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 19 of 19

_id 730e
authors Af Klercker, Jonas
year 1997
title Implementation of IT and CAD - what can Architect schools do?
source AVOCAAD First International Conference [AVOCAAD Conference Proceedings / ISBN 90-76101-01-09] Brussels (Belgium) 10-12 April 1997, pp. 83-92
summary In Sweden representatives from the Construction industry have put forward a research and development program called: "IT-Bygg 2002 -Implementation". It aims at making IT the vehicle for decreasing the building costs and at the same time getting better quality and efficiency out of the industry. A seminar was held with some of the most experienced researchers, developers and practitioners of CAD in construction in Sweden. The activities were recorded and annotated, analysed and put together afterwards; then presented to the participants to agree on. Co-operation is the key to get to the goals - IT and CAD are just the means to improve it. Co-operation in a phase of implementation is enough problematic without the technical difficulties in using computer programs created by the computer industry primarily for commercial reasons. The suggestion is that cooperation between software companies within Sweden will make a greater market to share than the sum of all individual efforts. In the short term, 2 - 5 years, implementation of CAD and IT will demand a large amount of educational efforts from all actors in the construction process. In the process of today the architect is looked upon as a natural coordinator of the design phase. In the integrated process the architect's methods and knowledge are central and must be spread to other categories of actors - what a challenge! At least in Sweden the number of researchers and educators in CAAD is easily counted. How do we make the most of it?
series AVOCAAD
last changed 2005/09/09 10:48

_id sigradi2006_e131c
id sigradi2006_e131c
authors Ataman, Osman
year 2006
title Toward New Wall Systems: Lighter, Stronger, Versatile
source SIGraDi 2006 - [Proceedings of the 10th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Santiago de Chile - Chile 21-23 November 2006, pp. 248-253
summary Recent developments in digital technologies and smart materials have created new opportunities and are suggesting significant changes in the way we design and build architecture. Traditionally, however, there has always been a gap between the new technologies and their applications into other areas. Even though, most technological innovations hold the promise to transform the building industry and the architecture within, and although, there have been some limited attempts in this area recently; to date architecture has failed to utilize the vast amount of accumulated technological knowledge and innovations to significantly transform the industry. Consequently, the applications of new technologies to architecture remain remote and inadequate. One of the main reasons of this problem is economical. Architecture is still seen and operated as a sub-service to the Construction industry and it does not seem to be feasible to apply recent innovations in Building Technology area. Another reason lies at the heart of architectural education. Architectural education does not follow technological innovations (Watson 1997), and that “design and technology issues are trivialized by their segregation from one another” (Fernandez 2004). The final reason is practicality and this one is partially related to the previous reasons. The history of architecture is full of visions for revolutionizing building technology, ideas that failed to achieve commercial practicality. Although, there have been some adaptations in this area recently, the improvements in architecture reflect only incremental progress, not the significant discoveries needed to transform the industry. However, architectural innovations and movements have often been generated by the advances of building materials, such as the impact of steel in the last and reinforced concrete in this century. There have been some scattered attempts of the creation of new materials and systems but currently they are mainly used for limited remote applications and mostly for aesthetic purposes. We believe a new architectural material class is needed which will merge digital and material technologies, embedded in architectural spaces and play a significant role in the way we use and experience architecture. As a principle element of architecture, technology has allowed for the wall to become an increasingly dynamic component of the built environment. The traditional connotations and objectives related to the wall are being redefined: static becomes fluid, opaque becomes transparent, barrier becomes filter and boundary becomes borderless. Combining smart materials, intelligent systems, engineering, and art can create a component that does not just support and define but significantly enhances the architectural space. This paper presents an ongoing research project about the development of new class of architectural wall system by incorporating distributed sensors and macroelectronics directly into the building environment. This type of composite, which is a representative example of an even broader class of smart architectural material, has the potential to change the design and function of an architectural structure or living environment. As of today, this kind of composite does not exist. Once completed, this will be the first technology on its own. We believe this study will lay the fundamental groundwork for a new paradigm in surface engineering that may be of considerable significance in architecture, building and construction industry, and materials science.
keywords Digital; Material; Wall; Electronics
series SIGRADI
email
last changed 2016/03/10 09:47

