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	d0f1
authors	Dorst, K. and Dijkhuis, J.
year	1995
title	Comparing paradigms for describing design activity
source	Design Studies, Vol. 16 No. 2, 261-274
summary	In this study the two main paradigms for looking at the design activity are compared in terms of their ability to describe the industrial design process. Special interest is paid to how close these descriptions are to capturing the design activity as experienced by the designers themselves.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	679e
authors	Coyne, R.
year	1995
title	Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age
source	The MIT Press, Cambridge, Ma and London UK
summary	Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age puts the theoretical discussion of computer systems and information technology on a new footing. Shifting the discourse from its usual rationalistic framework, Richard Coyne shows how the conception, development, and application of computer systems is challenged and enhanced by postmodern philosophical thought. He places particular emphasis on the theory of metaphor, showing how it has more to offer than notions of method and models appropriated from science. Coyne examines the entire range of contemporary philosophical thinking -- including logical positivism, analytic philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, critical theory, hermeneutics, and deconstruction -- comparing them and showing how they differ in their consequences for design and development issues in electronic communications, computer representation, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and multimedia. He also probes the claims made of information technology, including its presumptions of control, its so-called radicality, even its ability to make virtual worlds, and shows that many of these claims are poorly founded. Among the writings Coyne visits are works by Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Gadamer, Derrida, Habermas, Rorty, and Foucault. He relates their views to information technology designers and critics such as Herbert Simon, Alan Kay, Terry Winograd, Hubert Dreyfus, and Joseph Weizenbaum. In particular, Coyne draws extensively from the writing of Martin Heidegger, who has presented one of the most radical critiques of technology to date.
series	other
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	ascaad2006_paper2
id	ascaad2006_paper2
authors	Sharji, Elyna and Ahmed Rafi
year	2006
title	The Significant Role of an Electronic Gallery to the Education Experience and Learning Environment
source	Computing in Architecture / Re-Thinking the Discourse: The Second International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2006), 25-27 April 2006, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
summary	Multimedia has brought new paradigms to education where users are able to use the technology to create compelling content that truly represents a new archetype in media experience. According to Burger (1995), the synergy of digital media is becoming a way of life where new paradigms for interactive audio-visual experiences of all communicative arts to date are mandatory. It potentially mixes technology and disciplines of architecture and art. Students can learn on their own pace and they can be tested in a non-linear way while interactivity allows the curious to easily explore related topics and concepts. Fundamental assumptions, theories and practices of conventional design paradigm are constantly being challenged by digital technology and this is the current scenario in architecture and art and design schools globally. Thus schools are enhancing the methods and improvising the technology of imparting knowledge to be in consistent with recent findings and knowledge. To be able to cater the use of digital media and information technology on architectural and art design education, four criteria are required, which are; the SPACE and place to accommodate the educational activities, the TOOLS that assist imparting of knowledge, the CONTENT of syllabus and information and the acceptance and culture of the receiving end users and HUMAN PERCEPTION. There is a need for the research of realization and activating the architectural space that has been equipped with multimedia tools and upgraded with recent technology to facilitate and support the community of learners and users. Spaces are now more interactive, multi functional, flexible and intelligent to suit the trend of computing in normal everyday life of the education sector, business and management, art and leisure, corporate and technological area. While the new concept of computing in education is still in the earlier phase, the conventional analogue paradigm still dominates the architectural design discourse which acts as a barrier to the development of digital designs and architectural education. A suitable approach is in need to bridge the gap between what theory has been explored and the practice of knowledge. A digital support environment with intelligent design and planning tools is envisioned to bridge the gap and to cater for the current scenario.
