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	2ff9
id	2ff9
authors	Ataman, Osman
year	1993
title	Knowledge-based Stair Design
source	Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 163-171
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.163
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	a336
authors	Calvo, Charles M.
year	1993
title	SOME EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONCERNS REGARDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACHES TO ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN - A RENEWED AGENDA
source	Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 155-162
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.155
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	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	1766
id	1766
authors	Gero, J. S.
year	1993
title	New knowledge-based CAD models of design
source	K. Mathur, M. Betts and K. W. Tham (eds), Management of Information Technology for Construction, World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 199-208
summary	Knowledge-based systems utilise concepts from artificial intelligence. They are the bases of new models of design which have the potential to extend the utility of computers in design. This paper briefly reviews current research support new knowledge-based CAd-models if design before describing and elaborating two such models. One is case-based design and the other is creative design.
series	other
type	normal paper
email
more	http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/~john/
last changed	2006/05/27 18:27

_id	63a9
authors	Hellgardt, Michael
year	1993
title	Architectural Theory and Design Grammars
source	[eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 11-13 November 1993
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1993.x.i6u
summary	The idea of artificial brains and artificial intelligence (AI) has been subject to criticism. The objection of J. Searle, for instance, which has been published in 1984 and which was partially directly addressed to one of the centres of AI, the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is mainly based on two points: (1) interactions between physiological and mental functions, and (2) the intentionality and context-relatedness of meaning. - With an emphasis on architectural design, this paper is about the second point, because the problem of meaning is a neuralgic point in the discussion of "artificial intelligence in design" (AID). Technical parameters are incompatible with mechanisms of meaning in any field of artistic, cultural or non-technical expression. This point, that is the relation between acts of meaning and acts of technical problem-solving and, connectedly, the relation between technological and architectural design, has been widely ignored in the discussion on AID. The development seems to be dominated by the tacit assumption that architecture can be articulated and generated purely in technical and formal terms of information processing beyond the field of architecture itself. Design and shape grammars have become a well established field in the discussion of AID, also with respect to architecture. But questions of architectural history and theory are touched on only incidentally and not sufficiently in this discussion. The problem is not, in other words, simply to include more or less unrelated cases of architecture, or architectural concepts -even if these are famous ones, such as Laugier's original hut for instance but to establish structural relations between arguments of architectural theory and arguments of AID.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	cd30
authors	Koutamanis, Alexander
year	1993
title	On the Correlation of Design and Computational Techniques in Architectural Education
source	[eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 11-13 November 1993
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1993.x.g6i
summary	Many studies employ analyses of human intelligence as justification or guideline for the development of machine intelligence. The main benefit brought on by such studies has been the improvement of our understanding of both human and machine intelligence. In teaching architecture with computers the same approach can make explicit design techniques architects use by means of equivalent or similar computational techniques. Explicitation of design techniques leads to a better understanding of architects' activities, as well as to which computer tools can offer automated support to these activities. In the curriculum of the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, relations and correspondences between computational and design techniques form a major underlying theme in computer-aided design courses. The purposes of this theme are (i) comprehension of the computational structure of a computer design tool, and (ii) explanation of how such computational structures relate to architectural design. (correspondences between the computational principles of computer programs and design techniques are instrumental in defining the scope of each computer tool in architectural design while improving the students' understanding of architectural design as a cognitive process and thus promoting automation as a natural extension of established conventional practices. The paper outlines the correlation of computational and design techniques in the case of electronic spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are introduced through a thorough presentation of the various kinds and aspects of constraint propagation, their underlying computational principle. Numerical constraint propagation is explained by means of spreadsheet applications for simple numerical calculations. Symbolic constraint propagation is presented in the framework of machine perception. Both forms are then linked to architectural design through parametric design and the recognition of spaces in floor plans. Exercises linked to spreadsheets and constraint propagation include the parametric calculation of stairs and making parametric variations of a building on the basis of floor area calculations.