_id debf
authors Bertol, D.
year 1997
title Designing Digital Space - An Architect's Guide to Virtual Reality
source John Wiley & Sons, New York
summary The first in-depth book on virtual reality (VR) aimed specifically at architecture and design professionals, Designing Digital Space steers you skillfully through the learning curve of this exciting new technology. Beginning with a historical overview of the evolution of architectural representations, this unique resource explains what VR is, how it is being applied today, and how it promises to revolutionize not only the design process, but the form and function of the built environment itself. Vividly illustrating how VR fits alongside traditional methods of architectural representation, this comprehensive guide prepares you to make optimum practical use of this powerful interactive tool, and embrace the new role of the architect in a virtually designed world. Offers in-depth coverage of the virtual universe-data representation and information management, static and dynamic worlds, tracking and visual display systems, control devices, and more. Examines a wide range of current VR architectural applications, from walkthroughs, simulations, and evaluations to reconstructions and networked environments Includes insightful essays by leading VR developers covering some of today's most innovative projects Integrates VR into the historical framework of architectural development, with detailed sections on the past, present, and future Features a dazzling array of virtual world images and sequential displays Explores the potential impact of digital architecture on the built environment of the future
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id d60a
authors Casti, J.C.
year 1997
title Would be Worlds: How simulation is changing the frontiers of science
source John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.
summary Five Golden Rules is caviar for the inquiring reader. Anyone who enjoyed solving math problems in high school will be able to follow the author's explanations, even if high school was a long time ago. There is joy here in watching the unfolding of these intricate and beautiful techniques. Casti's gift is to be able to let the nonmathematical reader share in his understanding of the beauty of a good theory.-Christian Science Monitor "[Five Golden Rules] ranges into exotic fields such as game theory (which played a role in the Cuban Missile Crisis) and topology (which explains how to turn a doughnut into a coffee cup, or vice versa). If you'd like to have fun while giving your brain a first-class workout, then check this book out."-San Francisco Examiner "Unlike many popularizations, [this book] is more than a tour d'horizon: it has the power to change the way you think. Merely knowing about the existence of some of these golden rules may spark new, interesting-maybe even revolutionary-ideas in your mind. And what more could you ask from a book?"-New Scientist "This book has meat! It is solid fare, food for thought . . . makes math less forbidding, and much more interesting."-Ben Bova, The Hartford Courant "This book turns math into beauty."-Colorado Daily "John Casti is one of the great science writers of the 1990s."-San Francisco Examiner In the ever-changing world of science, new instruments often lead to momentous discoveries that dramatically transform our understanding. Today, with the aid of a bold new instrument, scientists are embarking on a scientific revolution as profound as that inspired by Galileo's telescope. Out of the bits and bytes of computer memory, researchers are fashioning silicon surrogates of the real world-elaborate "artificial worlds"-that allow them to perform experiments that are too impractical, too costly, or, in some cases, too dangerous to do "in the flesh." From simulated tests of new drugs to models of the birth of planetary systems and galaxies to computerized petri dishes growing digital life forms, these laboratories of the future are the essential tools of a controversial new scientific method. This new method is founded not on direct observation and experiment but on the mapping of the universe from real space into cyberspace. There is a whole new science happening here-the science of simulation. The most exciting territory being mapped by artificial worlds is the exotic new frontier of "complex, adaptive systems." These systems involve living "agents" that continuously change their behavior in ways that make prediction and measurement by the old rules of science impossible-from environmental ecosystems to the system of a marketplace economy. Their exploration represents the horizon for discovery in the twenty-first century, and simulated worlds are charting the course. In Would-Be Worlds, acclaimed author John Casti takes readers on a fascinating excursion through a number of remarkable silicon microworlds and shows us how they are being used to formulate important new theories and to solve a host of practical problems. We visit Tierra, a "computerized terrarium" in which artificial life forms known as biomorphs grow and mutate, revealing new insights into natural selection and evolution. We play a game of Balance of Power, a simulation of the complex forces shaping geopolitics. And we take a drive through TRANSIMS, a model of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to discover the root causes of events like traffic jams and accidents. Along the way, Casti probes the answers to a host of profound questions these "would-be worlds" raise about the new science of simulation. If we can create worlds inside our computers at will, how real can we say they are? Will they unlock the most intractable secrets of our universe? Or will they reveal instead only the laws of an alternate reality? How "real" do these models need to be? And how real can they be? The answers to these questions are likely to change the face of scientific research forever.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id f5f8
id f5f8
authors Goldman, Glen
year 1997
title ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHICS: TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
source Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-341967)
summary The media used to create architectural drawings are now more varied than ever before. Basic principles of drawing types, from two-dimensional orthographic projections (plans, elevations, etc.) to perspective to axonometrics are media independent. While "what the images are" may be constant, the way in which they are created and modified is, at time, media dependent and therefore variable. Because we can only modify what we create, the way an image or model is created (and therefore the media employed) affects its future uses and possibilities. Architectural Graphics is written from the point of view of today's architects - one who must be comfortable working in a variety of media. A variety of diagrams, photos, and simple drawings combine with well-executed finished samples to illustrate the basic principles of graphic communication, as well as the specific characteristics of both traditional and digital media.
series other
type normal paper
last changed 2004/09/18 19:06

