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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	ecaade2022_398
id	ecaade2022_398
authors	Dzurilla, Dalibor and Achten, Henri
year	2022
title	What’s Happening to Architectural Sketching? - Interviewing architects about transformation from traditional to digital architectural sketching as a communicational tool with clients
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2022.1.389
source	Pak, B, Wurzer, G and Stouffs, R (eds.), Co-creating the Future: Inclusion in and through Design - Proceedings of the 40th Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe 2022) - Volume 1, Ghent, 13-16 September 2022, pp. 389–398
summary	The paper discusses 23 interviewed architects in practice about the role of traditional and digital sketching (human-computer interaction) in communication with the client. They were selected from 1995 to 2018 (the interval of graduation) from three different countries: the Czech Republic (CR), Slovakia (SR), Netherland (NR). To realize three blending areas that impact the approach to sketching: (I) Traditional hand and physical model studies (1995-2003). (II)Transition form - designing by hand and PC (2004–2017). (III) Mainly digital and remote forms of designing (2018–now). Interviews helped transform 31 “parameters of tools use” from the previous theoretical framework narrowed down into six main areas: (1) Implementation; (2)Affordability; (3)Timesaving; (4) Drawing support; (5) Representativeness; (6) Transportability. Paper discusses findings from interviewees: (A) Implementation issues are above time and price. (B) Strongly different understanding of what digital sketching is. From drawing in Google Slides by mouse to sketching in Metaverse. (C) Substantial reduction of traditional sketching (down to a total of 3% of the time) at the expense of growing responsibilities. (D) 80% of respondents do not recommend sketching in front of the client. Also, other interesting findings are further described in the discussion.
keywords	Architectural Sketch, Digital Sketch, Effective Visual Communication
series	eCAADe
email	dzuridal@fa.cvut.cz
last changed	2024/04/22 07:10

_id	cf2011_p024
id	cf2011_p024
authors	Tidafi, Temy; Charbonneau Nathalie, Khalili-Araghi Salman
year	2011
title	Backtracking Decisions within a Design Process: a Way of Enhancing the Designer's Thought Process and Creativity
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. 573-587.
summary	This paper proposes a way computer sciences could contribute to stimulate the designer‚Äôs reflexive thought. We explore the possibility of making use of backtracking devices in order to formalize the designer‚Äôs thought process. Design, as a process of creating an object, cannot be represented by means of a linear timeline. Accordingly, the backtracking processes we are discussing here are not based on a linear model but rather on a non-linear structure. Beyond the notion of undoing and redoing commands within CAD packages, the backtracking process is seen as a way to explore and record several alternate options. The branches of the non-linear model can be seen as pathways made of sequential decisions. The designer creates and explores these pathways while making tentative moves towards an architectural solution. Within the design process, backtracking enables the designer to establish and act on a network of interrelated decisions. This notion is fundamental. It is quite obvious that information, in order to be meaningful, must occupy a specific place within an informational network. A data, separated from its context, is devoid of interest. By the same token, a decision takes on significance solely in combination with other decisions. In this paper, we examine what kinds of decisions are involved within a design process, how they are connected, and what could be the best ways to formalize the relationships. Our goal is to experiment ways that could enable the designer and his/her collaborators to get a clearer mental picture of the network of decisions aforementioned. The non-linear model can be seen as a graph structure. The user moves wherever he/she wants through the branches of the structure to establish the network of decisions or to get reacquainted with a previous design process. As a matter of fact, it can act in both ways: to reassess or to confirm a decision. On the one hand, the designer can go back to previous states, reconsider past choices, and eventually modify them. On the other hand, he/she can move forward and revisit a given sequence of decisions, so as to recapture the essence of a previous design process. It goes without saying that knowledge regarding the design process is constructed by the designer from his/her own experiences. Since the designer‚Äôs perception evolves as time goes by, the network of decisions constitutes a model that is continuously questioned and restructured. The designer does not elaborate solely an architectural object, but also an evolving model formalizing the way he/she achieved his/her aim. As Le Moigne (1995) pointed out, the model itself produces knowledge; afterwards, the designer can examine it so as to get a clearer mental picture of his/her own cognitive processes. Furthermore, it can be used by his/her collaborators in order to understand which thread of ideas led the designer to a given visual result, and eventually resume or reorient the design process. In addition to reflecting on the ideological implications inherent to this questioning, we take into account the feasibility of such a research project. From a more technical point of view, in this paper we will describe how we plane to take up the challenge of elaborating a digital environment enabling backtracking processes within graph structures. Furthermore, we will explain how we plane to test the first trial version of the new environment with potential users so as to observe how they respond to it. These experiments will be conducted in order to verify to what extend the methods we are proposing are able to i) enhance the designer‚Äôs creativity and ii) increase our understanding of designer‚Äôs thought process.
