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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Hits 1 to 20 of 492

_id cf57
authors Anumba, C.J.
year 1996
title Functional Integration in CAD Systems
source Advances in Engineering Software, 25, 103-109
summary This paper examines the issue of integration in CAD systems and argues that for integration to be effective, it must address the functional aspects of a CAD system. It discusses the need for integrated systems and, within a structural engineering context, identifies several facets of integration that should be targeted. These include 2-D drafting and 3-D modelling, graphical and non-graphical design information, the CAD data structure and its user interface, as well as integration of the drafting function with other engineering applications. Means of achieving these levels of integration are briefly discussed and a prognosis for the future development of integrated systems explored. Particular attention is paid to the emergence (and potential role) of `product models' which seek to encapsulate the full range of data elements required to define completely an engineering artefact.
series journal paper
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id e8ef
authors Soufi, B. and Edmonds, E.
year 1996
title The cognitive basis of emergence: implications for design support
source Design Studies, Vol. 17 No. 4, 451-463
summary Emergent shapes play a significant role in the creative design process. Designers frequently visualize emergent shapes and structure their understanding of the design and their reasoning about it in terms of emergent entities and relations. In design research, effort has concentrated on developing computational models capable of representing emergent shapes. Much less attention has been paid to the cognitive processes that give rise to emergence. In cognitive science, however, emergence has been the subject of empirical study. It is suggested that both the study of perception and that of mental imagery can contribute to understanding the cognitive psychological basis of emergence and the nature of emergent shapes that arise. Relevant cognitive science research findings are reviewed in this paper. Based on these findings two main classes of emergence processes are developed. Their implications for the development of user-interactive computational models of emergent shapes are then discussed.
series journal paper
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

_id c204
authors Aleksander Asanowicz
year 1996
title Teaching and Learning - Full Brainwash
source Education for Practice [14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-2-2] Lund (Sweden) 12-14 September 1996, pp. 51-54
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1996.051
summary We often speak of changes in design process due to an application of computers. But in my opinion we more often rather speak of lack of changes. Lets hope that some day we will be able to witness full integrity and compatibility of design process and tools applied in it. Quite possible such an integrity may occur in the cyberspace. Nevertheless before that could happen some changes within the teaching methods at faculties of architecture, where despite great numbers of computer equipment used, the students are still being taught as in the XIX century. In terms of achieved results it proves ineffective because application of chalk and blackboard only will always loose to new media, which allow visual perception of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Our civilisation is the iconographic one. And that is why teaching methods are about to change. An application of computer as simply a slide projector seems to be way too expensive. New media demands new process and new process demands new media. Lets hope that could be achieved in cyberspace as being a combination of: classic ways of teaching, hypertext, multimedia, virtual reality and a new teaching methodology (as used in Berlitz English School - full brainwash). At our faculty several years ago we experimentally undertook and applied an Integrated Design Teaching Method. A student during design process of an object simultaneously learnt all aspects and functions of the object being designing i.e.: its structure, piping and wiring, material cost and even historic evolution of its form and function. Unfortunately that concept was too extravagant as for the seventies in our reality. At present due to wide implementation of new media and tools in design process we come to consider reimplementation of IDTM again.
