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

PDF papers
References

Hits 1 to 20 of 257

_id a293
authors Fargas, Josep
year 1993
title Design Mediums and Other Phenomena of First Generation CAD Practice
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.099
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 99-105
summary In the majority of architecture firms which use CAD tools, computer technology has been retrofitted to an existing traditional practice, with mixed results. I will addresses some of the more interesting phenomena which occur in first generation CAD practices of this type, taking as a case study one well- established firm in Barcelona which, after more than thirty years of a successful practice, has adopted computer technology to such an extent that it is now very difficult to find even an ink pen in their offices.

Less than three years after the introduction of its first computer workstation, the Barcelona office is fully computerized, from carrying out even basic design directly with computer technology, to developing inhouse software and maintaining an internet node via modem. This rapid adoption of the technology, although a relatively smooth one, was not free from strange side-effects. Because of the continuing involvement of a large part of the existing staff, the transition to computer aided design required the appearance of hybrid methodologies which are neither the traditional ones, nor what one might expect to find in the newly established CAD practice.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id a336
authors Calvo, Charles M.
year 1993
title SOME EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONCERNS REGARDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACHES TO ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN - A RENEWED AGENDA
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.155
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 155-162
summary It has been noted that designers - when confronted with computers - have, by and large, refused to accept the introduction of apparently new design methodologies, and it has been speculated that this is the result of a failure of those methodologies to address the cognitive processes which take place in the course of designing. This position is somewhat suspect in that such innovations as computer-aided drafting -which also fail to recognize these processes have been widely accepted. It is perhaps more likely that the lack of acceptance results from a perception on the part of designers that the new methodologies either do not reflect some or all of those concerns that designers consider fundamental to design, or that they actively interfere with the designer's ability to accomplish what he/she sees as the goals of design. Given that the application of artificial intelligence and related work to architecture is still in its infancy, all of this suggests the need for a reassessment of the role of computing in design in order to clarify and strengthen those roles deemed appropriate.

Two approaches to the integration of artificial intelligence and knowledge-based systems into architectural design practice are currently dominant. One attempts to create systems which can on their own produce designs, the other provides intelligent support for those doing design. It was, in part, the recognition of limitations in the ability of traditional CAD systems and building modelers to reflect what designers actually do that led to explorations into the idea of intelligent assistants. Development of such assistants was aided by research into the act and process of design through protocol and other studies. Although some work is currently being done in the development of artificial intelligence and knowledge based applications in architecture, and work continues to be done on the study of design methodologies, the bulk of available information in each of these areas remains in the realm of design disciplines related to but outside of architecture and do not reflect the explicit role of architectural design in the embodiment and expression of culture.

The relationship of intelligence to culture has resulted in some skepticism regarding the ultimate capacity of neural nets and symbolically programmed computers in general. Significant work has been done questioning the rational tradition in computer development for its failure to address phenomena which are not easily subject to scientific analysis. Further skepticism regarding the role of artificial intelligence and knowledge-based or expert systems in architectural design has been emerging recently. Such criticism tends to focus on two issues: the nature of drawing as an activity which involves both the generation and interpretation of graphic artifacts, and the nature of the human designer as an active agent in the design process.

series ACADIA
type normal paper
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 6737
authors Casaus, A., Fargas, J. and Papuzian, P.
year 1993
title Hybrid Design Environments - A Research Program on Creative Collaboration and Communication
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1993.x.a8h
source [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 11-13 November 1993
summary This paper gives an overview of a research program initiated in the Architectural Design Department of the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona on issues of communication and collaboration in computer aided design. The work is centered around emerging design situations which can be attributed directly to the incorporation of new technologies in education and practice. One of these is the "design triangle" composed of a traditional designer, a CAD workstation and a computer literate collaborator acting as the design medium. Another is the "virtual workshop" consisting of design collaboration involving large-scale distributed communications networks. The research program stresses three common characteristics of these situations which it aims to study in parallel in the setting of an design workshop. The first of these is the characteristic of distance, both physical and conceptual, which separates, on the one hand, the traditional designer from the CAD document and, on the other, the participants of a distributed workshop from each other and each others' thinking. The second, is the typically hybrid nature of such situations where computer technology interacts with more traditional techniques and alternative media are combined both at the level of production and in channels and modes of communication. And finally, the third and most significant for the methodology of the research program, is the fact that both the design triangle and the virtual workshop make explicit aspects of design activity, interaction and intentions which remain hidden or are only implicit in traditional designing.

