a "topic", but rather the medium for creating a design (and studio) environment for informed decision making.... deciding what it is we should build. Such a viewpoint urges the development of a curricular structure, through which the impact of computer technology may be understood as that medium for design decision making, as the initial step in addressing the current and future needs of architectural education. One example of such a program currently in place at the College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University takes an approach which overlays, like a transparent tissue, the computer aided design content (or a computer emphasis) onto the primary curriculum. With the exception of a general introductory course at the freshman level, computer instruction and content issues may be addressed effectively within existing studio courses. The level of operational and conceptual proficiency achieved by the student, within an electronic design studio, makes the electronic design environment selfsustaining and maintainable across the entire curriculum. The ability to broadly apply computer aided design to the educational experience can be independent of the availability of many specialized computer aided design faculty.
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_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	avocaad_2001_09
id	avocaad_2001_09
authors	Yu-Tung Liu, Yung-Ching Yeh, Sheng-Cheng Shih
year	2001
title	Digital Architecture in CAD studio and Internet-based competition
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	Architectural design has been changing because of the vast and creative use of computer in different ways. From the viewpoint of designing itself, computer has been used as drawing tools in the latter phase of design (Mitchell 1977; Coyne et al. 1990), presentation and simulation tools in the middle phase (Liu and Bai 2000), and even critical media which triggers creative thinking in the very early phase (Maher et al. 2000; Liu 1999; Won 1999). All the various roles that computer can play have been adopted in a number of professional design corporations and so-called computer-aided design (CAD) studio in schools worldwide (Kvan 1997, 2000; Cheng 1998). The processes and outcomes of design have been continuously developing to capture the movement of the computer age. However, from the viewpoint of social-cultural theories of architecture, the evolvement of design cannot be achieved solely by designers or design processes. Any new idea of design can be accepted socially, culturally and historically only under one condition: The design outcomes could be reviewed and appreciated by critics in the field at the time of its production (Csikszentmihalyi 1986, 1988; Schon and Wiggins 1992; Liu 2000). In other words, aspects of design production (by designers in different design processes) are as critical as those of design appreciation (by critics in different review processes) in the observation of the future trends of architecture.Nevertheless, in the field of architectural design with computer and Internet, that is, so-called computer-aided design computer-mediated design, or internet-based design, most existing studies pay more attentions to producing design in design processes as mentioned above. Relatively few studies focus on how critics act and how they interact with designers in the review processes. Therefore, this study intends to investigate some evolving phenomena of the interaction between design production and appreciation in the environment of computer and Internet.This paper takes a CAD studio and an Internet-based competition as examples. The CAD studio includes 7 master's students and 2 critics, all from the same countries. The Internet-based competition, held in year 2000, includes 206 designers from 43 counties and 26 critics from 11 countries. 3 students and the 2 critics in the CAD studio are the competition participating designers and critics respectively. The methodological steps are as follows: 1. A qualitative analysis: observation and interview of the 3 participants and 2 reviewers who join both the CAD studio and the competition. The 4 analytical criteria are the kinds of presenting media, the kinds of supportive media (such as verbal and gesture/facial data), stages of the review processes, and interaction between the designer and critics. The behavioral data are acquired by recording the design presentation and dialogue within 3 months. 2. A quantitative analysis: statistical analysis of the detailed reviewing data in the CAD studio and the competition. The four 4 analytical factors are the reviewing time, the number of reviewing of the same project, the comparison between different projects, and grades/comments. 