keywords	backtracking, design process, digital environments, problem space, network of decisions, graph structure.
series	CAAD Futures
email	temy.tidafi@umontreal.ca
last changed	2012/02/11 19:21

_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	aleppo@cc.nctu.edu.tw
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	b914
authors	Asanowicz, Aleksander and Asanowicz, Katarzyna
year	1995
title	Designing, CAD and CAD
source	CAD Space [Proceedings of the III International Conference Computer in Architectural Design] Bialystock 27-29 April 1995, pp. 181-192
summary	The general aim of our discussion is to analyze what has been changed in design process according to introducing the computers technology. For the better understanding of the design process evolution, we should precisely define start point - the traditional design process.Let's treat it as an iteration game between a designer and user. If we assume that the designing base is a reductive strategy, we can define six stages of it: 1.) To define a need; 2.) To formulate a task; 3.) To synthesize a design proposals; 4.) To analyze and optimize; 5.) To make a presentation. // The last stage - the presentation of designing proposals is the main factor of using computers in design process and creating definition of CAD as Computer Aided Drafting. According to this interpretation CAD has included four groups of activities: A.) Geometrical modelling; B.) Analysis; C.) Revision and estimation of design proposals; D.) Technical drawing preparing. // Unfortunately it has no connections with another meaning of CAD - Computer Aided Design because concerns every stage of design process except of creation of architectural form. On the other hand, computer enables us to improve the design process by permanent perception of designing forms and dynamic control over the transforming structure. Nowadays thanks to full-function sketching workstation and software like Fractal Design Painter a computer can be useful from the moment when the first line is drawing. It is possible, that the new generation of CAD software - CAD with Personality which connects computer models with picture transformation will enable CAD to be Computer Aided Design.
series	plCAD
email	asan@cksr.ac.bialystok.pl
last changed	2000/01/24 10:08

_id	262e
authors	Does, Jan van der
year	1995
title	A Student’s Project: Choices in Media for Communication and Presentation
source	The Future of Endoscopy [Proceedings of the 2nd European Architectural Endoscopy Association Conference / ISBN 3-85437-114-4]
summary	The Delft Faculty of Architecture is currently working with a new educational method called “Problem Based Learning”. After teaching basic principles in free-hand drawing and theory of form in the new block system, the sector Media takes also part in the third and fourth year, mostly in the design disciplines. Communication and presentation techniques, so important for the future, that architects and townplanners were organized for further discussions in close cooperation between the three sections of the Media sector. It resulted in the creation of a media module. Finally a short video production about the Faculty of Architecture resp. the sector Media at Delft University of Technology will be presented.
keywords	Architectural Endoscopy, Real Environments
series	EAEA
email	j.l.h.breen@bk.tudelft.nl
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/eaea/
last changed	2005/09/09 10:43

_id	1bb0
authors	Russell, S. and Norvig, P.