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

_id 68c8
authors Flemming, U., Coyne, R. and Fenves, S. (et al.)
year 1994
title SEED: A Software Environment to Support the Early Phases in Building Design
source Proceeding of IKM '94, Weimar, Germany, pp. 5-10
summary The SEED project intends to develop a software environment that supports the early phases in building design (Flemming et al., 1993). The goal is to provide support, in principle, for the preliminary design of buildings in all aspects that can gain from computer support. This includes using the computer not only for analysis and evaluation, but also more actively for the generation of designs, or more accurately, for the rapid generation of design representations. A major motivation for the development of SEED is to bring the results of two multi-generational research efforts focusing on `generative' design systems closer to practice: 1. LOOS/ABLOOS, a generative system for the synthesis of layouts of rectangles (Flemming et al., 1988; Flemming, 1989; Coyne and Flemming, 1990; Coyne, 1991); 2. GENESIS, a rule-based system that supports the generation of assemblies of 3-dimensional solids (Heisserman, 1991; Heisserman and Woodbury, 1993). The rapid generation of design representations can take advantage of special opportunities when it deals with a recurring building type, that is, a building type dealt with frequently by the users of the system. Design firms - from housing manufacturers to government agencies - accumulate considerable experience with recurring building types. But current CAD systems capture this experience and support its reuse only marginally. SEED intends to provide systematic support for the storing and retrieval of past solutions and their adaptation to similar problem situations. This motivation aligns aspects of SEED closely with current work in Artificial Intelligence that focuses on case-based design (see, for example, Kolodner, 1991; Domeshek and Kolodner, 1992; Hua et al., 1992).
series other
email
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id cf2011_p170
id cf2011_p170
authors Barros, Mário; Duarte José, Chaparro Bruno
year 2011
title Thonet Chairs Design Grammar: a Step Towards the Mass Customization of Furniture
source Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2011 [Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / ISBN 9782874561429] Liege (Belgium) 4-8 July 2011, pp. 181-200.
summary The paper presents the first phase of research currently under development that is focused on encoding Thonet design style into a generative design system using a shape grammar. The ultimate goal of the work is the design and production of customizable chairs using computer assisted tools, establishing a feasible practical model of the paradigm of mass customization (Davis, 1987). The current research step encompasses the following three steps: (1) codification of the rules describing Thonet design style into a shape grammar; (2) implementing the grammar into a computer tool as parametric design; and (3) rapid prototyping of customized chair designs within the style. Future phases will address the transformation of the Thonet’s grammar to create a new style and the production of real chair designs in this style using computer aided manufacturing. Beginning in the 1830’s, Austrian furniture designer Michael Thonet began experimenting with forming steam beech, in order to produce lighter furniture using fewer components, when compared with the standards of the time. Using the same construction principles and standardized elements, Thonet produced different chairs designs with a strong formal resemblance, creating his own design language. The kit assembly principle, the reduced number of elements, industrial efficiency, and the modular approach to furniture design as a system of interchangeable elements that may be used to assemble different objects enable him to become a pioneer of mass production (Noblet, 1993). The most paradigmatic example of the described vision of furniture design is the chair No. 14 produced in 1858, composed of six structural elements. Due to its simplicity, lightness, ability to be stored in flat and cubic packaging for individual of collective transportation, respectively, No. 14 became one of the most sold chairs worldwide, and it is still in production nowadays. Iconic examples of mass production are formally studied to provide insights to mass customization studies. The study of the shape grammar for the generation of Thonet chairs aimed to ensure rules that would make possible the reproduction of the selected corpus, as well as allow for the generation of new chairs within the developed grammar. Due to the wide variety of Thonet chairs, six chairs were randomly chosen to infer the grammar and then this was fine tuned by checking whether it could account for the generation of other designs not in the original corpus. Shape grammars (Stiny and Gips, 1972) have been used with sucesss both in the analysis as in the synthesis of designs at different scales, from product design to building and urban design. In particular, the use of shape grammars has been efficient in the characterization of objects’ styles and in the generation of new designs within the analyzed style, and it makes design rules amenable to computers implementation (Duarte, 2005). The literature includes one other example of a grammar for chair design by Knight (1980). In the second step of the current research phase, the outlined shape grammar was implemented into a computer program, to assist the designer in conceiving and producing customized chairs using a digital design process. This implementation was developed in Catia by converting the grammar into an equivalent parametric design model. In the third phase, physical models of existing and new chair designs were produced using rapid prototyping. The paper describes the grammar, its computer implementation as a parametric model, and the rapid prototyping of physical models. The generative potential of the proposed digital process is discussed in the context of enabling the mass customization of furniture. The role of the furniture designer in the new paradigm and ideas for further work also are discussed.
keywords Thonet; furniture design; chair; digital design process; parametric design; shape grammar
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2012/02/11 19:21