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 6abd
authors Dawson, Anthony and Burry, Mark
year 1996
title The Continuing Dichotomy: Practice vs. Education
source Education for Practice [14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-2-2] Lund (Sweden) 12-14 September 1996, pp. 131-142
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1996.131
summary While it is apparent from the architectural literature that some practices are innovative in their use of computers for architectural design, clear evidence indicates that most architectural practices have applied computing to traditional practice paradigms. Information technology is therefore being applied to practice systems which were in place prior to computers being available. This has significant implications for architectural education in which there is tension developing between the requirements of the commercially oriented architectural practice and the innovation driven computer-aided architectural design educator. The first wishes to equip graduates for immediate and productive employment in computerised architectural practices and may be loosely interpreted as a graduate’s ability to work as a CAD operator within an architectural practice environment. The second has the desire for students to be innovative in their use of information technology as an aid in informing and evaluating parts of both the design process and its outcomes. However, it is only when both architects and educators identify the architectural process as an integrated information system that these tensions can be resolved. This requires reconsideration of the function and use of information technology in both educational institutions and in architectural practices. The paper discusses how fruitful this can be in the current environment and outlines current developments at Deakin University which aim at providing a middle ground
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id ddssar9618
id ddssar9618
authors Kanoglu, Alaattin
year 1996
title Application of General Purpose Project Planning & Programming Software for Production Planning & Control in Plants which Produce Prefabricated Building Components
source Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Third Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Spa, Belgium), August 18-21, 1996
summary The "open systems" in building prefabrication may be qualified more flexible to some extent compared to the closed ones and may use the tools and approaches used in industrial production areas for the es-timation of demand and production. As for the closed systems in particular, it is not possible for these systems to apply this kind of an approach. Their production must be based on absolutely assured de-mands and projects. Because of this, they need detailed projects and assembly schedules for produc-tion. As a result of this, their production modes can be qualified "custom-made" type and production planning functions must provide the demand values from the assembly schedules of contracted pro-jects. The problem can be solved by integrating the work schedules of the sites that are served by fac-tory. Integration of data on a computerized system will be preferable and it is possible to realize the model in two alternative ways. The first is developing a new conceptual model and convert it into a software and the second is developing an approach for customizing general purpose project planning and programming software for using them in production planning. The second solution is studied in the paper following this. The aims of this study are analyzing outstanding general purpose project planning & programming software from the point of view of requirements of production planning function and their customizability; comparing the requirements of the model designed for production planning and capabilities of general purpose planning software and developing the conceptual and practical dimensions and basic principals of the model for using the general purpose planning and programming software for production planning.
series DDSS
last changed 2003/08/07 16:36

_id ga0026
id ga0026
authors Ransen, Owen F.
year 2000
title Possible Futures in Computer Art Generation
source International Conference on Generative Art
summary Years of trying to create an "Image Idea Generator" program have convinced me that the perfect solution would be to have an artificial artistic person, a design slave. This paper describes how I came to that conclusion, realistic alternatives, and briefly, how it could possibly happen. 1. The history of Repligator and Gliftic 1.1 Repligator In 1996 I had the idea of creating an “image idea generator”. I wanted something which would create images out of nothing, but guided by the user. The biggest conceptual problem I had was “out of nothing”. What does that mean? So I put aside that problem and forced the user to give the program a starting image. This program eventually turned into Repligator, commercially described as an “easy to use graphical effects program”, but actually, to my mind, an Image Idea Generator. The first release came out in October 1997. In December 1998 I described Repligator V4 [1] and how I thought it could be developed away from simply being an effects program. In July 1999 Repligator V4 won the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation prize for "Best Graphics Program of 1999". Prize winners are never told why they won, but I am sure that it was because of two things: 1) Easy of use 2) Ease of experimentation "Ease of experimentation" means that Repligator does in fact come up with new graphics ideas. Once you have input your original image you can generate new versions of that image simply by pushing a single key. Repligator is currently at version 6, but, apart from adding many