_id 696e
authors Helfand, J.
year 1997
title Six (+2) essays on design and new media
source William Drenttel, New York
summary Designer and critic Jessica Helfand has emerged as a leading voice of a new generation of designers. Her essays--at once pithy, polemical, and precise--appear in places as diverse as Eye, Print, ID, The New Republic, and the LA Times. __ The essays collected here decode the technologies, trends, themes, and personalities that define design today, especially "the new media," and provide a road map of things to come. Her first two chapbooks--Paul Rand: American Modernist and Six (+2) Essays on Design and New Media--became instant classics. This new compilation brings together essays from the earlier publications along with more than twenty others on a variety of topics including avatars, "the cult of the scratchy," television, sex on the screen, and more. __ Designers, students, educators, visual literati, and everyone looking for an entertaining and insightful guide to the world of design today will not find a better or more approachable book on the subject. __ Jessica Helfand is partner with William Drenttel in Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel, a design consultancy.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id db13
authors Jacobsen, K., Eastman, C. and Tay, S.J.
year 1997
title Information management in creative engineering design and capabilities of database transactions
source Automation in Construction 7 (1) (1997) pp. 55-69
summary This paper examines the information management requirements and sets forth the general criteria for collaboration and concurrency control in creative engineering design. Our work attempts to recognize the full range of concurrency, collaboration and complex transactions structure now practiced in manual and semi-automated design and the range of capabilities needed as the demands for enhanced but flexible electronic information management unfolds. The objective of this paper is to identify new issues that may advance the use of databases to support creative engineering design. We start with a generalized description of the structure of design tasks and how information management in design is dealt with today. After this review, we identify extensions to current information management capabilities that have been realized and/or proposed to support/augment what designers can do now. Given this capability-based starting point, we review existing database and information management capabilities, as presented in the literature. In the review, we identify the gaps between current concurrency and collaboration technology and what is needed or would be desirable. Our objective is to assess current research and to identify new issues that may advance the use of databases to support creative engineering design.
series journal paper
more http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed 2003/05/15 21:22