series	ASCAAD
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2021/07/16 10:34

_id	2005_787
id	2005_787
authors	Veikos, Cathrine
year	2005
title	The Post-Medium Condition
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2005.787
source	Digital Design: The Quest for New Paradigms [23nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-3-2] Lisbon (Portugal) 21-24 September 2005, pp. 787-794
summary	Theorists in art, architecture and visual media have described the digital world as a world of mediumlessness and proclaimed that the medium of a work, once the ontological determinant for the classification of the arts, is rendered meaningless by recent technological and cultural developments (Krauss, 2000; Negroponte, 1995; Manovich, 2001). Although indebted to specific media-based techniques and their attendant ideologies, software removes the material reality of techniques to an immaterial condition where the effects of material operations are reproduced abstractly. This paper asserts that a productive approach for digital design can be found in the acknowledgement that the importance of the digital format is not that it de-materializes media, but that it allows for the maximum intermingling of media. A re-conceptualization of media follows from this, defined now as, a set of conventions derived from the material conditions of a given technical support, conventions out of which to develop a form of expressiveness that can be both projective and mnemonic (Krauss, 2000). The paper will focus on the identification of these conventions towards the development of new forms of expressiveness in architecture. Further demonstration of the intermingling of materially-based conventions is carried out in the paper through a comparative analysis of contemporary works of art and architecture, taking installation art as a particular example. A new design approach based on the maximum intermingling of media takes account of integrative strategies towards the digital and the material and sees them as inextricably linked. In the digital “medium” different sets of conventions derived from different material conditions transfer their informational assets producing fully formed, material-digital ingenuity.
keywords	Expanded Architecture, Art Practice, Material, Information, ParametricTechniques, Evolutionary Logics
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	8378
authors	Arlati, Ezio
year	1995
title	Patriarch: A Hypermedia Environment for the Support of Architectural Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.187
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. 187-198
summary	This paper reports on current research in the field of architectural design and knowledge- based systems, through the conception and implementation of two software tools operating as a part of an integrated hypermedia environment denominated PatriArch. Main concern of this set of tools operating in PatriArch is the support of design since the very beginning, in that phase of not yet correctly explored or interpretated constraints and of scarcely specified goals, in which an initial solution model - provisionally composed of fragments of supposed fitting ideas - for the design theme has to take place. The creative activity of the designer is assumed as an 'intentional planning activity' that represents the acquired level of knowledge of the network of connections defining the nature, function, shape in the space etc. of the increasingly integrated solution-model: the final design will be an evolution of this - and other competitive and concurrent - models. PatriArch is meant to be the environment containing and allowing the representation of this evolution through its ability of linking the fragments of designers' knowledge, supported by an integrated relational data base: Sysinfo. These works were conceived inside an educational software development program for architecture students.
series	eCAADe
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_25.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	c3fa
authors	Barnanente, A., Cuscito, A.P. and Maiellaro, N.
year	1995
title	Expert System and Hypertext for Development Control
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.347
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. 347-354
summary	The paper deals with an interactive system based on expert system and hypertext interaction in order to meet the demands of support for local government officials' activity in building-application inspection. Also described are the planning departments context and the problem related to eliciting knowledge in building-inspection process.
series	eCAADe
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_42.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	7555
authors	Brown, F., Cooper, G., Ford, S., Aouad, G., Brandon, P., Child, T., Kirkham, J., Oxman, R. and Young, B.
year	1995
title	An integrated approach to CAD: modelling concepts in building design and construction
source	Design Studies 16 (3) (1995) pp. 327-347
summary	The ICON project is concerned with the creation of a generic information structure for the construction industry. A central feature of the information model is the use of object-oriented modelling techniques to allow information to be viewed from different 'perspectives' and at different levels of abstraction, according to the requirements of the user. This paper discusses the object modelling of concepts and information in the design area. Drawing on knowledge elicited from protocol analysis of the design activity, a series of interrelated object models has been developed, reflecting different perspectives and abstraction levels within the design domain. Three of these models (spatial design, physical design and structural design) are presented and their implications for the communication and sharing of information discussed.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/05/15 21:45

_id	940c
authors	Brown, F.E. (et. al.)
year	1995
title	An integrated approach to CAD: modelling concepts in building design and construction
source	Design Studies, vol. 16
summary	The ICON project is concerned with the creation of a generic information structure for the construction industry. A central feature of the information model is the use of object-oriented modelling techniques to allow information to be viewed from different `perspectives' and at different levels of abstraction, according to the requirements of the user. This paper discusses the object modelling of concepts and information in the design area. Drawing on knowledge elicited from protocol analysis of the design activity, a series of interrelated object models has been developed, reflecting different perspectives and abstraction levels within the design domain. Three of these models (spatial design, physical design and structural design) are presented and their implications for the communication and sharing of information discussed.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	7a20
id	7a20
authors	Carrara, G., Fioravanti, A.
year	2002
title	SHARED SPACE’ AND ‘PUBLIC SPACE’ DIALECTICS IN COLLABORATIVE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN.
source	Proceedings of Collaborative Decision-Support Systems Focus Symposium, 30th July, 2002; under the auspices of InterSymp-2002, 14° International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics, 2002, Baden-Baden, pg. 27-44.
