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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Environmental psychologists specializing in architectural psychology offer "user needs' assessments" and "post occupancy evaluations" to facilitate communication between users and experts. To compare the efficiency of building descriptions, building walkthroughs, regular plans, simulation, and direct, long-time exposition, evaluation has to be evaluated.
Computer visualizations and virtual realities grow more important, but studies on the effects of simulation techniques upon experts and users are rare. As a contribution to the field of architectural simulation, an expert - user comparison of CAD versus endoscopy/model simulations of a Vienna city project was realized in 1995. The Department for Spatial Simulation at the Vienna University of Technology provided diaslides of the planned city development at Aspern showing a) CAD and b) endoscopy photos of small-scale polystyrol models. In an experimental design, they were presented uncommented as images of "PROJECT A" versus "PROJECT B" to student groups of architects and non-architects at Vienna and Salzburg (n= 95) and assessed by semantic differentials. Two contradictory hypotheses were tested: 1. The "selective framing hypothesis" (SFH) as the subjective theory of planners, postulating different judgement effects (measured by item means of the semantic differential) through selective attention of the planners versus material- and context-bound perception of the untrained users. 2. The "general framing hypothesis" (GFH) postulates typical framing and distraction effects of all simulation techniques affecting experts as well as non-experts.
The experiment showed that -counter-intuitive to expert opinions- framing and distraction were prominent both for experts and lay people (= GFH). A position effect (assessment interaction of CAD and endoscopy) was present with experts and non-experts, too. With empirical evidence for "the medium is the message", a more cautious attitude has to be adopted towards simulation products as powerful framing (i.e. perception- and opinion-shaping) devices.
After a brief review of the underlying technology for the implementation of the inference engine, the paper demonstrates an actual design session using a bi-directional thermal simulation tool. Specifically, a use-scenario is described in which the designer explores the tradeoffs between various design variables (glazing area, glazing type, and floor mass) in view of the resulting energy performance of a typical residential building. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential and limitations of the bi-directional approach toward active convergence support for performance-oriented design development.
On the other hand, only teaching how to use individual CAD/CG software in architectural and urban design is already out of date in education. Students will be expected to adapt themselves to the coming multi-media society. For example, many World Wide Web services were started commercially and the Internet has become very familiar within the last year. But I dare to say that a few people can enjoy Internet services actually in schools of Architecture and construction companies.
Students should be brought up to improve their ability of analysing, planning and designing by linking various software technologies efficiently in the word-wide network environment and using them at will. In future design education, we should teach that computers can be used not only as a presentation media of architectural form, but also as a simulation media of architectural and urban design from various points of view.
The University of Tsukuba was established about 25 years ago, and its system is different from the other universities in Japan. In comparison with other faculties of Architecture and Urban Planning, our Faculty is very multi-disciplinary, and ability of using computers has been regarded as the essential skill of foundation. In this paper, I will introduce how CAAD education is situated in our global program, and discuss the importance of computer literacy in architectural and urban design education.
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