_id 8735
authors James, Stephen
year 1999
title An Allegorical Architecture: A Proposed Interpretive Center for the Bonneville Salt Flats
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1999.018
source ACADIA Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 18-19
summary Architecture is the physical expression of man's relationship to the landscape- an emblem of our heritage. Such a noble statement sounds silly into today's context, because civilized society has largely disassociated itself from raw nature. We have tamed the elements with our environmental controls and turned the deserts into pasture. I find much of the built environment distracting. Current architecture is trite, compared to geologic form and order. I visited the Bonneville Salt Flats- (Utah's anti-landscape) in the summer of 1997. The experience of arriving at the flats exceeded my expectations. I was overpowered by a sense of personal insignificance - a small spot floating on a sea of salt. The horizon seemed to swallow up the sky. Off in the distance I noticed a dark fleck. It looked as foreign as I felt on this pure white plane. I drove across the sticky salt toward it, only to discover an old rusty oil barrel half submerged in salt. In my mind, the barrel has a history. It tells the story of a man's attempt at achieving a goal, or maybe it represents a broken dream left to corrode in the alkali flats. The barrel remains planted in the salt as a relic for those who venture into the white wilderness. This experience left me to ponder whether or not architecture can serve the same purpose - telling the story of a place through its relationship to a landscape, and connection to events.
series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:52

_id 137d
authors Jencks, Charles and Kropf, Karl
year 1997
title Theories And Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture
source Academy Editions, Chichester, UK
summary This book presents over 120 of the key arguments of today's major architectural philosophers and gurus. These show that the Modern architecture of the early part of this century has mutated into three main traditions: a critical and ecological Post-Modernism; a High-Tech and sculptural Late Modernism, and deconstructive, subversive New Modernism. Here are the seminal texts of James Stirling, Robert Venturi, Colin Rowe, Christopher Alexander, Frank Gehry, Reyner Banham, Bernard Tschumi, Rem Koolhaas and many others who have changed the discourse of architecture. Here also are the anti-Modern texts of the traditionalists - Leon Krier, Demetri Porphyrios, Quinlan Terry, Prince Charles and others. Many of these texts are concise, edited versions of influential books. Highly informative and richly illustrated with over forty drawings and photographs.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id 2c17
authors Junge, Richard and Liebich, Thomas
year 1997
title Product Data Model for Interoperability in an Distributed Environment
source CAAD Futures 1997 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-7923-4726-9] München (Germany), 4-6 August 1997, pp. 571-589
summary This paper belongs to a suite of three interrelated papers. The two others are 'The VEGA Platform' and 'A Dynamic Product Model'. These two companion papers are also based on the VEGA project. The ESPRIT project VEGA (Virtual Enterprises using Groupware tools and distributed Architectures) has the objective to develop IT solutions enabling virtual enterprises, especially in the domain of architectural design and building engineering. VEGA shall give answers to many questions of what is needed for enabling such virtual enterprise from the IT side. The questions range from technologies for networks, communication between distributed applications, control, management of information flow to implementation and model architectures to allow distribution of information in the virtual enterprises. This paper is focused on the product model aspect of VEGA. So far modeling experts have followed a more or less centralized architecture (central or central with 4 satellites'). Is this also the architecture for the envisaged goal? What is the architecture for such a distributed model following the paradigm of modeling the , natural human' way of doing business? What is the architecture enabling most effective the filtering and translation in the communication process. Today there is some experience with 'bulk data' of the document exchange type. What is with incremental information (not data) exchange? Incremental on demand only the really needed information not a whole document. The paper is structured into three parts. First there is description of the modeling history or background. the second a vision of interoperability in an distributed environment from the users coming from architectural design and building engineering view point. Third is a description of work undertaken by the authors in previous project forming the direct basis for the VEGA model. Finally a short description of the VEGA project, especially the VEGA model architecture.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 1999/04/06 09:19

_id d79b
id d79b
authors Kim, I., Liebich, T. and Maver, T.
year 1997
title Managing design data in an integrated CAAD environment: a product model approach
source Automation in Construction 7 (1) (1997) pp. 35-53
summary This paper proposes a prototype architectural design environment which aims to integrate various applications for designing a building. Within an object-oriented design environment, a core data model and a data management system have been implemented to seamlessly connect all applications. The process of design has been investigated with the purpose of characterising the role that a system of this kind may have. In defining the system, an approach has been used that privileges the relationships with the existing computer-aided design (CAD) tools based on data exchange standards in course of definition today.
series journal paper
email
more http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed 2003/09/03 16:20