summary	The present paper describes on-going research on Collaborative Design. The proposed model, the resulting system and its implementation refer mainly to architectural and building design in the modes and forms in which it is carried on in advanced design firms. The model may actually be used effectively also in other environments. The research simultaneously pursues an integrated model of the: a) structure of the networked architectural design process (operators, activities, phases and resources); b) required knowledge (distributed and functional to the operators and the process phases). The article focuses on the first aspect of the model: the relationship that exists among the various ‘actors’ in the design process (according to the STEP-ISO definition, Wix, 1997) during the various stages of its development (McKinney and Fischer, 1998). In Collaborative Design support systems this aspect touches on a number of different problems: database structure, homogeneity of the knowledge bases, the creation of knowledge bases (Galle, 1995), the representation of the IT datum (Carrara et al., 1994; Pohl and Myers, 1994; Papamichael et al., 1996; Rosenmann and Gero, 1996; Eastman et al., 1997; Eastman, 1998; Kim, et al., 1997; Kavakli, 2001). Decision-making support and the relationship between ‘private’ design space (involving the decisions of the individual design team) and the ‘shared’ design space (involving the decisions of all the design teams, Zang and Norman, 1994) are the specific topic of the present article. Decisions taken in the ‘private design space’ of the design team or ‘actor’ are closely related to the type of support that can be provided by a Collaborative Design system: automatic checks performed by activating procedures and methods, reporting of 'local' conflicts, methods and knowledge for the resolution of ‘local’ conflicts, creation of new IT objects/ building components, who the objects must refer to (the ‘owner’), 'situated' aspects (Gero and Reffat, 2001) of the IT objects/building components. Decisions taken in the ‘shared design space’ involve aspects that are typical of networked design and that are partially present in the ‘private’ design space. Cross-checking, reporting of ‘global’ conflicts to all those concerned, even those who are unaware they are concerned, methods for their resolution, the modification of data structure and interface according to the actors interacting with it and the design phase, the definition of a 'dominus' for every IT object (i.e. the decision-maker, according to the design phase and the creation of the object). All this is made possible both by the model for representing the building (Carrara and Fioravanti, 2001), and by the type of IT representation of the individual building components, using the methods and techniques of Knowledge Engineering through a structured set of Knowledge Bases, Inference Engines and Databases. The aim is to develop suitable tools for supporting integrated Process/Product design activity by means of a effective and innovative representation of building entities (technical components, constraints, methods) in order to manage and resolve conflicts generated during the design activity.
keywords	Collaborative Design, Architectural Design, Distributed Knowledge Bases, ‘Situated’ Object, Process/Product Model, Private/Shared ‘Design Space’, Conflict Reduction.
series	other
type	symposium
email
last changed	2005/03/30 16:25

_id	6279
id	6279
authors	Carrara, G.; Fioravanti, A.
year	2002
title	Private Space' and ‘Shared Space’ Dialectics in Collaborative Architectural Design
source	InterSymp 2002 - 14th International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics (July 29 - August 3, 2002), pp 28-44.
summary	The present paper describes on-going research on Collaborative Design. The proposed model, the resulting system and its implementation refer mainly to architectural and building design in the modes and forms in which it is carried on in advanced design firms. The model may actually be used effectively also in other environments. The research simultaneously pursues an integrated model of the: a) structure of the networked architectural design process (operators, activities, phases and resources); b) required knowledge (distributed and functional to the operators and the process phases). The article focuses on the first aspect of the model: the relationship that exists among the various ‘actors’ in the design process (according to the STEP-ISO definition, Wix, 1997) during the various stages of its development (McKinney and Fischer, 1998). In Collaborative Design support systems this aspect touches on a number of different problems: database structure, homogeneity of the knowledge bases, the creation of knowledge bases (Galle, 1995), the representation of the IT datum (Carrara et al., 1994; Pohl and Myers, 1994; Papamichael et al., 1996; Rosenmann and Gero, 1996; Eastman et al., 1997; Eastman, 1998; Kim, et al., 1997; Kavakli, 2001). Decision-making support and the relationship between ‘private’ design space (involving the decisions of the individual design team) and the ‘shared’ design space (involving the decisions of all the design teams, Zang and Norman, 1994) are the specific topic of the present article. Decisions taken in the ‘private design space’ of the design team or ‘actor’ are closely related to the type of support that can be provided by a Collaborative Design system: automatic checks performed by activating procedures and methods, reporting of 'local' conflicts, methods and knowledge for the resolution of ‘local’ conflicts, creation of new IT objects/ building components, who the objects must refer to (the ‘owner’), 'situated' aspects (Gero and Reffat, 2001) of the IT objects/building components. Decisions taken in the ‘shared design space’ involve aspects that are typical of networked design and that are partially present in the ‘private’ design space. Cross-checking, reporting of ‘global’ conflicts to all those concerned, even those who are unaware they are concerned, methods for their resolution, the modification of data structure and interface according to the actors interacting with it and the design phase, the definition of a 'dominus' for every IT object (i.e. the decision-maker, according to the design phase and the creation of the object). All this is made possible both by the model for representing the building (Carrara and Fioravanti, 2001), and by the type of IT representation of the individual building components, using the methods and techniques of Knowledge Engineering through a structured set of Knowledge Bases, Inference Engines and Databases. The aim is to develop suitable tools for supporting integrated Process/Product design activity by means of a effective and innovative representation of building entities (technical components, constraints, methods) in order to manage and resolve conflicts generated during the design activity.