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://caad.bk.tudelft.nl/koutamanis/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	4a5f
authors	Liu, Yu-Tung
year	1993
title	Recognizing Emergent Subshapes in Design Problem Solving: A Connectionist Investigation
source	Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 131-139
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.131
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	8db9
authors	Liu, Yu-Tung
year	1993
title	A Connectionist Approach to Shape Recognition and Transformation
source	CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 19-36
summary	In human design processes, many drawings of shapes remain incomplete or are executed inaccurately. Cognitively, a designer is able to discern these anomalous shapes, whereas current CAAD systems fail to recognize them properly so that CAAD systems are unable to match left-hand-side conditions of shape rules. More unfortunately, as a result, current CAAD systems fail to retrieve right-hand-side actions. In this paper, multi-layered neural networks are constructed to solve the recognition and transformation of ill-processed shapes in the light of recent advances of connectionism in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence.
keywords	Shape Recognition, Shape Transformation, Connectionist Models, PDP Models, Content-Addressable Memory, Neural Networks
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_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	98bd
authors	Pea, R.
year	1993
title	Practices of Distributed Intelligence and Designs for Education
source	Distributed Cognitions, edited by G. Salomon. New York, NY: CambridgeUniversity Press
summary	v Knowledge is commonly socially constructed, through collaborative efforts... v Intelligence may also be distributed for use in designed artifacts as diverse as physical tools, representations such as diagrams, and computer-user interfaces to complex tasks. v Leont'ev 1978 for activity theory that argues forcibly for the centrality of people-in-action, activity systems, as units of analysis for deepening our understanding of thinking. v Intelligence is distributed: the resources that shape and enable activity are distributed across people, environments, and situations. v Intelligence is accomplished rather than possessed. v Affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of a thing, primarily those functional properties that determine how the thing could possibly be used. v Norman 1988 on design and psychology - the psychology of everyday things" v We deploy effort-saving strategies in recognition of their cognitive economy and diminished opportunity for error. v The affordances of artifacts may be more or less difficult to convey to novice users of these artifacts in the activities to which they contribute distributed intelligence. v Starts with Norman's seven stages of action Ø Forming a goal; an intention § Task desire - clear goal and intention - an action and a means § Mapping desire - unable to map goal back to action § Circumstantial desire - no specific goal or intention - opportunistic approach to potential new goal § Habitual desire - familiar course of action - rapidly cycle all seven stages of action v Differentiates inscriptional systems from representational or symbol systems because inscriptional systems are completely external, while representational or symbol systems have been used in cognitive science as mental constructs. v The situated properties of everyday cognition are highly inventive in exploiting features of the physical and social situation as resources for performing a task, thereby avoiding the need for mental symbol manipulations unless they are required by that task. v Explicit recognition of the intelligence represented and representable in design, specifically in designed artifacts that play important roles in human activities. v Once intelligence is designed into the affordances properties of artifacts, it both guides and constrains the likely contributions of that artifact to distributed intelligence in activity. v Culturally valued designs for distributed intelligence will change over time, especially as new technology becomes associated with a task domain. v If we treat distributed intelligence in action as the scientific unit of analysis for research and theory on learning and reasoning... Ø What is distributed? Ø What constraints govern the dynamics of such distributions in different time scales? Ø Through what reconfigurations of distributed intelligence might the performance of an activity system improve over time? v Intelligence is manifest in activity and distributed in nature. v Intelligent activities ...in the real world... are often collaborative, depend on resources beyond an individual's long-term memory, and require the use of information-handling tools... v Wartofsky 1979 - the artifact is to cultural evolution what the gene is to biological evolution - the vehicle of information across generations. v Systems of activity - involving persons, environment, tools - become the locus of developmental investigation. v Disagrees with Salomon et al.'s entity-oriented approach - a language of containers holding things. v Human cognition aspires to efficiency in distributing intelligence - across individuals, environment, external symbolic representations, tools, and artifacts - as a means of coping with the complexity of activities we often cal "mental." "
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	e4c3
authors	Saggio, Antonino
year	1993
title	Hypertext, Solid Modeling, and Hierarchical Structures in Formal Architectural Analysis
source	CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 289-309
summary	The paper presents computer reconstructions of unbuilt projects relevant to the history of Italian rationalism together with the potential and limits of three CAAD environments. While an evaluation is provided for each one, a more detailed attention is devoted to hierarchical structures because of their capability to capture knowledge, to support further investigations, and to provide new insights into architecture. A model built in this environment allows simultaneously (1) the analysis and reconstruction even of a complex project at the size of a personal computer; (2) the simulation and test of different material, crucial in the case of restoration or in the case of incomplete and uncertain original project data; (3) the critical analysis (but also the co-presence of the different project alternatives of design phases) through the reading at the various level of the hierarchy; and (4) free investigation on the structure of data that can support new critical hypothesis and insights that were not anticipated at the moment of project creation.