3. Both the qualitative and quantitative data are cross analyzed and discussed, based on the theories of design thinking, design production/appreciation, and the appreciative system (Goodman 1978, 1984).The result of this study indicates that the interaction between design production and appreciation during the review processes could differ significantly. The review processes could be either linear or cyclic due to the influences from the kinds of media, the environmental discrepancies between studio and Internet, as well as cognitive thinking/memory capacity. The design production and appreciation seem to be more linear in CAD studio whereas more cyclic in the Internet environment. This distinction coincides with the complementary observations of designing as a linear process (Jones 1970; Simon 1981) or a cyclic movement (Schon and Wiggins 1992). Some phenomena during the two processes are also illustrated in detail in this paper.This study is merely a starting point of the research in design production and appreciation in the computer and network age. The future direction of investigation is to establish a theoretical model for the interaction between design production and appreciation based on current findings. The model is expected to conduct using revised protocol analysis and interviews. The other future research is to explore how design computing creativity emerge from the process of producing and appreciating.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	caadria2010_042
id	caadria2010_042
authors	Celento, David
year	2010
title	Open-source, parametric architecture to propagate hyper-dense, sustainable urban communities: parametric urban dwellings for the experience economy
source	Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / Hong Kong 7-10 April 2010, pp. 443-452
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2010.443
summary	Rapid developments in societal, technological, and natural systems suggest profound changes ahead if research in panarchical systems (Holling, 2001) is to be believed. Panarchy suggests that systems, both natural and man-made, rise to the point of vulnerability then fail due to disruptive forces in a process of ‘creative destruction.’ This sequence allows for radical, and often unpredictable, renewal. Pressing sustainability concerns, burgeoning urban growth, and emergent ‘green manufacturing’ laws, suggest that future urban dwellings are headed toward Gladwell’s ‘tipping point’ (2002). Hyper-dense, sustainable, urban communities that employ open-source standards, parametric software, and web-based configurators are the new frontier for venerable visions. Open-source standards will permit the design, manufacture, and sale of highly diverse, inter-operable components to create compact urban living environments that are technologically sophisticated, sustainable, and mobile. These mass-customised dwellings, akin to branded consumer goods, will address previous shortcomings for prefabricated, mobile dwellings by stimulating consumer desire in ways that extend the arguments of both Joseph Pine (1992) and Anna Klingman (2007). Arguments presented by authors Makimoto and Manners (1997) – which assert that the adoption of digital and mobile technologies will create large-scale societal shifts – will be extended with several solutions proposed.
keywords	Mass customisation; urban dwellings; open source standards; parametric design; sustainability
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	ascaad2022_043
id	ascaad2022_043
authors	Awan, Abeeha; Prokop, Simon; Vele, Jiri; Dounas, Theodor; Lombardi, Davide; Agkathidis, Asterios; Kurilla, Lukas
year	2022
title	Qualitative Knowledge Graph for the Evaluation of Metaverse(s) - Is the Metaverse Hype or a Promising New Field for Architects?
source	Hybrid Spaces of the Metaverse - Architecture in the Age of the Metaverse: Opportunities and Potentials [10th ASCAAD Conference Proceedings] Debbieh (Lebanon) [Virtual Conference] 12-13 October 2022, pp. 99-116
summary	With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies both in scale as well as accessibility, the Metaverse (Stephenson, 1992, Hughes, 2022) has emerged as a new digital space with potential for the application of architectural creativity and design. With blockchain integration, the concept of the Metaverse shows promise in creating a “decentralised” space for design and creativity with rewards for its participants. As a platform that incorporates these technological components, does the Metaverse have utility for architectural design? Is there something truly novel in what the Metaverse brings to architectural computing, and architectural design? The paper constructs a qualitative knowledge graph that can be used for the evaluation of various kinds of Metaverses in and for architectural design. We use Design Science Research methods to develop the knowledge graph and its evaluative capacity, stemming from our experience with two Metaverses, Decentraland and Cryptovoxels. The paper concludes with a discussion of knowledge and practice gaps that are evident, framing the opportunities that architects might have in the future in terms of developing Metaverse(s).