_id e92c
authors Dave, Bharat
year 1993
title A Computer-Assisted Diagramming System
source Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich
summary This research investigates characteristics and generation of graphic diagrams used in support of analysis, presentation and synthesis of information in various domains. The research is aimed at the development of a software system which can be used to specify, generate and manipulate diagrams similar to the way they are represented and operated upon in traditional media.Diagrams are graphic representations of symbolic propositions that allow tentative reasoning and inferencing, and enable a person to focus on selected aspects of a situation that are deemed of interest. The economy and directness of expression found in diagrams seem to be the prime reasons why they are so ubiquitous in many domains. Despite these advantages, studies into supporting diagrammatic representations using computers are rather sparse. This research is an attempt at developing a comprehensive framework of thought in this direction.In the context of design disciplines like architecture, this research forms a part of the continuum of studies in computer aided design techniques and tools. While a large number of tools and techniques in CAD have emerged so far, usage of such tools, due to their underlying representations, expects and demands commitment of too many details too early in the design process. This research is aimed at characterizing and developing a computer based diagramming system to support tentative reasoning using diagrams, and thus hopes to extend the scope of CAD environments in design. The thesis first articulates motivations for this topic in detail. Next, a discussion on the role played by diagrams as conceptual tools in various domains is presented. It is followed by a detailed look at characteristics and components of diagrams viewed as a graphic communication system. Next, a comprehensive set of requirements for an ideal software environment for diagramming tasks is developed. A prototype system called CDT was implemented and is used to demonstrate ideas developed in this research. The study concludes with some observations on contributions of this research effort and possible future extensions.
series thesis:PhD
email
last changed 2003/05/10 05:43