keywords	Collaborative Design, Architectural Design, Distributed Knowledge Bases, ‘Situated’ Object, Process/Product Model, Private/Shared ‘Design Space’, Conflict Reduction.
series	other
type	symposium
email
last changed	2012/12/04 07:53

_id	maver_075
id	maver_075
authors	Chen, Y.Z. and Maver, T.W.
year	1995
title	Some Experiments on Implementing Collaborative Building Design Environments
source	Building Simulation 95 Conference (Ed: J Mitchell et al) Madison, USA
summary	A collaborative building design environment has been proposed to integrate together both the heterogeneous applications and the dispersed project participants. Based on the functional requirements identified, the conventional building product models have been extended to incorporate high-level concepts such as activity and organisation, which are essential for coordination, and a generic human- human interaction model has been developed, which could not only make the building domain models interaction-aware, but also serve as a base model for developing general interaction utilities. Collaborative design environment prototyping has been described, covering the common project workspace, general interaction utilities and multiuser interfaces. Three distribution schemes for implementing the common project workspace within a distributed environment have also been discussed.
series	other
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2015/02/20 14:46

_id	00ce
authors	Cicognani, Anna
year	1995
title	The New Challenge of Learning
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.037
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. 37-42
summary	The World Wide Web offers us a new way of hunting for information. If we compare Internet to an ocean, "surfing" is perhaps the right word to use for describing this hunting process. The 'power" of the Web lies in its friendly interface and in its potential to provide users with high impact documents, pictures, animation and sound. The hypertext nature of the Web allows us to create an on-going set of links which refer to and connect sites all over the world. Researchers and students can use this tool not only for gathering information, but also for publishing their works and "peering" with the works of others. The challenge, then, is to generate new interest around getting information. Students seem to have more motivations in learning whilst experimenting. And the Web is a good place to start.
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_5.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	80df
authors	Cook, Alan R.
year	1995
title	Stereopsis in the Design and Presentation of Architectural Works
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1995.113
source	Computing in Design - Enabling, Capturing and Sharing Ideas [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-04-7] University of Washington (Seattle, Washington / USA) October 19-22, 1995, pp. 113-137
summary	This article presumes the primacy of spatial cognition in evaluating architectural designs and begins by describing key concepts involved in the perception of spatial form, focussing on parallax and stereoscopy. The ultimate emphasis is directed at presenting techniques which employ computers with modest hardware specifications and a basic three-dimensional modeling software application to produce sophisticated imaging tools. It is argued that these techniques are comparable to high end computer graphic products in their potentials for carrying information and in some ways are superior in their speed of generation and economies of dissemination. A camera analogy is considered in relation to controlling image variables. The ability to imply a temporal dimension is explored. An abbreviated summary of pertinent binocular techniques for viewing stereograms precedes a rationalization and initiation for using the cross-convergence technique. Ways to generate and view stereograms and other multiscopic views using 3-D computer models are described. Illustrations from sample projects show various levels of stereogram rendering including the theoretically 4-D wireframe stereogram. The translated perspective array autostereogram is presented as an economical and easily reproducible alternative to holography as well as being a substitute for stop action animation.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	a84e
authors	De Grassi, Mario and Giretti, Alberto
year	1995
title	Applying Formal Methods to Multimedia Design Aid
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.283
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. 283-296
summary	In the last decade we assisted at an evolution of computer aided design systems from drafting, calculation and simulation utilities toward systems able to support the conceptual phase of the design process. Systems supporting conceptual design use knowledge about the design domain and assume a will defined model of the design activity. Their computational framework is usually built by means of a set of representational schemata which lack a formal semantics. This aspect causes a limitation on the applicability of their computational framework to different domains. In this paper we propose a formal knowledge representation language, that has been defined in order to represent the structural relationships of domain knowledge. On the basis of language structure we propose a number of inferences tailored to case-based conceptual design aiding. Finally we apply the representational framework to the implementation of a computational architecture for conceptual design aiding that integrates multimedia representation of design cases with symbolic information processing. The architecture combines a knowledge representation server and a multimedia server. The knowledge representation server processes both domain knowledge and design experiences according to the Case Based Reasoning paradigm. The multimedia server produces the required case representation.