new effects and a few new features, is basically the same program as version 4. Following on from the ideas in [1] I started to develop Gliftic, which is closer to my original thoughts of an image idea generator which "starts from nothing". The Gliftic model of images was that they are composed of three components: 1. Layout or form, for example the outline of a mandala is a form. 2. Color scheme, for example colors selected from autumn leaves from an oak tree. 3. Interpretation, for example Van Gogh would paint a mandala with oak tree colors in a different way to Andy Warhol. There is a Van Gogh interpretation and an Andy Warhol interpretation. Further I wanted to be able to genetically breed images, for example crossing two layouts to produce a child layout. And the same with interpretations and color schemes. If I could achieve this then the program would be very powerful. 1.2 Getting to Gliftic Programming has an amazing way of crystalising ideas. If you want to put an idea into practice via a computer program you really have to understand the idea not only globally, but just as importantly, in detail. You have to make hard design decisions, there can be no vagueness, and so implementing what I had decribed above turned out to be a considerable challenge. I soon found out that the hardest thing to do would be the breeding of forms. What are the "genes" of a form? What are the genes of a circle, say, and how do they compare to the genes of the outline of the UK? I wanted the genotype representation (inside the computer program's data) to be directly linked to the phenotype representation (on the computer screen). This seemed to be the best way of making sure that bred-forms would bare some visual relationship to their parents. I also wanted symmetry to be preserved. For example if two symmetrical objects were bred then their children should be symmetrical. I decided to represent shapes as simply closed polygonal shapes, and the "genes" of these shapes were simply the list of points defining the polygon. Thus a circle would have to be represented by a regular polygon of, say, 100 sides. The outline of the UK could easily be represented as a list of points every 10 Kilometers along the coast line. Now for the important question: what do you get when you cross a circle with the outline of the UK? I tried various ways of combining the "genes" (i.e. coordinates) of the shapes, but none of them really ended up producing interesting shapes. And of the methods I used, many of them, applied over several "generations" simply resulted in amorphous blobs, with no distinct family characteristics. Or rather maybe I should say that no single method of breeding shapes gave decent results for all types of images. Figure 1 shows an example of breeding a mandala with 6 regular polygons: Figure 1 Mandala bred with array of regular polygons I did not try out all my ideas, and maybe in the future I will return to the problem, but it was clear to me that it is a non-trivial problem. And if the breeding of shapes is a non-trivial problem, then what about the breeding of interpretations? I abandoned the genetic (breeding) model of generating designs but retained the idea of the three components (form, color scheme, interpretation). 1.3 Gliftic today Gliftic Version 1.0 was released in May 2000. It allows the user to change a form, a color scheme and an interpretation. The user can experiment with combining different components together and can thus home in on an personally pleasing image. Just as in Repligator, pushing the F7 key make the program choose all the options. Unlike Repligator however the user can also easily experiment with the form (only) by pushing F4, the color scheme (only) by pushing F5 and the interpretation (only) by pushing F6. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show some example images created by Gliftic. Figure 2 Mandala interpreted with arabesques   Figure 3 Trellis interpreted with "graphic ivy"   Figure 4 Regular dots interpreted as "sparks" 1.4 Forms in Gliftic V1 Forms are simply collections of graphics primitives (points, lines, ellipses and polygons). The program generates these collections according to the user's instructions. Currently the forms are: Mandala, Regular Polygon, Random Dots, Random Sticks, Random Shapes, Grid Of Polygons, Trellis, Flying Leap, Sticks And Waves, Spoked Wheel, Biological Growth, Chequer Squares, Regular Dots, Single Line, Paisley, Random Circles, Chevrons. 1.5 Color Schemes in Gliftic V1 When combining a form with an interpretation (described later) the program needs to know what colors it can use. The range of colors is called a color scheme. Gliftic has three color scheme types: 1. Random colors: Colors for the various parts of the image are chosen purely at random. 2. Hue Saturation Value (HSV) colors: The user can choose the main hue (e.g. red or yellow), the saturation (purity) of the color scheme and the value (brightness/darkness) . The user also has to choose how much variation is allowed in the color scheme. A wide variation allows the various colors of the final image to depart a long way from the HSV settings. A smaller variation results in the final image using almost a single color. 3. Colors chosen from an image: The user can choose an image (for example a JPG file of a famous painting, or a digital photograph he took while on holiday in Greece) and Gliftic will select colors from that image. Only colors from the selected image will appear in the output image. 1.6 Interpretations in Gliftic V1 Interpretation in Gliftic is best decribed with a few examples. A pure geometric line could be interpreted as: 1) the branch of a tree 2) a long thin arabesque 3) a sequence of disks 4) a chain, 5) a row of diamonds. An pure geometric ellipse could be interpreted as 1) a lake, 2) a planet, 3) an eye. Gliftic V1 has the following interpretations: Standard, Circles, Flying Leap, Graphic Ivy, Diamond Bar, Sparkz, Ess Disk, Ribbons, George Haite, Arabesque, ZigZag. 