_id 8b38
authors Do, Ellen Yi-Luen and Gross, Mark D.
year 1998
title The Sundance Lab- "Design Systems of the Future"
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.008
source ACADIA Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 8-10
summary The last thirty years have seen the development of powerful new tools for architects and planners: CAD, 3D modeling, digital imaging, geographic information systems, and real time animated walkthroughs. That’s just the beginning. Based on our experience with CAD tools, analysis of design practice, and an understanding of computer hardware and software, we’re out to invent the next generation of tools. We think architects should be shakers and makers, not just consumers, of computer aided design. We started the Sundance Lab (for Computing in Design and Planning) in 1993 with a few people and machines. We’ve grown to more than a dozen people (mostly undergraduate students) and a diverse interdisciplinary array of projects. We’ve worked with architects and planners, anthropologists, civil engineers, geographers, computer scientists, and electrical engineers. Our work is about the built environment: its physical form and various information involved in making and inhabiting places. We cover a wide range of topics – from design information management to virtual space, from sketch recognition to design rationale capture, to communication between designer and computer. All start from the position that design is a knowledge based and information rich activity. Explicit representations of design information (knowledge, rationale, and rules) enables us to engage in more intelligent dialogues about design. The following describes some of our projects under various rubrics.
series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id f44f
authors Huang, Ying-Hsiu
year 2000
title Investigating the Cognitive Behavior of Generating Idea Sketches. Neural Network Simulation
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2000.287
source CAADRIA 2000 [Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 981-04-2491-4] Singapore 18-19 May 2000, pp. 287-296
summary In idea sketches, there are a number of ambiguous shapes. Designers will associate and transform some shapes into others (Liu, 1993). Then, they evaluate these shapes in terms of functions and design requirements; furthermore, they would have generated other shapes that certified the design requirements (Huang, 1999). However, not only is the idea of design composed of one element, but also consisted of varied components. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how designers generate ideas of multi-component products, and to simulate this phenomenon by neural networks. At the same time, this paper attempts to study the design cognitive behavior of idea-generating stages, and explores the designers' cognitive phenomenon. Therefore, there are two stages in this paper: First, I conduct a cognitive experiment to realize how designers generate the multi-component product and acquire the sketches that designers generated. Second, I train the neural networks to simulate the behavior of idea generation and explore the cognitive phenomenon in design sketches. As a result, networks associate one shape that trained before, and then generate a complete idea. This phenomenon is similar to the cognitive behavior of designers who saw the ambiguous shape as one shape, which was retrieved from LTM. Moreover, the neural network is examined by a rectangle, which is totally different from the training patterns. The network will associate a confused shape. But the network will associate different shapes by adjusting some critical parameters. Designers can generate variable shapes from one shape, but the signal neural network can't simulate this kind of behavior. On the contrary, this paper proposes five sequential networks to generate variable shapes from the same shape and simulates how designers develop ideas.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:49

_id ed78
authors Jog, Bharati
year 1993
title Integration of Computer Applications in the Practice of Architecture
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.089
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 89-97
summary Computer Applications in Architecture is emerging as an important aspect of our profession. The field, which is often referred to as Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) has had a notable impact on the profession and academia in recent years. A few professionals have predicted that as slide rules were replaced by calculators, in the coming years drafting boards and parallel bars will be replaced by computers. On the other hand, many architects do not anticipate such a drastic change in the coming decade as present CAD systems are supporting only a few integral aspects of architectural design. However, all agree that architecture curricula should be modified to integrate CAAD education.

In 1992-93, in the Department of Architecture of the 'School of Architecture and interior Design' at the University of Cincinnati, a curriculum committee was formed to review and modify the entire architecture curriculum. Since our profession and academia relate directly to each other, the author felt that while revising the curriculum, the committee should have factual information about CAD usage in the industry. Three ways to obtain such information were thought of, namely (1) conducting person to person or telephone interviews with the practitioners (2) requesting firms to give open- ended feed back and (3) surveying firms by sending a questionnaire. Of these three, the most effective, efficient and suitable method to obtain such information was an organized survey through a questionnaire. In mid December 1992, a survey was organized which was sponsored by the School of Architecture and Interior Design, the Center for the Study of the Practice of Architecture (CSPA) and the University Division of Professional Practice, all from the University of Cincinnati.

This chapter focuses on the results of this survey. A brief description of the survey design is also given. In the next section a few surveys organized in recent years are listed. In the third section the design of this survey is presented. The survey questions and their responses are given in the fourth section. The last section presents the conclusions and brief recommendations regarding computer curriculum in architecture.

series ACADIA
last changed 2022/06/07 07:52

_id bdc5
authors Lehane, A., Wright, D. and Lambourne, E.
year 1993
title Parallel Modeling: Addressing the Issues of Creative Designing in CAD Environments II. Special Applications
source Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 1993 v.1 pp. 249-254
summary We postulate that Industrial Designers, in general, solve a given problem by generating a series of proposed solutions to that problem, each proposal, in theory, helps the designer to converge on the ideal solution. Any number of solutions may be under continuous development at any one time and any previous solutions should always be available for appraisal and viewing. The single modeling environment provided in traditional Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems does not support this practice. Thus, CAD systems are primarily used to address the final phases of the design process, such as analysis, visualisation and detailing. This is surely not utilising the full potential of such a powerful design tool. In an attempt to develop a less restrictive working practice for CAD users, we consider a parallel modeling approach. This solution allows the simultaneous development, design and review of a number of computer based solutions.
keywords Paper Based Design Process; Parallel Modeling; Computer Based Design Process; Sets; Industrial Design; Set Theory; Directed Acyclic Graph; Seed
series other
last changed 2002/07/07 16:01