series	eCAADe
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_34.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	2036
authors	Dzeng, R.J.
year	1995
title	Caseplan: A Case-based Planer and Scheduler for Construction Using Product Modeling
source	University of Michigan
summary	Construction planning and scheduling are important to contractors for estimating the cost and duration of a project they are to bid on and construct. Many projects specify incentive and disincentive clauses for completing projects early and late. The timely completion and success of a project rely on good planning and scheduling. Contractors who repeatedly build the same kind of facilities acquire experience in scheduling the needed construction work. When parts of a facility's design are copied from one project to the next, the previously developed schedules could possibly be reused to schedule future work. This dissertation presents a construction planner and scheduler, named CasePlan, that automates the planning and scheduling process through the use of experience encoded in cases. CasePlan enables a contractor to specify a facility design using a product model, describe the relationships between product components and parts of a schedule (e.g., activity subnetworks, construction crews), and store this information as a case. As a decision support tool, CasePlan enables the contractor to search for cases whose facility designs are similar to that of a new project. The similarity assessment is based on the relative importance values that the contractor assigns to the components and their attributes in the product model. As an automation tool, CasePlan creates the schedule of a new project by reusing parts of the schedules whose associated designs are most similar to that project's design. The result is a schedule in which construction alternatives are chosen from those used in previous cases based on the new project scheduling constraints. The contractor / system-user can interact with CasePlan during its operation or modify the resulting schedule to add detail needed for executing the schedule in the field. Two types of construction projects have been studied for the development of CasePlan. One is the Kit-of-Parts post offices, in which designs are made by reusing design modules defined as Parts. The other is the boiler erection for fossil-fueled power plants, in which the design process is standardized and component configurations are similar across designs. These projects were chosen because their schedules are similar within each project type, which suggested that practitioners had a high incentive and were likely to reuse schedules. CasePlan's similarity assessment for boiler erection projects was validated using a survey. CasePlan's schedules and usability was subjectively evaluated also by the interviewed professionals.
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	6a3a
authors	Ekholm, A., Fridqvist, S. and Af Klercker, J.
year	1995
title	BAS.CAAD - Building and User Activity Systems Modelling for Computer-Aided Architectural Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.217
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. 217-230
summary	In the early stages of the building design process not only building and site but also user activities and experiences are formed. This paper presents a development programme for CAAD where conceptual models of some fundamental characteristics of building, site and user organisation will be developed and implemented in a prototype CAAD-programme. The models are based both on empirical studies and an ontological Framework which is also used for organising the basic object structure of the prototype CAD program. The architectural design process has several characteristics which a CAAD-programme must support, e.g incremental determination of properties, change of scale and shift of focus. The research investigates how the design object and the user interface can be formed to serve this working method. One important field is to study the usefulness of the user organisation model for the brief and building management stages. The programming work for the prototypes is done with Smalltalk on Macintosh computers. The tests of the prototype includes spatial co-ordination of the three systems.