keywords	Hypertext, Solid Modeling, Hierarchical Structures, Giuseppe Terragni, Italian Modern Architecture
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/07 12:03

_id	e9f1
authors	Alaimo, G., Pellitteri, G. and Scianna, A.
year	1993
title	A Tool for Typological Analysis
source	[eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 11-13 November 1993
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1993.x.q0g
summary	Any design problem is faced drawing from the architect's knowledge both case knowledge and general knowledge. One type of the latter is abstracted from a multiplicity of cases of which the common features are recognised in such a way as to single out a prototype representing in the best way a class of architectural objects. If applied to a set of residential buildings and to the flats in them the analysis is typological and it is one of the fundamental ways of acquiring general knowledge to be used to face design problems. The tool we present is aimed at such a type of analysis and is based on the idea that it possible to acquire qualitative knowledge through the statistical analysis of measurable characteristics of the examined architectural objects. It has been tested by applying it to the typological analysis of a set of flats of illegal buildings in Sicily. The procedure is organised in two main phases. The first one consists in a series of elaborations performed during the reading of architectural organism; the second one consists in a series of statistical analyses on the results (characteristic variables) of the first.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	20c1
authors	Alavalkama, Ilkka
year	1993
title	Technical Aspects of the Urban Simulator in Tampere University of Technology
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. 35-46
summary	The colour video recording Urban Simulator in TUT was built very early compared with the development of video systems. A contract for planning the simulator electronics, mechanics and camera systems was made in january 1978 with two TUT students: Jani Granholm (computer science and engineering) and Ilkka Alavalkama (machine design and automation). Ease of control and maintenance were asked by side of ”human movement inside coloured small-scale architectural models”. From the beginning, all components of the system were carefully tested and chosen from various alternatives. Financial resources were quite limited, which lead to a long building process and to self-planned and produced mechanical and electronical elements. Some optical systems were constructed by using elements from various manufacturers.
keywords	Architectural Endoscopy
series	EAEA
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/eaea/
last changed	2005/09/09 10:43

_id	3653
authors	Alshawi, M. and Budeiri, M.J.
year	1993
title	An Integrated approach for 3D simulation of construction sequence
source	The Int. Journal of Construction IT 1(2), pp. 35-46
summary	In order to eliminate design-related problems and to ease planning difficulties, a new integrated approach is required to manage and present design and construction information. This paper examines the feasibility of integrating design and construction scheduling information produced by 'industry standard' software. It describes the structure of a prototype which has been developed to generate a 3D simulation model for the construction sequence by integrating a CAD package with a project planning software. This study aims at establishing an integrated approach to communicate construction planning graphically to users (designers or construction managers) prior to construction in order to enhance the efficiency of the design/construction process.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/05/15 21:45

_id	a927
authors	Amirante, Isabella and Bosco, Antonio
year	1995
title	Hypertext Between Research and Teaching: An Experience in a Didactic Building Technology Laboratory
source	Multimedia and Architectural Disciplines [Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Education in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe / ISBN 0-9523687-1-4] Palermo (Italy) 16-18 November 1995, pp. 3-12
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.003
summary	IPER (hypertext for the knowledge of building patrimony) is the result of a research developed with C.N.R. (National Research Institute). The aim of IPER is to provide the knowledge, the description and the management of one or more historical buildings for public or private institutions. IPER allowed us to improve our methodology of building analysis, covering various disciplinary fields, in two different systems. (1.) the first one, synthetic and suitable for a group of historical buildings, (2.) the second one, complex and particularly made for monumental buildings. // This experience is related to the new regulation of teaching architecture in Italy made in 1993. The main novelty is the introduction of the laboratories with the contemporary presence of two or three teachers of different disciplines, working together with the students on the same project with different approaches. This opportunity allowed us to introduce the "knowledge engineer" as a teacher in the laboratory of building technology. IPER is given to the students with the aim of experimenting and solving the theoretical and practical difficulties that students of different years may encounter in the knowledge and representation of buildings and in the organisation of all the data from the case study.