_id 4a5f
authors Liu, Yu-Tung
year 1993
title Recognizing Emergent Subshapes in Design Problem Solving: A Connectionist Investigation
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.131
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 131-139
summary Human problem-solving behavior has been modelled as a search through the space as defined as problem states, within which earlier states move to subsequent ones by applying rules in the human mind until the goal state is found. This cognitive model of problem-solving has been broadly accepted and has become dominant in both cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence (AI). In the field of computeraided architectural design (CAAD), search models are also widely used for solving design problems, although various foci of design knowledge are differently represented by shape grammars, graphs, and knowledge-based systems using predicate logic for different purports.

In design search, design evolves from one state to another by exhaustively or heuristically applying proper rules. Each rule application involves, first, pattern-matching the antecedent of a rule to the current state and, second, transforming the matched portion of that state into the consequence of the rule. However pattern-matching techniques of current CAAD systems are still limited. In current CAAD systems, only those two squares can be dealt with by patternmatching for further development. However, a human designer can effortlessly recognize not only those two but other emergent subshapes, for example a smaller square in the middle where the two squares overlap and two L-shapes in the corners. Therefore a human designer can thoroughly deliberate all these alternatives before making a decision. In other words, human designer is capable of restructuring shapes in terms of emergent subshapes in any step of designing.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:59

_id fa58
authors Marten, R., Brown, A.G.P., and Horton, F.F.
year 1993
title Using a Relational Database and CAD program in tandem: exemplified by Health Centre Design
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1993.x.g6a
source [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 11-13 November 1993
summary It is not always obvious to Architecture students how database and spreadsheet programs can be used as a design aid. At Liverpool we discuss and illustrate the use of such programs as part of a compulsory first year course, but it is clear that students on the course find it much easier to appreciate the usefulness and relevance of the drawing and modelling programs which they look at than other elements of the course, such as database handling. What we plan to do for the academic year 1993/4 is to illustrate how a (relational) database can have the potential to aid design and to analyse the design process for real projects. The particular example which we will be describing is that of the design of Health Centres in the UK.
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id 078e
authors Papazian, Pegor
year 1993
title Incommensurability of Criteria and Focus in Design Generation
source CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 111-125
summary An approach to developing design systems is presented, informed by the recognition that design criteria are incommensurable. The degree to which an artifact satisfies one criterion cannot be compared to the degree to which it satisfies another. Given this principle, it is not valid to combine different "scores " given to independent features in an evolving design into a global evaluation function. The design framework proposed here represents an alternative to the traditional approaches for combining independent criteria and organizational principles. It is based on the opportunistic nature of designing, the multiplicity of semantics active in a design session, and the dynamics of focus and distraction. By way of illustrating both this characterization of designing and the abstract computational framework on which it is based, a simple system for arranging blocks according to a set of formal massing principles is presented. The massing generator has some important properties that other systems lack, such as dynamism, robustness and the ability to deal with partial designs. Through a comparison with some artificial intelligence methods such as production systems and search, the proposed framework is used as a guideline for developing design systems. This paper focuses on designing as an activity, rather than engaging in an analysis of finished designs with the hope of capturing their syntactic properties. Thus the stress is placed on the generator's behavior, by giving examples of how it converges on a series of design alternatives in a dynamic fashion, avoiding oscillations and blocks.
keywords Design, Criteria, Opportunism, Focus, CAD
series CAAD Futures
last changed 1999/04/07 12:03