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_28.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	b72a
authors	Ford, S., Aouad, G., Kirkham, J., Brandon, P., Brown, F., Child, T., Cooper, G., Oxman, R. and Young, B.
year	1995
title	An information engineering approach to modelling building design
source	Automation in Construction 4 (1) (1995) pp. 5-15
summary	This paper highlights potential problems in the construction industry concerning the large quantities of information produced and the lack of an adequate information structure within which to coordinate this information. The Information Engineering Method (IEM) and Information Engineering Facility (IEF) CASE tool are described and put forward as a means of establishing an information structure at a strategic level thus providing a framework for the implementation of lower level applications systems. The paper describes how the ICON (Integration/Information for Construction) project at Salford University is establishing and modelling the information requirements for the construction industry at the strategic level. The IEM and IEF are demonstrated using activity, data and interaction models with particular attention being paid to the function of building design within the broader context of design, procurement and the management of construction. Implications for future practice are also discussed.
keywords	Information engineering; CASE tools; Modelling; Integration; Design
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/06/02 09:32

_id	2068
authors	Frazer, John
year	1995
title	AN EVOLUTIONARY ARCHITECTURE
source	London: Architectural Association
summary	In "An Evolutionary Architecture", John Frazer presents an overview of his work for the past 30 years. Attempting to develop a theoretical basis for architecture using analogies with nature's processes of evolution and morphogenesis. Frazer's vision of the future of architecture is to construct organic buildings. Thermodynamically open systems which are more environmentally aware and sustainable physically, sociologically and economically. The range of topics which Frazer discusses is a good illustration of the breadth and depth of the evolutionary design problem. Environmental Modelling One of the first topics dealt with is the importance of environmental modelling within the design process. Frazer shows how environmental modelling is often misused or misinterpreted by architects with particular reference to solar modelling. From the discussion given it would seem that simplifications of the environmental models is the prime culprit resulting in misinterpretation and misuse. The simplifications are understandable given the amount of information needed for accurate modelling. By simplifying the model of the environmental conditions the architect is able to make informed judgments within reasonable amounts of time and effort. Unfortunately the simplications result in errors which compound and cause the resulting structures to fall short of their anticipated performance. Frazer obviously believes that the computer can be a great aid in the harnessing of environmental modelling data, providing that the same simplifying assumptions are not made and that better models and interfaces are possible. Physical Modelling Physical modelling has played an important role in Frazer's research. Leading to the construction of several novel machine readable interactive models, ranging from lego-like building blocks to beermat cellular automata and wall partitioning systems. Ultimately this line of research has led to the Universal Constructor and the Universal Interactor. The Universal Constructor The Universal Constructor features on the cover of the book. It consists of a base plug-board, called the "landscape", on top of which "smart" blocks, or cells, can be stacked vertically. The cells are individually identified and can communicate with neighbours above and below. Cells communicate with users through a bank of LEDs displaying the current state of the cell. The whole structure is machine readable and so can be interpreted by a computer. The computer can interpret the states of the cells as either colour or geometrical transformations allowing a wide range of possible interpretations. The user interacts with the computer display through direct manipulation of the cells. The computer can communicate and even direct the actions of the user through feedback with the cells to display various states. The direct manipulation of the cells encourages experimentation by the user and demonstrates basic concepts of the system. The Universal Interactor The Universal Interactor is a whole series of experimental projects investigating novel input and output devices. All of the devices speak a common binary language and so can communicate through a mediating central hub. The result is that input, from say a body-suit, can be used to drive the out of a sound system or vice versa. The Universal Interactor opens up many possibilities for expression when using a CAD system that may at first seem very strange.However, some of these feedback systems may prove superior in the hands of skilled technicians than more standard devices. Imagine how a musician might be able to devise structures by playing melodies which express the character. Of course the interpretation of input in this form poses a difficult problem which will take a great deal of research to achieve. The Universal Interactor has been used to provide environmental feedback to affect the development of evolving genetic codes. The feedback given by the Universal Interactor has been used to guide selection of individuals from a population. Adaptive Computing Frazer completes his introduction to the range of tools used in his research by giving a brief tour of adaptive computing techniques. Covering topics including cellular automata, genetic algorithms, classifier systems and artificial evolution. Cellular Automata As previously mentioned Frazer has done some work using cellular automata in both physical and simulated environments. Frazer discusses how surprisingly complex behaviour can result from the simple local rules executed by cellular automata. Cellular automata are also capable of computation, in fact able to perform any computation possible by a finite state machine. Note that this does not mean that cellular automata are capable of any general computation as