year	1995
title	Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
source	Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
summary	Humankind has given itself the scientific name homo sapiens--man the wise--because our mental capacities are so important to our everyday lives and our sense of self. The field of artificial intelligence, or AI, attempts to understand intelligent entities. Thus, one reason to study it is to learn more about ourselves. But unlike philosophy and psychology, which are also concerned with AI strives to build intelligent entities as well as understand them. Another reason to study AI is that these constructed intelligent entities are interesting and useful in their own right. AI has produced many significant and impressive products even at this early stage in its development. Although no one can predict the future in detail, it is clear that computers with human-level intelligence (or better) would have a huge impact on our everyday lives and on the future course of civilization. AI addresses one of the ultimate puzzles. How is it possible for a slow, tiny brain{brain}, whether biological or electronic, to perceive, understand, predict, and manipulate a world far larger and more complicated than itself? How do we go about making something with those properties? These are hard questions, but unlike the search for faster-than-light travel or an antigravity device, the researcher in AI has solid evidence that the quest is possible. All the researcher has to do is look in the mirror to see an example of an intelligent system. AI is one of the newest disciplines. It was formally initiated in 1956, when the name was coined, although at that point work had been under way for about five years. Along with modern genetics, it is regularly cited as the ``field I would most like to be in'' by scientists in other disciplines. A student in physics might reasonably feel that all the good ideas have already been taken by Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and the rest, and that it takes many years of study before one can contribute new ideas. AI, on the other hand, still has openings for a full-time Einstein. The study of intelligence is also one of the oldest disciplines. For over 2000 years, philosophers have tried to understand how seeing, learning, remembering, and reasoning could, or should, be done. The advent of usable computers in the early 1950s turned the learned but armchair speculation concerning these mental faculties into a real experimental and theoretical discipline. Many felt that the new ``Electronic Super-Brains'' had unlimited potential for intelligence. ``Faster Than Einstein'' was a typical headline. But as well as providing a vehicle for creating artificially intelligent entities, the computer provides a tool for testing theories of intelligence, and many theories failed to withstand the test--a case of ``out of the armchair, into the fire.'' AI has turned out to be more difficult than many at first imagined, and modern ideas are much richer, more subtle, and more interesting as a result. AI currently encompasses a huge variety of subfields, from general-purpose areas such as perception and logical reasoning, to specific tasks such as playing chess, proving mathematical theorems, writing poetry{poetry}, and diagnosing diseases. Often, scientists in other fields move gradually into artificial intelligence, where they find the tools and vocabulary to systematize and automate the intellectual tasks on which they have been working all their lives. Similarly, workers in AI can choose to apply their methods to any area of human intellectual endeavor. In this sense, it is truly a universal field.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	30d7
authors	Bartnicka, Malgorzata
year	1995
title	Childishly Honest Associate of the Trickery
source	CAD Space [Proceedings of the III International Conference Computer in Architectural Design] Bialystock 27-29 April 1995, pp. 209-219
summary	Perspective is a method of presentation of 3- dimensional space on the 2-dimensional surface. It can only approximately express the complexity of the authentic perception of reality. During the centuries canons of presentation varied in different epochs. It is quite possible that conventions of presentation considered today as exact expressions of reality may seem for the future generations as untrue as the ancient Egypt paintings seem for us. Our mind plays the major role in all kinds of presentation. During the whole life we learn to perceive the surrounding reality. We have formed also ability to ,see" the perspective. The linear perspective is not so easy in perception without factors of colour and light. These factors play a very important role in perception of the distance. The perception of perspective is not always unmistakable. Introduction of light and shadow is one of the measures to limit the ambiguity. Objects shown in perspective with appropriately chosen colouring and light-and-shade effects reveal impression of the distance inside the flat picture. Illusions of perspective are most astonishing when one can assume deep-rooted expectations and suppositions of the addressee. The computer monitor, like the picture, has only one plane on which our project can be presented. The major feature of architecture programs is both the possibility of creating various architecture spaces and the possibility to examine how (in our opinion) the created space would affect the addressee. By means of computer programs we are able to generate drawings and objects of two kinds: first - being the ideal projection of reality (at least in the same measure as the photograph), and the second - being the total negation of perspective rules. By means of CAD programs enabling 3-dimensional job we can check how all sorts of perspective tricks and artifices affect our imagination. The program cooperates with us trying to cheat the imperfect sense of sight. The trickeries can be of various type, starting from play of lights, through the elements changing the perception of perspective, and terminating with objects totally negating the rules of sound construction of solids. The knowledge contained in these programs is an encyclopaedic recapitulation of all sorts of achievements in the field of perspective and application of colour and light effects. All that remains to the users is to exploit this tremendous variety of capabilities.