_id 2006_252
id 2006_252
authors Penttilä, Hannu
year 2006
title Managing the Changes within the Architectural Practice - The Effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2006.252
source Communicating Space(s) [24th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-5-9] Volos (Greece) 6-9 September 2006, pp. 252-260
summary The architectural working environment has changed during the last 30 years more than ever before. Most of the changes have been related with information and communication technologies (ICT). Architectural working methods and tools have changed profoundly, when CAD has replaced more traditional methods and tools. Communicative working environment and document management within design & construction has also been changed to digital, meaning email and project webs. Completing a traditional architectural profile of the 20th centrury, a drawer-designer, contemporary communicating and managing skills plus mastering ICT are needed today to operate modern architectural practise properly. The objective of this study is to create a change-oriented understanding of the contemporary architectural profession concentrating on architectural information management. The first phase, a literature study, will be followed by interviews and case-studies, to examine three hypothetically different periods of time: a) 1980-85 the era before CAD, the last days of hand-drawing, b) 1993-98 the era of digital drawing, the expansion of architectural CAD, c) 2000-05 the rise of integrated and pervasive web-supported digital design. The study will propose new aspects to be included in the modern architectural profile, namingly project coordination, collaborative team-work, design information integration and profound digital content management.
keywords architectural profession; design practice; architectural ICT; change management
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 08:00

_id 22bc
authors Randle, Jay
year 1993
title Light and Form: A Case Study
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.021
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 21-38
summary The first great consideration in design is that the human world is irreducibly phenomenal; we are immersed in the overwhelming richness and sensuousness of the physical environment. And the first great task of design education is to put the student of design into a disciplined awareness of that phenomenal world, by development of categories of discrimination. The introductory experiences bring the student into vivid contact with compelling phenomena. The associated exercises structure and differentiate perception of nuance within these.

There is little doubt that texture, surface, extension, value, and color are in one sense basic categories of physical phenomena, constituting in essence a fundamental stratum of experience and the sensible world. Modern psychology and epistemology, however, cohere in saying that this stratum is not the sense world of everyday, the primary datum of the functioning societal member. Neither is the abstract world of the physicist's concepts an everyday world. What is given in our day-to-day life is neither very abstract, nor very concrete, but a sort of functionally-bound middle world of norms and stereotypes.

It takes the disciplined seeing characteristic of foundational training in the arts to drive this bourgeois view of physical reality back to elemental sense data. Just as it requires the supremely abstract language of mathematics and the rarified "experience" of modern scientific experimentation to drive that same view offcenter in the direction of abstraction. The first exercises of a program of design education begin to perform the former role.

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

_id avocaad_2001_16
id avocaad_2001_16
authors Yu-Ying Chang, Yu-Tung Liu, Chien-Hui Wong
year 2001
title Some Phenomena of Spatial Characteristics of Cyberspace
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 "Space," which has long been an important concept in architecture (Bloomer & Moore, 1977; Mitchell, 1995, 1999), has attracted interest of researchers from various academic disciplines in recent years (Agnew, 1993; Benko & Strohmayer, 1996; Chang, 1999; Foucault, 1982; Gould, 1998). Researchers from disciplines such as anthropology, geography, sociology, philosophy, and linguistics regard it as the basis of the discussion of various theories in social sciences and humanities (Chen, 1999). On the other hand, since the invention of Internet, Internet users have been experiencing a new and magic "world." According to the definitions in traditional architecture theories, "space" is generated whenever people define a finite void by some physical elements (Zevi, 1985). However, although Internet is a virtual, immense, invisible and intangible world, navigating in it, we can still sense the very presence of ourselves and others in a wonderland. This sense could be testified by our naming of Internet as Cyberspace -- an exotic kind of space. Therefore, as people nowadays rely more and more on the Internet in their daily life, and as more and more architectural scholars and designers begin to invest their efforts in the design of virtual places online (e.g., Maher, 1999; Li & Maher, 2000), we cannot help but ask whether there are indeed sensible spaces in Internet. And if yes, these spaces exist in terms of what forms and created by what ways?To join the current interdisciplinary discussion on the issue of space, and to obtain new definition as well as insightful understanding of "space", this study explores the spatial phenomena in Internet. We hope that our findings would ultimately be also useful for contemporary architectural designers and scholars in their designs in the real world.As a preliminary exploration, the main objective of this study is to discover the elements involved in the creation/construction of Internet spaces and to examine the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces. In addition, this study also attempts to investigate whether participants from different academic disciplines define or experience Internet spaces in different ways, and to find what spatial elements of Internet they emphasize the most.In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial phenomena in Internet and to overcome the subjectivity of the members of the research team, the research design of this study was divided into two stages. At the first stage, we conducted literature review to study existing theories of space (which are based on observations and investigations of the physical world). At the second stage of this study, we recruited 8 Internet regular users to approach this topic from different point of views, and to see whether people with different academic training would define and experience Internet spaces differently.The results of this study reveal that the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces is different from that between human participants and physical spaces. In the physical world, physical elements of space must be established first; it then begins to be regarded as a place after interaction between/among human participants or interaction between human participants and the physical environment. In contrast, in Internet, a sense of place is first created through human interactions (or activities), Internet participants then begin to sense the existence of a space. Therefore, it seems that, among the many spatial elements of Internet we found, "interaction/reciprocity" Ñ either between/among human participants or between human participants and the computer interface Ð seems to be the most crucial element.In addition, another interesting result of this study is that verbal (linguistic) elements could provoke a sense of space in a degree higher than 2D visual representation and no less than 3D visual simulations. Nevertheless, verbal and 3D visual elements seem to work in different ways in terms of cognitive behaviors: Verbal elements provoke visual imagery and other sensory perceptions by "imagining" and then excite personal experiences of space; visual elements, on the other hand, provoke and excite visual experiences of space directly by "mapping".Finally, it was found that participants with different academic training did experience and define space differently. For example, when experiencing and analyzing Internet spaces, architecture designers, the creators of the physical world, emphasize the design of circulation and orientation, while participants with linguistics training focus more on subtle language usage. Visual designers tend to analyze the graphical elements of virtual spaces based on traditional painting theories; industrial designers, on the other hand, tend to treat these spaces as industrial products, emphasizing concept of user-center and the control of the computer interface.The findings of this study seem to add new information to our understanding of virtual space. It would be interesting for future studies to investigate how this information influences architectural designers in their real-world practices in this digital age. In addition, to obtain a fuller picture of Internet space, further research is needed to study the same issue by examining more Internet participants who have no formal linguistics and graphical training.
series AVOCAAD
email
last changed 2005/09/09 10:48