series	eCAADe
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_1.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	0ab2
authors	Amor, R., Hosking, J., Groves, L. and Donn, M.
year	1993
title	Design Tool Integration: Model Flexibility for the Building Profession
source	Proceedings of Building Systems Automation - Integration, University of Wisconsin-Madison
summary	The development of ICAtect, as discussed in the Building Systems Automation and Integration Symposium of 1991, provides a way of integrating simulation tools through a common building model. However, ICAtect is only a small step towards the ultimate goal of total integration and automation of the building design process. In this paper we investigate the next steps on the path toward integration. We examine how models structured to capture the physical attributes of the building, as required by simulation tools, can be used to converse with knowledge-based systems. We consider the types of mappings that occur in the often different views of a building held by these two classes of design tools. This leads us to examine the need for multiple views of a common building model. We then extend our analysis from the views required by simulation and knowledge-based systems, to those required by different segments of the building profession (e.g. architects, engineers, developers, etc.) to converse with such an integrated system. This indicates a need to provide a flexible method of accessing data in the common building model to facilitate use by different building professionals with varying specialities and levels of expertise.
series	journal paper
email
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	50ce
authors	Baker, R.
year	1993
title	Designing the Future: The Computer Transformation of Reality
source	Thames and Hudson, Hong Kong
summary	A coffee table book on computer applications? Well, yes, because it does deal largely with matters of graphic design in architecture, fashion and textiles, painting, and photography; but it also has items which might be of interest in its sections on digital publication, typography, and electronic communication in general. It also seeks to discuss the way in which these applications may force us to change the way we think. Robin Baker writes in an unfortunately stiff and abstract manner about the impact computer programmes have had on the world of art and design, but the graphic images and extended picture captions help to keep the reader awake - even though the main text sometimes disappears for two or three double page spreads on end. There are also smatterings of pretentious art-world-speak about 'solving certain spatial problems' (in the design of curtain fabrics or teapots) and the introduction (inevitable?) of new jargon: 'shape grammar'(a list of so-called shape 'rules'), 'repurposing' (putting somebody else's work to new use) and 'genetic algorithms' (sculptural designs based on re-processed organic shapes - most of which look like stomach tumours). In his favour, Baker very generously credits students and commercial designers who have produced the effects he describes and illustrates so well. For writers, he sketches in the possibilities of Hypertext and Hypermedia and points to the future of Hyper publishing which he (and Rupert Murdoch)believes will be with us before the end of the century. He seems to have a good oversight of what is possible and practicable - though one wonders how up-to-date the view is when his book may have begun its life anything up to three years ago. He usefully points out that much new technology exists in or drags along with it the forms of earlier periods - so that in an age of electronic communication we still have printed books as a dominant cultural form. Maybe this is as it should be - but Baker makes a persuasive case for the claim that All This is Going to Change.
series	other
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	0c88
authors	Bedell, John R. and Kohler, Niklaus
year	1993
title	A Hierarchical Model for Building Applications
source	CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 423-435
summary	Advanced computer-aided architectural applications must model buildings as multi-level compositions supporting distinct points of view. Hierarchies of encapsulated, autonomous elements can be derived from ISO-STEP's General AEC Reference Model and configured for various applications. For analysis of life-cycle costs, we define a Pyramid of evaluable production steps leading to the final building; for optimization of renovation task schedules, a topological model of access paths and traffic flow. These separate viewpoints can be embedded in a single unifying structure permitting the communication and propagation of changes among its specialized aspects.
keywords	Design Model, Decision Support System, Object-Oriented Data Model, Building Product Model, STEP-GARM
series	CAAD Futures
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last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

_id	0ffe
authors	Bhat, R.R., Gauchel, J. and Van Wyk, S.
year	1993
title	Communication in Cooperative Building Design
source	CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 481-493
summary	This paper addresses communication issues, which are crucial in any implementation of distributed design environments. Communication needs are specified and implemented in a prototype based on a modular knowledge-based approach for simulation of a distributed multi-user system. The results of these simulations are reported, which show communication to be scalable as the numbers of applications and the size of the design increases. Finally, the implications of the results on real distributed systems are discussed.
keywords	Building Design, Distributed Design Environments, Cooperative Design, Communication
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

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