series	ASCAAD
email
last changed	2024/02/16 13:24

_id	60e7
authors	Bailey, Rohan
year	2000
title	The Intelligent Sketch: Developing a Conceptual Model for a Digital Design Assistant
source	Eternity, Infinity and Virtuality in Architecture [Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture / 1-880250-09-8] Washington D.C. 19-22 October 2000, pp. 137-145
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2000.137
summary	The computer is a relatively new tool in the practice of Architecture. Since its introduction, there has been a desire amongst designers to use this new tool quite early in the design process. However, contrary to this desire, most Architects today use pen and paper in the very early stages of design to sketch. Architects solve problems by thinking visually. One of the most important tools that the Architect has at his disposal in the design process is the hand sketch. This iterative way of testing ideas and informing the design process with images fundamentally directs and aids the architect’s decision making. It has been said (Schön and Wiggins 1992) that sketching is about the reflective conversation designers have with images and ideas conveyed by the act of drawing. It is highly dependent on feedback. This “conversation” is an area worthy of investigation. Understanding this “conversation” is significant to understanding how we might apply the computer to enhance the designer’s ability to capture, manipulate and reflect on ideas during conceptual design. This paper discusses sketching and its relation to design thinking. It explores the conversations that designers engage in with the media they use. This is done through the explanation of a protocol analysis method. Protocol analysis used in the field of psychology, has been used extensively by Eastman et al (starting in the early 70s) as a method to elicit information about design thinking. In the pilot experiment described in this paper, two persons are used. One plays the role of the “hand” while the other is the “mind”- the two elements that are involved in the design “conversation”. This variation on classical protocol analysis sets out to discover how “intelligent” the hand should be to enhance design by reflection. The paper describes the procedures entailed in the pilot experiment and the resulting data. The paper then concludes by discussing future intentions for research and the far reaching possibilities for use of the computer in architectural studio teaching (as teaching aids) as well as a digital design assistant in conceptual design.
keywords	CAAD, Sketching, Protocol Analysis, Design Thinking, Design Education
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	328d
authors	Bassanino, May Nahab and Brown, Andre
year	1999
title	Computer Generated Architectural Images: A Comparative Study
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 552-556
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.552
summary	This work is part of a long term research programme (Brown and Horton, 1992; Brown and Nahab, 1996; Bassanino, 1999) in which tests and studies have been carried out on various groups of people to investigate their reaction to, and interpretation of different forms of architectural representation. In the work described here a range of architectural schemes were presented using particular representational techniques and media. An experiment was then undertaken on two different groups; architects and lay people. They were presented with a number of schemes displayed using the various techniques and media. The responses are summarised and some comments are made on the effect of computers on perceiving architecture and on communicating architectural ideas arising from an analysis of the responses.
keywords	Subject, Image Type, Presentation Technique, Medium, SD Scales, Factors
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_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
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
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2019.3.045
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	2cb4
authors	Bille, Pia
year	1992
title	CAD at the AAA
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 279-288
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.279
summary	Teaching computer science at the Aarhus School of Architecture goes back as far as to the beginning of the 80’s, when a few teachers and students were curious towards the new media seeing its great developing perspectives and its possible use in the design of architecture. The curiosity and excitement about technology continued, although the results were modest and the usefulness not a dominant aspect in this early period. In the middle of the 80’s the School of Architecture was given the opportunity by means of state funding to buy the first 10 IBM PC's to run AutoCad among other programmes. Beside this a bigger CAD-system Gable 4D Series was introduced running on MicroVax Workstations. The software was dedicated to drafting buildings in 2 and 3 dimensions - an important task within the profession of architects.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	0ad8
authors	Candy, E., Maver, T.W. and Petric, J.
year	1992
title	A Multi-Media Celebration of Robert Adam's Glasgow Architecture
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 43-54
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.043
summary	This paper is a summary of work done in preparation for an exhibition titled "A European Vision: Robert Adam's Glasgow" which marks the bi-centenary of Robert Adam's death. The main contributors to this project, orchestrated over academic sessions 91/92, were the undergraduate and post-graduate students from the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	abce
authors	Ishii, Hiroshi and Kobayashi, Minoru
year	1992
title	ClearBoard: A Seamless Medium for Shared Drawing and Conversation with Eye Contact Systems for Media-Supported Collaboration
source	Proceedings of ACM CHI'92 Conference on HumanFactors in Computing Systems 1992 pp. 525-532
summary	This paper introduces a novel shared drawing medium called ClearBoard. It realizes (1) a seamless shared drawing space and (2) eye contact to support realtime and remote collaboration by two users. We devised the key metaphor: "talking through and drawing on a transparent glass window" to design ClearBoard. A prototype of ClearBoard is implemented based on the "Drafter-Mirror" architecture. This paper first reviews previous work on shared drawing support to clarify the design goals. We then examine three metaphors that fulfill these goals. The design requirements and the two possible system architectures of ClearBoard are described. Finally, some findings gained through the experimental use of the prototype, including the feature of "gaze awareness", are discussed.