series	plCAD
last changed	2000/01/24 10:08

_id	aab6
authors	Bermudez, Julio
year	1995
title	Designing Architectural Experiences: Using Computers to Construct Temporal 3D Narratives
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1995.139
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. 139-149
summary	Computers are launching us into a representational revolution that fundamentally challenges the way we have hitherto conceived and practiced architecture. This paper will explore one of its fronts: the simulation of architectural experiences. Today's off-the-shelf softwares (e.g. 3D modeling, animations, multimedia) allow us for first time in history to depict and thus approach architectural design and criticism truly experientially. What is so appealing about this is the possibility of shifting our attention from the object to the experience of the object and in so doing reconceptualizing architectural design as the design of architectural experiences. Carrying forward such a phenomenological proposition requires us to know (1) how to work with non-traditional and 'quasi-immersive' (or subject-centered) representational systems, and (2) how to construct temporal assemblages of experiential events that unfold not unlike 'architectural stories'. As our discipline lacks enough knowledge on this area, importing models from other fields appears as an appropriate starting point. In this sense, the narrative arts (especially those involved with the temporal representation of audio-visual narratives) offer us the best insights. For example, principles of cinema and storytelling give us an excellent guidance for designing architectural experiences that have a structuring theme (parti), a plot (order), unfolding episodes (rhythm), and special events (details). Approaching architecture as a temporal 3D narrative does transform the design process and, consequently, its results. For instance, (1) phenomenological issues enter the decision making process in an equal footing to functional, technological, or compositional considerations; (2) orthographic representations become secondary sources of information, mostly used for later accurate dimensioning or geometrization; (3) multi-sensory qualities beyond sight are seriously considered (particularly sound, texture, and kinesthetic); etc.
series	ACADIA
email	bermudez@arch.utah.edu
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	eb51
authors	Coyne, Richard
year	1996
title	CAAD, Curriculum and Controversy
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1996.121
source	Education for Practice [14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-2-2] Lund (Sweden) 12-14 September 1996, pp. 121-130
summary	This paper brings some of the debate within educational theory to bear on CAAD teaching, outlining the contributions of conservatism, critical theory, radical hermeneutics and pragmatism. The paper concludes by recommending that CAAD teaching move away from conservative concepts of teaching, design and technology to integrate it into the studio. In a highly illuminating book on education theory, Shaun Gallagher (1991) outlines four current views on education that correspond to four major positions in contemporary social theory and philosophy. I will extend these categories to a consideration of attitudes to information technology, and the teaching of computing in architecture. These four positions are conservatism, critical theory, radical hermeneutics, and pragmatism. I will show how certain issues cluster around them, how each position provides the focus of various discursive practices, or intellectual conversations in contemporary thinking, and how information technology is caught up in those conversations. These four positions are not "cognitive styles," but vigorously argued domains of debate involving writers such as Gadamer, Habermas and Derrida about the theory of interpretation. The field of interpretation is known as hermeneutics, which is concerned less with epistemology and knowledge than with understanding. Interpretation theory applies to reading texts, interpreting the law, and appreciating art, but also to the application of any practical task, such as making art, drawing, defining and solving problems, and design (Coyne and Snodgrass, 1995). Hermeneutics provides a coherent focus for considering many contemporary issues and many domains of practice. I outline what these positions in education mean in terms of CAAD (computer-aided architectural design) in the curriculum.
series	eCAADe
email	richard@caad.ed.ac.uk
more	http://www.caad.ac.uk/~richard
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_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	a8f0
authors	Goel, V.
year	1995
title	Sketches of thought
source	MA: MIT Press, Cambridge
summary	Much of the cognitive lies beyond articulate, discursive thought, beyond the reach of current computational notions. In Sketches of Thought, Vinod Goel argues that the cognitive computational conception of the world requires our thought processes to be precise, rigid, discrete, and unambiguous; yet there are dense, ambiguous, and amorphous symbol systems, like sketching, painting, and poetry, found in the arts and much of everyday discourse that have an important, nontrivial place in cognition. Goel maintains that while on occasion our thoughts do conform to the current computational theory of mind, they often are -- indeed must be - vague, fluid, ambiguous, and amorphous. He argues that if cognitive science takes the classical computational story seriously, it must deny or ignore these processes, or at least relegate them to the realm of the nonmental. As a cognitive scientist with a design background, Goel is in a unique position to challenge cognitive science on its own territory. He introduces design problem solving as a domain of cognition that illustrates these inarticulate, nondiscursive thought processes at work through the symbol system of sketching. He argues not that such thoughts must remain noncomputational but that our current notions of computation and representation are not rich enough to capture them. Along the way, Goel makes a number of significant and controversial interim points. He shows that there is a principled distinction between design and nondesign problems, that there are standard stages in the solution of design problems, that these stages correlate with the use of different types of external symbol systems; that these symbol systems are usefully individuated in Nelson Goodman's syntactic and semantic terms, and that different cognitive processes are facilitated by different types of symbol systems.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	2e3b
authors	Kvan, Thomas and Kvan, Erik
year	1997
title	Is Design Really Social
source	Creative Collaboration in Virtual Communities 1997, ed. A. Cicognani. VC'97. Sydney: Key Centre of Design Computing, Department of Architectural and Design Science, University of Sydney, 8 p.