1.7 Applications of Gliftic Currently Gliftic is mostly used for creating WEB graphics, often backgrounds as it has an option to enable "tiling" of the generated images. There is also a possibility that it will be used in the custom textile business sometime within the next year or two. The real application of Gliftic is that of generating new graphics ideas, and I suspect that, like Repligator, many users will only understand this later. 2. The future of Gliftic, 3 possibilties Completing Gliftic V1 gave me the experience to understand what problems and opportunities there will be in future development of the program. Here I divide my many ideas into three oversimplified possibilities, and the real result may be a mix of two or all three of them. 2.1 Continue the current development "linearly" Gliftic could grow simply by the addition of more forms and interpretations. In fact I am sure that initially it will grow like this. However this limits the possibilities to what is inside the program itself. These limits can be mitigated by allowing the user to add forms (as vector files). The user can already add color schemes (as images). The biggest problem with leaving the program in its current state is that there is no easy way to add interpretations. 2.2 Allow the artist to program Gliftic It would be interesting to add a language to Gliftic which allows the user to program his own form generators and interpreters. In this way Gliftic becomes a "platform" for the development of dynamic graphics styles by the artist. The advantage of not having to deal with the complexities of Windows programming could attract the more adventurous artists and designers. The choice of programming language of course needs to take into account the fact that the "programmer" is probably not be an expert computer scientist. I have seen how LISP (an not exactly easy artificial intelligence language) has become very popular among non programming users of AutoCAD. If, to complete a job which you do manually and repeatedly, you can write a LISP macro of only 5 lines, then you may be tempted to learn enough LISP to write those 5 lines. Imagine also the ability to publish (and/or sell) "style generators". An artist could develop a particular interpretation function, it creates images of a given character which others find appealing. The interpretation (which runs inside Gliftic as a routine) could be offered to interior designers (for example) to unify carpets, wallpaper, furniture coverings for single projects. As Adrian Ward [3] says on his WEB site: "Programming is no less an artform than painting is a technical process." Learning a computer language to create a single image is overkill and impractical. Learning a computer language to create your own artistic style which generates an infinite series of images in that style may well be attractive. 2.3 Add an artificial conciousness to Gliftic This is a wild science fiction idea which comes into my head regularly. Gliftic manages to surprise the users with the images it makes, but, currently, is limited by what gets programmed into it or by pure chance. How about adding a real artifical conciousness to the program? Creating an intelligent artificial designer? According to Igor Aleksander [1] conciousness is required for programs (computers) to really become usefully intelligent. Aleksander thinks that "the line has been drawn under the philosophical discussion of conciousness, and the way is open to sound scientific investigation". Without going into the details, and with great over-simplification, there are roughly two sorts of artificial intelligence: 1) Programmed intelligence, where, to all intents and purposes, the programmer is the "intelligence". The program may perform well (but often, in practice, doesn't) and any learning which is done is simply statistical and pre-programmed. There is no way that this type of program could become concious. 2) Neural network intelligence, where the programs are based roughly on a simple model of the brain, and the network learns how to do specific tasks. It is this sort of program which, according to Aleksander, could, in the future, become concious, and thus usefully intelligent. What could the advantages of an artificial artist be? 1) There would be no need for programming. Presumbably the human artist would dialog with the artificial artist, directing its development. 2) The artificial artist could be used as an apprentice, doing the "drudge" work of art, which needs intelligence, but is, anyway, monotonous for the human artist. 3) The human artist imagines "concepts", the artificial artist makes them concrete. 4) An concious artificial artist may come up with ideas of its own. Is this science fiction? Arthur C. Clarke's 1st Law: "If a famous scientist says that something can be done, then he is in all probability correct. If a famous scientist says that something cannot be done, then he is in all probability wrong". Arthur C Clarke's 2nd Law: "Only by trying to go beyond the current limits can you find out what the real limits are." One of Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments: "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric" 3. References 1. "From Ramon Llull to Image Idea Generation". Ransen, Owen. Proceedings of the 1998 Milan First International Conference on Generative Art. 2. "How To Build A Mind" Aleksander, Igor. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 3. "How I Drew One of My Pictures: or, The Authorship of Generative Art" by Adrian Ward and Geof Cox. Proceedings of the 1999 Milan 2nd International Conference on Generative Art.