_id 2ff9
id 2ff9
authors Ataman, Osman
year 1993
title Knowledge-based Stair Design
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.163
source Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 163-171
summary The application of computer--based technique to support architectural design has often concentrated on matters of representation. Typically, this means computer-aided drafting, and less frequently, computer-aided modeling and visualization. The promise of new computer-based tools to support the process of design has thus far failed to produce any significant tool that has had a widespread impact on the architectural profession. Most developments remain in university based research labs where they are used as teaching instruments in CAD courses or less often in design studios. While there are many reasons for this lack of dissemination, including a reluctance on the part of the architectural profession itself, the primary obstacles deal with difficulties in explicating design knowledge, representing this knowledge in a manner that can be used for design, and providing an intuitive and effective user interface, allowing the designer to easily use the tool for its intended purpose.

This study describes a system that has been developed to address a number of these issues. Based on research findings from the field of Artificial Intelligence which expounds on the need for multiple techniques to represent any complex area of knowledge, we have selected a particular approach that focuses on multiple techniques for design representation. We review this approach in depth by considering its many facets necessary when implementing a knowledge-based system. We then partially test the viability of this approach through a small case study, implementing a knowledge-based system for designing stairs. While this effort only deals with a small part of the total design process, it does explore a number of significant issues facing the development of computer-based design assistants, and suggests several techniques for addressing these concerns.