summary	There are many who will readily agree with Mitchell’s assertion that “the most interesting new directions (for computer-aided design) are suggested by the growing convergence of computation and telecommunication. This allows us to treat designing not just as a technical process... but also as a social process.” [Mitchell 1995]. The assumption is that design was a social process until users of computer-aided design systems were distracted into treating it as a merely technical process. Most readers will assume that this convergence must and will lead to increased communication between design participants; that better social interaction leads to be better design. The unspoken assumption appears to be that putting the participants into an environment with maximal communication channels will result in design collaboration. The tools provided; therefore; must permit the best communication and the best social interaction. We think it essential to examine the foundations and assumptions on which software and environments are designed to support collaborative design communication. Of particular interest to us in this paper is the assumption about the “social” nature of design. Early research in computer-assisted design collaborations has jumped immediately into conclusions about communicative models which lead to high-bandwidth video connections as the preferred channel of collaboration. The unstated assumption is that computer-supported design environments are not adequate until they replicate in full the sensation of being physically present in the same space as the other participants (you are not there until you are really there). It is assumed that the real social process of design must include all the signals used to establish and facilitate face-to-face communication; including gestures; body language and all outputs of drawing (e.g. Tang [1991]). In our specification of systems for virtual design communities; are we about to fall into the same traps as drafting systems did?
keywords	CSCW; Virtual Community; Architectural Design; Computer-Aided Design
series	other
email	tkvan@arch.hku.hk
last changed	2002/11/15 18:29

_id	c7e9
authors	Maver, T.W.
year	2002
title	Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future
source	SIGraDi 2002 - [Proceedings of the 6th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Caracas (Venezuela) 27-29 november 2002, pp. 2-3
summary	Charlas Magistrales 2There never has been such an exciting moment in time in the extraordinary 30 year history of our subject area, as NOW,when the philosophical theoretical and practical issues of virtuality are taking centre stage.The PastThere have, of course, been other defining moments during these exciting 30 years:• the first algorithms for generating building layouts (circa 1965).• the first use of Computer graphics for building appraisal (circa 1966).• the first integrated package for building performance appraisal (circa 1972).• the first computer generated perspective drawings (circa 1973).• the first robust drafting systems (circa 1975).• the first dynamic energy models (circa 1982).• the first photorealistic colour imaging (circa 1986).• the first animations (circa 1988)• the first multimedia systems (circa 1995), and• the first convincing demonstrations of virtual reality (circa 1996).Whereas the CAAD community has been hugely inventive in the development of ICT applications to building design, it hasbeen woefully remiss in its attempts to evaluate the contribution of those developments to the quality of the built environmentor to the efficiency of the design process. In the absence of any real evidence, one can only conjecture regarding the realbenefits which fall, it is suggested, under the following headings:• Verisimilitude: The extraordinary quality of still and animated images of the formal qualities of the interiors and exteriorsof individual buildings and of whole neighborhoods must surely give great comfort to practitioners and their clients thatwhat is intended, formally, is what will be delivered, i.e. WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.• Sustainability: The power of «first-principle» models of the dynamic energetic behaviour of buildings in response tochanging diurnal and seasonal conditions has the potential to save millions of dollars and dramatically to reduce thedamaging environmental pollution created by badly designed and managed buildings.• Productivity: CAD is now a multi-billion dollar business which offers design decision support systems which operate,effectively, across continents, time-zones, professions and companies.• Communication: Multi-media technology - cheap to deliver but high in value - is changing the way in which we canexplain and understand the past and, envisage and anticipate the future; virtual past and virtual future!MacromyopiaThe late John Lansdown offered the view, in his wonderfully prophetic way, that ...”the future will be just like the past, onlymore so...”So what can we expect the extraordinary trajectory of our subject area to be?To have any chance of being accurate we have to have an understanding of the phenomenon of macromyopia: thephenomenon exhibitted by society of greatly exaggerating the immediate short-term impact of new technologies (particularlythe information technologies) but, more importantly, seriously underestimating their sustained long-term impacts - socially,economically and intellectually . Examples of flawed predictions regarding the the future application of information technologiesinclude:• The British Government in 1880 declined to support the idea of a national telephonic system, backed by the argumentthat there were sufficient small boys in the countryside to run with messages.• Alexander Bell was modest enough to say that: «I am not boasting or exaggerating but I believe, one day, there will bea telephone in every American city».• Tom Watson, in 1943 said: «I think there is a world market for about 5 computers».• In 1977, Ken Olssop of Digital said: «There is no reason for any individuals to have a computer in their home».The FutureJust as the ascent of woman/man-kind can be attributed to her/his capacity to discover amplifiers of the modest humancapability, so we shall discover how best to exploit our most important amplifier - that of the intellect. The more we know themore we can figure; the more we can figure the more we understand; the more we understand the more we can appraise;the more we can appraise the more we can decide; the more we can decide the more we can act; the more we can act themore we can shape; and the more we can shape, the better the chance that we can leave for future generations a trulysustainable built environment which is fit-for-purpose, cost-beneficial, environmentally friendly and culturally significactCentral to this aspiration will be our understanding of the relationship between real and virtual worlds and how to moveeffortlessly between them. We need to be able to design, from within the virtual world, environments which may be real ormay remain virtual or, perhaps, be part real and part virtual.What is certain is that the next 30 years will be every bit as exciting and challenging as the first 30 years.