this would require the construction of a Turing machine which is beyond the capabilities of a finite state machine. Genetic Algorithms Genetic algorithms were first presented by Holland and since have become a important tool for many researchers in various areas.Originally developed for problem-solving and optimization problems with clearly stated criteria and goals. Frazer fails to mention one of the most important differences between genetic algorithms and other adaptive problem-solving techniques, ie. neural networks. Genetic algorithms have the advantage that criteria can be clearly stated and controlled within the fitness function. The learning by example which neural networks rely upon does not afford this level of control over what is to be learned. Classifier Systems Holland went on to develop genetic algorithms into classifier systems. Classifier systems are more focussed upon the problem of learning appropriate responses to stimuli, than searching for solutions to problems. Classifier systems receive information from the environment and respond according to rules, or classifiers. Successful classifiers are rewarded, creating a reinforcement learning environment. Obviously, the mapping between classifier systems and the cybernetic view of organisms sensing, processing and responding to environmental stimuli is strong. It would seem that a central process similar to a classifier system would be appropriate at the core of an organic building. Learning appropriate responses to environmental conditions over time. Artificial Evolution Artificial evolution traces it's roots back to the Biomorph program which was described by Dawkins in his book "The Blind Watchmaker". Essentially, artificial evolution requires that a user supplements the standard fitness function in genetic algorithms to guide evolution. The user may provide selection pressures which are unquantifiable in a stated problem and thus provide a means for dealing ill-defined criteria. Frazer notes that solving problems with ill-defined criteria using artificial evolution seriously limits the scope of problems that can be tackled. The reliance upon user interaction in artificial evolution reduces the practical size of populations and the duration of evolutionary runs. Coding Schemes Frazer goes on to discuss the encoding of architectural designs and their subsequent evolution. Introducing two major systems, the Reptile system and the Universal State Space Modeller. Blueprint vs. Recipe Frazer points out the inadequacies of using standard "blueprint" design techniques in developing organic structures. Using a "recipe" to describe the process of constructing a building is presented as an alternative. Recipes for construction are discussed with reference to the analogous process description given by DNA to construct an organism. The Reptile System The Reptile System is an ingenious construction set capable of producing a wide range of structures using just two simple components. Frazer saw the advantages of this system for rule-based and evolutionary systems in the compactness of structure descriptions. Compactness was essential for the early computational work when computer memory and storage space was scarce. However, compact representations such as those described form very rugged fitness landscapes which are not well suited to evolutionary search techniques. Structures are created from an initial "seed" or minimal construction, for example a compact spherical structure. The seed is then manipulated using a series of processes or transformations, for example stretching, shearing or bending. The structure would grow according to the transformations applied to it. Obviously, the transformations could be a predetermined sequence of actions which would always yield the same final structure given the same initial seed. Alternatively, the series of transformations applied could be environmentally sensitive resulting in forms which were also sensitive to their location. The idea of taking a geometrical form as a seed and transforming it using a series of processes to create complex structures is similar in many ways to the early work of Latham creating large morphological charts. Latham went on to develop his ideas into the "Mutator" system which he used to create organic artworks. Generalising the Reptile System Frazer has proposed a generalised version of the Reptile System to tackle more realistic building problems. Generating the seed or minimal configuration from design requirements automatically. From this starting point (or set of starting points) solutions could be evolved using artificial evolution. Quantifiable and specific aspects of the design brief define the formal criteria which are used as a standard fitness function. Non-quantifiable criteria, including aesthetic judgments, are evaluated by the user. The proposed system would be able to learn successful strategies for satisfying both formal and user criteria. In doing so the system would become a personalised tool of the designer. A personal assistant which would be able to anticipate aesthetic judgements and other criteria by employing previously successful strategies. Ultimately, this is a similar concept to Negroponte's "Architecture Machine" which he proposed would be computer system so personalised so as to be almost unusable by other people. The Universal State Space Modeller The Universal State Space Modeller is the basis of Frazer's current work. It is a system which can be used to model any structure, hence the universal claim in it's title. The datastructure underlying the modeller is a state space of scaleless logical points, called motes. Motes are arranged in a close-packing sphere arrangement, which makes each one equidistant from it's twelve neighbours. Any point can be broken down into a self-similar tetrahedral structure of logical points. Giving the state space a fractal nature which allows modelling at many different levels at once. Each mote can be thought of as analogous to a cell in a biological organism. Every mote carries a copy of the architectural genetic code in the same way that each cell within a organism carries a copy of it's DNA. The genetic code of a mote is stored as a sequence of binary "morons" which are grouped together into spatial configurations which are interpreted as the state of the mote. The developmental process begins with a seed. The seed develops