series other
email
more http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed 2003/08/07 17:25

_id acadia07_284
id acadia07_284
authors Robinson, Kirsten; Gorbet, Robert; Beesley, Philip
year 2007
title Evolving Cooperative Behaviour in a Reflexive Membrane
source Expanding Bodies: Art • Cities• Environment [Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture / ISBN 978-0-9780978-6-8] Halifax (Nova Scotia) 1-7 October 2007, 284-293
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2007.284
summary This paper describes the integration of machine intelligence into an immersive architectural sculpture that interacts dynamically with users and the environment. The system is conceived to function as an architectural envelope that might transfer air using a distributed array of components. The sculpture includes a large array of interconnected miniature structural and kinetic elements, each with local sensing, actuation, and machine intelligence. We demonstrate a model in which these autonomous, interconnected agents develop cooperative behaviour to maximize airflow. Agents have access to sensory data about their local environment and ‘learn’ to move air through the working of a genetic algorithm. Introducing distributed and responsive machine intelligence builds on work done on evolving embodied intelligence (Floreano et al. 2004) and architectural ‘geotextile’ sculptures by Philip Beesley and collaborators (Beesley et al. 1996-2006). The paper contributes to the general field of interactive art by demonstrating an application of machine intelligence as a design method. The objective is the development of coherent distributed kinetic building envelopes with environmental control functions. A cultural context is included, discussing dynamic paradigms in responsive architecture.
series ACADIA
type normal paper
email
last changed 2022/06/07 08:00

_id 911c
authors Darken, Rudolph P.
year 1996
title Wayfinding in Large-Scale Virtual Worlds
source George Washington University
summary As important as navigation is to human performance in virtual worlds, it is an often overlooked problem in the design process. This dissertation reports an experiment intended to show that real-world wayfinding and environmental design principles are effective in designing virtual worlds which support skilled wayfinding behavior. The design principles are adapted from both the cognitive psychology literature and urban and architectural design methodologies. There are two categories of design principles; those that guide the organizational structure of the environment, and those that guide the use and presentation of maps. The study measures subject performance on a complex searching task in a number of virtual worlds with differing environmental cues. The environments are extremely large and consist of open sea, land, and ships which are used as targets for search tasks. The worlds are augmented with either a radial grid, a map, both, or neither. For each trial, the subject's viewpoint position and orientation was sampled approximately once per second. A verbal protocol with accompanying video was used to elicit information about the search strategies employed. A map drawing exercise followed each trial in order to gain insight to the subject's spatial knowledge (i.e. cognitive map) of the environment. The results show that subjects in the treatment without any additional cues were often disoriented and had extreme difficulty completing the task. The grid was shown to provide superior directional information but both treatments using the map were superior overall due to the geocentric perspective provided. Behaviors associated with each treatment indicate that the cues had a strong effect on both search performance and search strategy. The results suggest that users of large-scale virtual worlds require structure in order to effectively navigate. Augmentations such as direction indicators, maps, and path restriction can all greatly improve both wayfinding performance and overall user satisfaction.
series thesis:PhD
email
more http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~sibert/darken/publications/Dissertation_95/thesis.html
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_id 3a28
authors Laiserin, Jerry
year 2002
title From atelier to e-telier: virtual design studios
source Architectural Record
summary The design studio, as physical place and pedagogical method, is the core of architectural education. Ateliers clustered around rue Napoleon in Paris defined the École des Beaux Arts. The Carnegie Endowment report on architectural education, published in 1996, identified a comparably central role for studios in schools today. From programs, schemes, and parti to desk crits, pin-ups, and charrettes-language and behavior learned in the studio establish the profession's cultural framework. Advances in CAD and visualization, combined with technologies to communicate images, data, and "live" action, now enable virtual dimensions of studio experience. Students no longer need gather at the same time and place to tackle the same design problem. Critics can comment over the network or by e-mail, and distinguished jurors can make virtual visits without being in the same room as the pin-up-if there is a pin-up (or a room). Virtual design studios (VDS) have the potential to favor collaboration over competition, diversify student experiences, and redistribute the intellectual resources of architectural education across geographic and socioeconomic divisions. The catch is predicting whether VDS will isolate students from a sense of place and materiality, or if it will provide future architects the tools to reconcile communication environments and physical space.