series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id c207
authors Branzell, Arne
year 1993
title The Studio CTH-A and the Searching Picture
source Endoscopy as a Tool in Architecture [Proceedings of the 1st European Architectural Endoscopy Association Conference / ISBN 951-722-069-3] Tampere (Finland), 25-28 August 1993, pp. 129-140
summary What happens during an architect’s search for the best solution? How does he (or she) begin, which tools are chosen, what happens when he comes to a standstill? The activities – sketching, discussions with other people, making models, taking walks to think, visits to the library, etc? What is an ordinary procedure and what is more specific? Do the tools have an impact on the final solution chosen? What happens during periods of no activity? Are they important? In which fields of activities are signs of the searching process to be found? In other words — what is the process of creative thinking for architects? Mikael Hedin and myself at Design Methods, Chalmers University of Technology, have started research into architects’ problem-solving. We have finished a pilot study on a very experienced architect working traditionally, without Cad (”The Bo Cederlöf Case”). We have started preliminary discussions with our second ”Case”, an architect in another situation, who has been working for many years with Cad equipment (Gert Wingårdh). For our next case, we will study a third situation – two or more architects who share the responsibility for the solution and where the searching is a consequence of a dialogue between equal partners. At present, we are preparing a report on theories in and methods for Searching and Creativity. I will give you some results of our work up till now, in the form of ten hypotheses on the searching process. Finally, I would like to present those fields of activity where we have so far found signs of searching. Our approach, in comparison with earlier investigations into searching (the most respected being Arnheim’s study on Picasso’s completion of the Guernica) is to collect and observe signs of searching during the process, not afterwards. We are, to use a metaphor, following in the footsteps of the hunter, recording the path he chooses, what marks he makes, what tools, implements and equipment he uses. For practising architects: a better understanding of what is going on and encouragement to try new ways of searching, for architectural students: better preparation and training for problem solving. It all began while we compared the different objects in our collection of sketches at the Chalmers STUDIO for Visualisation and Communication. (For some years, we have been gathering sketches by Alvar Aalto, Jorn Utzon, Ralph Erskine, Erik and Tore Ahlsén, Lewerenz, Nyrén, Lindroos, Wingårdh and others in a permanent exhibition). We observed similarities in these sketches which allowed us to frame ten hypotheses about the searching process.

keywords Architectural Endoscopy
series EAEA
email
more http://info.tuwien.ac.at/eaea/
last changed 2005/09/09 10:43

_id 53da
authors Carlson, Christopher
year 1993
title Grammatical programming : an algebraic approach to the description of design spaces
source Carnegie Mellon University
summary The intuitiveness of spatial grammars makes them an attractive method of describing spaces of design. But grammars suffer from several inadequacies that limit their usefulness in design practice: (1) they cannot describe spaces of parametric, constrained designs, (2) they provide no control mechanisms for sequencing sets of rules, (3) they provide no 'subroutines' for dealing with complexity, and (4) they do not accommodate transformation mechanisms other than the rewrite rule. All of these inadequacies my [sic] be remedied by embedding grammars in a larger framework of nondeterministic functional programming, a paradigm we call 'grammatical programming.' In grammatical programs, rewrite rules are obtained from arbitrary nondeterministic functions by means of a 'rewrite closure' operator. Both rules and the designs they operate upon may be parametric and have attached constraints, permitting grammatical programs to describe spaces of parametric, constrained designs. Rewrite rules, and more generally, nondeterministic functions, are combined into compound functions by means of the operators of a control algebra, which provides functional composition, union, iteration, and a type of negation called 'failure.' The resulting modularity permits design space descriptions to be constructed, tested, and debugged piecewise, and to draw upon libraries of standard, debugged grammatical components. We begin this dissertation with an informal introduction to grammatical programming. We then give a formal, implementation-independent semantics of grammatical programs similar to the semantics of stratified logic programs. We discuss the implementation of a prototype compiler/interpreter and present case studies of the use of the prototype in describing spaces of rectangular dissections and a style of early Gothic traceries. We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned from the case studies and an agenda of further research necessary to make grammatical programming a useful tool in design practice.
series thesis:PhD
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_id 97e7
authors Carter, K.
year 1993
title Computer aided design: back to the drawing board
source Proc. of Creativity and Cognition, Loughborough, April
summary This paper argues that the role of Computer Aided Design (CAD) should be to enhance and extend paper-based working, rather than to replace it. Current CAD tools are little used in the early stages of designing. Paper is heavily used, with its physical properties supporting work practices that are not possible with CAD. This paper presents implications for the design of new computer-based tools drawn from observations of designers' work practices. A new system is described that integrates paper-based and computer-based working in the same physical space and supports the application of computation to images on paper.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

For more results click below:

this is page 0show page 1show page 2show page 3show page 4show page 5... show page 12HOMELOGIN (you are user _anon_953341 from group guest) CUMINCAD Papers Powered by SciX Open Publishing Services 1.002