series	SIGRADI
email	t.w.maver@strath.ac.uk
last changed	2016/03/10 09:55

_id	01e5
authors	Negroponte, N.
year	1995
title	Being Digital
source	Alfred A. Knopf, New York
summary	As the founder of MIT's Media Lab and a popular columnist for Wired, Nicholas Negroponte has amassed a following of dedicated readers. Negroponte's fans will want to get a copy of Being Digital, which is an edited version of the 18 articles he wrote for Wired about "being digital." Negroponte's text is mostly a history of media technology rather than a set of predictions for future technologies. In the beginning, he describes the evolution of CD-ROMs, multimedia, hypermedia, HDTV (high-definition television), and more. The section on interfaces is informative, offering an up-to-date history on visual interfaces, graphics, virtual reality (VR), holograms, teleconferencing hardware, the mouse and touch-sensitive interfaces, and speech recognition. In the last chapter and the epilogue, Negroponte offers visionary insight on what "being digital" means for our future. Negroponte praises computers for their educational value but recognizes certain dangers of technological advances, such as increased software and data piracy and huge shifts in our job market that will require workers to transfer their skills to the digital medium. Overall, Being Digital provides an informative history of the rise of technology and some interesting predictions for its future.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	f949
authors	Schank, R. and Clery, C.
year	1995
title	Engines for Education
source	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
summary	Engines is a "hyper-book" written by Roger Schank, Director of ILS, and Chip Cleary, a graduate student of Dr. Schank, about what's wrong with the education system, how to reform it, and especially, about the role of educational technology in that reform.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	4d18
authors	Turkle, S.
year	1995
title	Life on the Screen: identity in the age of the Internet
source	New York: Simon & Shuster
summary	Sherry Turkle is rapidly becoming the sociologist of the Internet, and that's beginning to seem like a good thing. While her first outing, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, made groundless assertions and seemed to be carried along more by her affection for certain theories than by a careful look at our current situation, Life on the Screen is a balanced and nuanced look at some of the ways that cyberculture helps us comment upon real life (what the cybercrowd sometimes calls RL). Instead of giving in to any one theory on construction of identity, Turkle looks at the way various netizens have used the Internet, and especially MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions), to learn more about the possibilities available in apprehending the world. One of the most interesting sections deals with gender, a topic prone to rash and partisan pronouncements. Taking as her motto William James's maxim "Philosophy is the art of imagining alternatives," Turkle shows how playing with gender in cyberspace can shape a person's real-life understanding of gender. Especially telling are the examples of the man who finds it easier to be assertive when playing a woman, because he believes male assertiveness is now frowned upon while female assertiveness is considered hip, and the woman who has the opposite response, believing that it is easier to be aggressive when she plays a male, because as a woman she would be considered "bitchy." Without taking sides, Turkle points out how both have expanded their emotional range. Other topics, such as artificial life, receive an equally calm and sage response, and the first-person accounts from many Internet users provide compelling reading and good source material for readers to draw their own conclusions.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	4809
authors	Do, Ellen Yi-Luen
year	1995
title	Drawing Analogies: Finding Visual References By Sketching
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1995.035
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. 35-52
summary	In creative and conceptual designing, architects often look to books, magazines, and other collections of images to find forms they can adopt and adapt in designs. On line visual collections are becoming available but typically they are indexed only with descriptive key words. We argue that in addition to key word indexing, which supports retrieval of images based on design concepts or issues, a more directly visual, graphical reminding scheme based on sketches can help designers recall interesting references from various domains. We describe Drawing Analogies, a shape based reminding program that uses hand drawn sketches to index and query visual databases.