series journal paper
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

_id 3105
authors Novak, T.P., Hoffman, D.L., and Yung, Y.-F.
year 1996
title Modeling the structure of the flow experience
source INFORMS Marketing Science and the Internet Mini-Conference, MIT
summary The flow construct (Csikszentmihalyi 1977) has recently been proposed by Hoffman and Novak (1996) as essential to understanding consumer navigation behavior in online environments such as the World Wide Web. Previous researchers (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Ghani, Supnick and Rooney 1991; Trevino and Webster 1992; Webster, Trevino and Ryan 1993) have noted that flow is a useful construct for describing more general human-computer interactions. Hoffman and Novak define flow as the state occurring during network navigation which is: 1) characterized by a seamless sequence of responses facilitated by machine interactivity, 2) intrinsically enjoyable, 3) accompanied by a loss of self-consciousness, and 4) selfreinforcing." To experience flow while engaged in an activity, consumers must perceive a balance between their skills and the challenges of the activity, and both their skills and challenges must be above a critical threshold. Hoffman and Novak (1996) propose that flow has a number of positive consequences from a marketing perspective, including increased consumer learning, exploratory behavior, and positive affect."
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

_id 02ac
authors Wang, Donggen
year 1998
title Conjoint Approaches to Developing Activity-Based Models
source Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, The Netherlands
summary Since the late 1950s, transportation models have played an important role in forecasting travel demand and evaluating the impacts of plans and policies. Planners use transportation models to learn about the behavior of transport systems. Over the past decades, the development of particular modeling approaches has closely followed planning needs, which in turn are closely related to dominant policy issues. The first generation of transportation models was developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their purpose was to facilitate the prediction of future travel demand, such that road capacity programs could be based on predicted demand. The first generation models are commonly referred to as four-step models. These models are typically formulated and calibrated at the level of the traffic zones. Individuals are aggregated by traffic zone. Traffic is considered to be the result of four sequential decisions: trip generation, trip distribution, modal split and traffic assignment. These decisions are modeled separately at successive stages. Although the four-step models have been widely used, even institutionalized in literally thousands of applications (Stopher, et al., 1996), the major shortcoming of these large-scale, aggregate and supply-oriented models is their lack of behavioral content.
keywords Traffic Behaviour; Traffic and Transportation Research
series thesis:PhD
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_id 40ee
authors Biagini, Carlo
year 1996
title CAAD in the Transformability Evaluation of Historical Buildingsof Historical Buildings
source Education for Practice [14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-2-2] Lund (Sweden) 12-14 September 1996, pp. 55-58
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1996.055
summary In the execution of a research, which was intended to identify methods and instruments for transformability evaluation of historical buildings, CAAD was usefully employed in the decision-making process at different levels. From an operative point of view, it was fundamental instruments for the acquisition of typomorphological data inherent to pre-existent buildings. It allowed us to create an archive of information which can be easily and flexibly up-dated. In fact the critical evaluation of these buildings is based on the identification of structural patterns which have characterized the typological evolution of the urban structure, and thus the different historical stratifications have to be carefully catalogued, profoundly analyzed and compared one with the other. CAAD was even more effective during the phase of meta-designing checking concerning the choices effected for conversion of old buildings, since it was possible to prefigure different scenarios according to formulated hypotheses and this gave us the opportunity to evaluate their effective practicability in relation to typo- morphological congruence and logical and formal connection between the old building and new design proposals.
series eCAADe
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id 4a71
authors Byrne, Christine M.
year 1996
title Water on tap : the use of virtual reality as an educational tool
source College of Engineering, University of Washington
summary A study was conducted that explored Virtual Reality (VR) as an educational tool. High school students created water molecules in an immersive virtual environment. They were tested on their knowledge of atomic and molecular structure before and after their VR experience. These results were compared to the test results of students who experienced other educational media in learning the same topic. The other media differed from VR in terms of immersion and interactivity. Interactivity was found to be significant, while immersion was found to be insignificant. Issues of training, world design, assessment, hardware resolution, and student population were suggested as possible reasons for immersion's lack of significance in this study.