series	other
last changed	2002/07/07 16:01

_id	6225
authors	Ozcan, Oguzhan
year	1992
title	Specification of a Hypermedia System for the Topkapi Palace
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 119-132
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.119
summary	This paper summaries a doctoral investigation being carried out in the ABACUS group of the University of Strathclyde into the relevance of advanced multi-media technology to the explanation and investigation of the complex development of architecture which has historical and/or cultural significance.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 08:00

_id	6208
authors	Abou-Jaoude, Georges
year	1992
title	To Master a Tool
source	Proceedings of the 4rd European Full-Scale Modelling Conference / Lausanne (Switzerland) 9-12 September 1992, Part B, p. 15
summary	The tool here is the computer or to be precise, a unit that includes the computer, the peripherals and the software needed to fulfill a task. These tools are getting very sophisticated and user interfaces extremly friendly, therefore it is very easy to become the slave of such electronic tools and reach self satisfaction with strait forward results and attractive images. In order to master and not to become slaves of sophisticated tools, a very solid knowledge of related fields or domains of application becomes necessary. In the case of this seminar, full scale modelling, is a way to understand the relation between a mental model and it's full-scale modelling, it is a way of communicating what is in a designers mind. Computers and design programs can have the same goal, rather than chosing one method or the other let us try to say how important it is today to complement designing with computer with other means and media such as full scale modelling, and what computer modelling and simulation can bring to full scale modelling or other means.
keywords	Full-scale Modeling, Model Simulation, Real Environments
series	other
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/efa
last changed	2003/08/25 10:12

_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	4db7
authors	Lentz, Uffe
year	1992
title	MultiMedia in Architectural Education
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 85-90
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.085
summary	At nearly any occasion designers are encouraged to see, use or buy new persuasive electronic media. We are presented to a stack of electronic equipment, connected with a bunch of confusing wire. On the top of it all you will find a video camera and some huge loudspeakers.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	a582
authors	Marshall, Tony B.
year	1992
title	The Computer as a Graphic Medium in Conceptual Design
source	Mission - Method - Madness [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-01-2] 1992, pp. 39-47
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1992.039
summary	The success CAD has experienced in the architectural profession demonstrates that architects have been willing to replace traditional drafting media with computers and electronic plotters for the production of working drawings. Its expanded use in the design development phase for 3D modeling and rendering further justifies CAD's usefulness as a presentation medium. The schematic design phase however, has hardly been influenced by the evolution of CAD. Most architects simply have not come to view the computer as a viable design medium. One reason for this might be the strong correspondence between architectural CAD and plan view graphics, as used in working drawings, compared to the weak correspondence between architectural CAD and plan view graphics, as used in schematic design. The role of the actual graphic medium during schematic design should not be overlooked in the development of CAD applications. In order to produce practical CAD applications for schematic design we must explore the computer’s potential as a form of expression and its role as a graphic medium. An examination of the use of traditional graphic media during schematic design will provide some clues regarding what capabilities CAD must provide and how a system should operate in order to be useful during conceptual design.
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_id	a6c8
authors	Oxman, Robert
year	1992
title	The Library of Babel: The Representation of Technological Knowledge in Electronic Libraries
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 101-118
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.101
summary	With the development of storage media such as the CD ROM, the availability and usage of very large data bases of information has dramatically opened new vistas for the creation of electronic libraries. From dictionaries and encyclopedias to historical treatises, the electronic packaging of large and cumbersome information sources has begun to demonstrate its utility and efficiency. Today the bridge to an unknown territory of electronic knowledge resources lies here at the boundary between the passive (though electronically accelerated) access to information through electronic books and the user interactive access to knowledge. This paper is about that boundary.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 08:00

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