through cellular duplication according to the rules of the genetic code. In the beginning the seed develops mainly in response to the internal genetic code, but as the development progresses the environment plays a greater role. Cells communicate by passing messages to their immediate twelve neighbours. However, it can send messages directed at remote cells, without knowledge of it's spatial relationship. During the development cells take on specialised functions, including environmental sensors or producers of raw materials. The resulting system is process driven, without presupposing the existence of a construction set to use. The datastructure can be interpreted in many ways to derive various phenotypes. The resulting structure is a by-product of the cellular activity during development and in response to the environment. As such the resulting structures have much in common with living organisms which are also the emergent result or by-product of local cellular activity. Primordial Architectural Soups To conclude, Frazer presents some of the most recent work done, evolving fundamental structures using limited raw materials, an initial seed and massive feedback. Frazer proposes to go further and do away with the need for initial seed and start with a primordial soup of basic architectural concepts. The research is attempting to evolve the starting conditions and evolutionary processes without any preconditions. Is there enough time to evolve a complex system from the basic building blocks which Frazer proposes? The computational complexity of the task being embarked upon is not discussed. There is an implicit assumption that the "superb tactics" of natural selection are enough to cut through the complexity of the task. However, Kauffman has shown how self-organisation plays a major role in the early development of replicating systems which we may call alive. Natural selection requires a solid basis upon which it can act. Is the primordial soup which Frazer proposes of the correct constitution to support self-organisation? Kauffman suggests that one of the most important attributes of a primordial soup to be capable of self-organisation is the need for a complex network of catalysts and the controlling mechanisms to stop the reactions from going supracritical. Can such a network be provided of primitive architectural concepts? What does it mean to have a catalyst in this domain? Conclusion Frazer shows some interesting work both in the areas of evolutionary design and self-organising systems. It is obvious from his work that he sympathizes with the opinions put forward by Kauffman that the order found in living organisms comes from both external evolutionary pressure and internal self-organisation. His final remarks underly this by paraphrasing the words of Kauffman, that life is always to found on the edge of chaos. By the "edge of chaos" Kauffman is referring to the area within the ordered regime of a system close to the "phase transition" to chaotic behaviour. Unfortunately, Frazer does not demonstrate that the systems he has presented have the necessary qualities to derive useful order at the edge of chaos. He does not demonstrate, as Kauffman does repeatedly, that there exists a "phase transition" between ordered and chaotic regimes of his systems. He also does not make any studies of the relationship of useful forms generated by his work to phase transition regions of his systems should they exist. If we are to find an organic architecture, in more than name alone, it is surely to reside close to the phase transition of the construction system of which is it built. Only there, if we are to believe Kauffman, are we to find useful order together with environmentally sensitive and thermodynamically open systems which can approach the utility of living organisms.
series	other
type	normal paper
last changed	2004/05/22 14:12

_id	33f3
authors	Fujii, Haruyuki
year	1995
title	Incorporation of Natural Language Processing and a Generative System - An Interactive System that Constructs Topological Models from Spatial Descriptions in Natural Language
source	Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 205-218
summary	The natural language processing technique and the spatial reasoning technique are incorporated to create a computational model representing the process of updating and maintaining the knowledge about spatial relations. An algorithm for the spatial reasoning is proposed. An interactive system that understands sentences describing spatial relations is implemented. The system determines the reference of an anaphoric or deictic expression from the literal meaning of the input and the implicit meaning derived from the literal meaning. The consistency of the spatial relations is maintained. The correct topological representations of the spatial relations are generated from well-formed descriptions.
keywords	Natural Language Processing, Discourse Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Architecture, CAD
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	eccf
authors	Herbert, Daniel M.
year	1995
title	Models, Scanners, Pencils, and CAD: Interactions Between Manual and Digital Media
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1995.021
source	Computing in Design - Enabling, Capturing and Sharing Ideas [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-04-7] University of Washington (Seattle, Washington / USA) October 19-22, 1995, pp. 21-34
summary	This paper discusses new approaches to the relation between handmade and computer aided media in design. The discussion focuses on two advanced studio projects in which graduate student designers incorporated interactions between physical models, a digital scanner, handmade drawings, and the manipulation of images in the computer. These interactions provide a valuable supplement to traditional means -- both manual and digital -- for generating, developing, and representing architectural form. Features of the student’s work that other designers will find significant are its focus on multiple interactions, its setting within a realistic design process, and its use of low levels of computer technology. After describing details of the designer’s media techniques, the paper discusses the practical and theoretical implications of the work.
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

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