keywords Virtual Reality; Education; Computer Programs; Evaluation; Chemistry; Study and Teaching
series thesis:PhD
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_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 7b57
authors Chase, Scott Curland
year 1996
title Modeling Designs with Shape Algebras and Formal Logic
source University of California
summary A formal, hierarchical model of shape, spatial relations and non-spatial properties is presented, constructed from first principles of geometry, topology and logic. The combination of the two major paradigms used here, shape algebras and logic, is one which has been largely unexplored. The underlying interest is the development of generalized design modeling systems in which the components may be used for a variety of synthesis and recognition problems. The algebras of shape described by Stiny have been shown to be useful in the generation and analysis of designs. The generality of their representations, their non-reliance upon predetermined structure, and their use in combination provide a richness of expression lacking in more traditional representations. The use of formal logic as a specification tool for modeling spatial relations is investigated here. Logic has proven itself useful as a programming and specification tool, providing advantages over traditional procedural programming methods. Among those is the ability to specify the knowledge to be encapsulated in a model without the need to specify data manipulation procedures. It is argued that specification in logic provides a natural method of development. The model is developed by extending the formalisms of shape algebras with the use of logic to make more precise, generalized, parametric definitions of shape and spatial relations than has been previously possible. The value of such a model is demonstrated by the use of these generalized spatial relations for solving typical problems in the fields of geographic information systems and architecture. The advantages of the representations used over more traditional 'kit-of-parts' models is also illustrated.
series thesis:PhD
email
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_id ddssar9610
id ddssar9610
authors Fahmy, A.B. and Vakalo, E.-G.
year 1996
title A conceptual framework for deriving and analyzing the geometric structures of orthogonal architectural compositions in plan
source Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Third Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Spa, Belgium), August 18-21, 1996
summary This paper introduces a conceptual framework for the analysis and generation of the underlying geometry of orthogonal architectural compositions in plan. The proposed framework has three interrelated objectives: (1) to allow the systematic analysis and derivation of the geometric structures of orthogonal architectural compositions in plan, (2) to describe the spatial relations among their constituent elements, and (3) to enumerate the morphological operations involved creating these relations. It comprises of a grammatical formalism and two data structures. The grammatical formalism allows the systematic derivation and analysis of the geometric structures of architectural compositions in plan. The first data structure is a table that enumerates the rules used to derive and/or analyze geometric structures and the sequence of their application. The second data structure is a binary tree that represents the spatial relations between the shapes produced during these processes.
series DDSS
last changed 2003/08/07 16:36

_id diss_fox
id diss_fox
authors Fox, M.A.
year 1996
title Novel Affordances of Computation to the Design Process of Kinetic Structures
source Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
summary This paper is a discourse into the relationship between the process, computational tools and the role which symbolic structure can play in both. I argue the relationship of the process and tools is dialectic, whereby the tools we utilize in design develop new heuristics, the methodologies in turn, if reflectively understood, can be more aptly facilitated through the development of novel tools. The tools and the process then evolve together. A theory is laid out exploring the human visual information processing systems pertinence to the limitations in mental three-dimensional imaging and transformation operations as relevant to the operations of drawing and mental visualization within the architectural design processes, substantiating the designers necessity to draw (by traditional means, but more importantly here, through the inclusive integration of CAD within the process). The necessity to draw is explored as a representational process to the visual system as predicated upon the existence of a structured internal library of diagram-like representations in our heads. I argue that the ways we utilize such idiosyncratic libraries is predicated upon the ways in which we go about structuring the perceived experienced world around us into symbol systems. And finally, the ways we utilize our reflective understanding of the heuristic transformations of these symbols within the design process in the context of a CAD environment are explored as a means to an enhanced understanding of that which is being designed and consequently as a vehicle for the development of future CAD systems to better facilitate such methodologies of designing. A personal design process of several kinetic structures is carried out in order to arrive at a localized process analysis within computer-aided design environment. Through an interactive, reflective process analysis, conclusions are drawn as to the affordances and limitations of such tools as suggestive of the operations a CAD environment might perform so as to better foster future methodologies of designing. The design experiments are utilized as a vehicle to understand the process. Specifically three kinetic projects are exploited for the prototypical operations they display. When difficulties or mental limitations are encountered with the operations, specific tools are developed to facilitate the limitation or to overcome the problem.