series	ACADIA
email	ellendo@cmu.edu
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	2508
authors	Eggli, L. and Bruderlin, B.D. (et al.)
year	1995
title	Sketching as a Solid Modeling Tool
source	Third Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications. C. Hoffmann and J. Rossignac. Salt Lake City, ACM: 313-321
summary	This paper describes 'Quick-sketch', a 2d and 3d modeling tool for pen based computers. Users of this system define a model by simple pen strokes drawn directly on the screen of a pen-based PC. Lines, circles, arcs, or B-spline curves are automatically distinguished, and interpreted from these strokes. The system also automatically determines relations, such as right angles, tangencies, symmetry, and parallelism, from the sketch input, These relationships are then used to clean up the drawing by making the approximate relationships exact. Constraints are established to maintain the relationships in further editing. A constraint maintenance system, which is based on gestural manipulation and soft constraints, is employed in this system. Several techniques for sketch based definitions of solid objects are provided as well, including extrusion, surface of revolution, ruled surfaces and sweep. Feat ures can be sketched on the surfaces of 3d objects, using the same 2d- and 3d techniques. This way, objects of medium complexity can be sketched in seconds. The system can be used as a front-end to more sophisticated modeling, rendering or animation environments, serving as a hand sketching tool in the preliminary design phase.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	3d4a
authors	Kasprisin, Ronald J.
year	1995
title	Visual Thinking For Architects And Designers: Visualizing Context In Design
source	Van Nostrand Reinhold
summary	Here at last is a book that will help architects and designers avoid the pitfall of creating buildings that battle aesthetically with everything within a three-block radius. In Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers, Ron Kasprisin and James Pettinari unveil a solution to designing for the complex urban landscape: visual thinking. A concept twenty-five years in the making, this integrative approach will help harried professionals prevent environmental disasters. The authors present three-dimensional drawing (visual thinking) as a communication and decision-making tool to be used during the design and planning process. Because architects, landscape architects, and urban designers often work independently, on different scales, and at different interludes, no one can truly envision the completed project. Visual thinking is a way of getting input from every member of the team. Here, you'll learn how to use graphics, whether hand-drawn or computer-generated, as a language to express complex systems, interrelationships, and environments. Using over 300 high quality drawings that are connected at many different scales; from aerial perspectives of entire regions to individual rooms and buildings-this groundbreaking book lays out an urban design process and methodology in a sequential and easily understood manner. The book is illustrated by the authors; own work, which has been recognized in national design competitions, and by the AIA, APA, and NEA. The authors masterfully cover the use of drawing to analyze and create spaces, drawing technique, and communicating complex information to the public. Case studies convincingly illustrate the authors; approach.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	8d21
authors	Kokosalakis, Jen and Moorhouse, Jon
year	1995
title	A Documentation Methodology for Multimedia Recording of Architects Computer Aided Architectural Designing
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.203
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. 203-216
summary	The focus of this paper is on teaching design through Computer Aided Architectural Design. Our present activity is to prepare Multimedia interviews showing how architects are designing using CAAD. We have for some time had relative success with students learning to design using the CAAD system extensively and creatively for their studio projects. This has led us to consider how best to teach in a way which encourages this creativity to extend and flourish. As with learning, broadly, and specifically with developing design ability, it is important to direct students to relevant established precedents of recent and classic examples of respected architects' approaches to similar design activities, in a body of historical and theoretical background. This tradition in teaching provides rich, invaluable learning material in design approaches and solutions. It appears that most material attempting to fill this role for CAADesign is in the form of written material, finished designs, or animations. Possibly the only way Computer Aided Architectural Designing activity can be understood fully is by documenting it in its own original media, (excepting direct first hand live observation). We are therefore preparing Multimedia records of interviews with architects and their real time computer activity, to build up a rich base of reference material supporting and expanding learning to design through CAAD.
series	eCAADe
more	http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_27.htm
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

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