series thesis:MSc
more http://www.mafox.net/sm_thesis/Thesis11.pdf
last changed 2003/11/28 07:35

_id 3386
authors Gavin, L., Keuppers, S., Mottram, C. and Penn, A.
year 2001
title Awareness Space in Distributed Social Networks
source Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 0-7923-7023-6] Eindhoven, 8-11 July 2001, pp. 615-628
summary In the real work environment we are constantly aware of the presence and activity of others. We know when people are away from their desks, whether they are doing concentrated work, or whether they are available for interaction. We use this peripheral awareness of others to guide our interactions and social behaviour. However, when teams of workers are spatially separated we lose 'awareness' information and this severely inhibits interaction and information flow. The Theatre of Work (TOWER) aims to develop a virtual space to help create a sense of social awareness and presence to support distributed working. Presence, status and activity of other people are made visible in the theatre of work and allow one to build peripheral awareness of the current activity patterns of those who we do not share space with in reality. TOWER is developing a construction set to augment the workplace with synchronous as well as asynchronous awareness. Current, synchronous activity patterns and statuses are played out in a 3D virtual space through the use of symbolic acting. The environment itself however is automatically constructed on the basis of the organisation's information resources and is in effect an information space. Location of the symbolic actor in the environment can therefore represent the focus of that person's current activity. The environment itself evolves to reflect historic patterns of information use and exchange, and becomes an asynchronous representation of the past history of the organisation. A module that records specific episodes from the synchronous event cycle as a Docudrama forms an asynchronous information resource to give a history of team work and decision taking. The TOWER environment is displayed using a number of screen based and ambient display devices. Current status and activity events are supplied to the system using a range of sensors both in the real environment and in the information systems. The methodology has been established as a two-stage process. The 3D spatial environment will be automatically constructed or generated from some aspect of the pre-existing organisational structure or its information resources or usage patterns. The methodology must be extended to provide means for that structure to grow and evolve in the light of patterns of actual user behaviour in the TOWER space. We have developed a generative algorithm that uses a cell aggregation process to transcribe the information space into a 3d space. In stage 2 that space was analysed using space syntax methods (Hillier & Hanson, 1984; Hillier 1996) to allow the properties of permeability and intelligibility to be measured, and then these fed back into the generative algorithm. Finally, these same measures have been used to evaluate the spatialised behaviour that users of the TOWER space show, and will used to feed this back into the evolution of the space. The stage of transcription from information structure to 3d space through a generative algorithm is critical since it is this stage that allows neighbourhood relations to be created that are not present in the original information structure. It is these relations that could be expected to help increase social density.
keywords Algorithmic Form Generation, Distributed Workgroups, Space Syntax
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2006/11/07 07:22

_id ddssar9612
id ddssar9612
authors Gorawara-Bhat, Rita
year 1996
title The physical context of social order
source Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Third Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Spa, Belgium), August 18-21, 1996
summary The present ethnographic study of work settings in an established survey research center (Midwest Survey) is unique in that it combines both social organizational specifcs j4 interior physical context in contrast to previous studies that have focussed either on physical aspects or on the social dimensions of work settings. For more than four years the author observed the spatial adaptation by personnel of Midwest Survey. The dates under consideration roughly coincide with a move of Midwest Survey from an original facility to a new (and larger) set of offices. Anchored by seventy three open-ended interviews (constituing roughly 30% of the staff) the observations were carried on during and after the interviews. The synthesis of the ethnographic material revealed that physical settings act not only as a background for facilities, but they become a salient aspect of work life as indicators of status /role congruency and incongruency. Physical settings, therefore, are proposed as "extension" attributes of role structure. In doing so, Nadel's conceptualization of role structure as comprising pivotal arid peripheral attributes (1957) is amplified to include the physical setting as an "extension" attribute. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are suggested.
series DDSS
last changed 2003/08/07 16:36

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