_id cb26
authors Koutamanis, Alexander
year 1997
title Digital Architectural Visualization
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1997.x.p8n
source Challenges of the Future [15th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-3-0] Vienna (Austria) 17-20 September 1997
summary The traditional emphasis of architectural education and practice on spatial visualization has contributed to the development of an overtly visual architectural culture which agrees with our predominantly visual interaction with the built environment. The democratization of computer technologies is changing architectural visualization in two significant ways. The first is that the availability of affordable, powerful digital versions of analogue visual media and of new, complementary techniques is facilitating the application of computer visualization in most aspects of the design and management of the built environment. The second is the opening of a wide and exciting new market for visualization in information systems, for example through interfaces that employ spatial metaphors, which arguably are extensions of the three dimensional structures the architect knows better than other design specialists of today.

The transition from analogue to digital visualization poses questions that encompass the traditional investigation of relationships between geometric representations and built form, as well as issues such as a unified theory of architectural representation, the relationships between analysis and visualization and the role of abstraction in the structure of a representation. In addition to theoretical investigations, the utilization of new possibilities in architectural visualization requires technology and knowledge transfer from areas other than computer science. The integration of such transfers suggests flexible, modular approach which contradicts the holistic, integral principles of computer-aided architectural design.

keywords Visualization
series eCAADe
email
more http://info.tuwien.ac.at/ecaade/proc/koutam/koutam1.htm
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id 7544
authors Kroner, W.M.
year 1997
title An intelligent and responsive architecture
source Automation in Construction 6 (5-6) (1997) pp. 381-393
summary Today's intelligent buildings are actually electronically enhanced buildings, the forerunners of a new architecture. They herald an impending paradigm shift in the world of architectural design. This shift will occur, in part, as a response to the need for healthy and sustaining buildings, the opportunities presented by innovations in science and technology, the demands of the new global economy, and the growing realization of the value of human capital by knowledge-based companies. The resulting architecture will be comprised of responsive environmental systems and will mark the emergence of a fully developed intelligent architectural form - the Knowledge Building.
series journal paper
more http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed 2003/05/15 21:22

_id 0de7
authors Müller, Christian
year 1997
title An Advanced Groupware Approach for an Integrated Planning Process in Building Construction
source CAAD Futures 1997 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-7923-4726-9] München (Germany), 4-6 August 1997, pp. 475-480
summary Increasing complexity of today's buildings requires a high level of integration in the planning process. Common planning strategies, where individual project partners cooperate mainly to exchange results, are not suitable to jointly develop project goals and objectives. Integrated planning, a more holistic approach to deal with complex problems, is based on a high degree of communication among team members and leads to a goal oriented cooperation. This paper focuses on the application of an advanced groupware approach suitable to support efficiently an integrated design process in construction. First an appropriate planning process model will be presented, which differs from common product model approaches and takes into account the great importance of team- and goal orientation in integrated planning. Then the idea of an open CSCW platform is proposed, which basic structure and containing elements are based on the defined planning model. Appropriate cooperative planning scenarios can then be ad-hoc modeled and configured dynamically on this CSCW platform according to the requirements of the specific project. For the participants of the planning process, the resulting groupware approach represents an integrated computer based working environment. This environment allows a kind of immersion into the project. Finally a prototypical implementation of this approach will be shortly discussed.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 1999/04/06 09:19

_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 4ec6
authors Richens, P.
year 1997
title Computer-aided Art Direction
source F. Penz and M. Thomas (Eds.) , Cinema & Architecture: Méliès, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia, British Film Institute, London
summary Computer-aided design for architects began to be possible about 25 years ago; in the last five it has become commonplace. In a few years time, it will be as ubiquitous as the word-processor is today. But the construction industry as a whole is not a sophisticated user of Information Technology. The state of affairs in the film industry is quite different; computer graphics of the utmost sophistication plays an increasingly important part in the production of film, but very little in their design. Is it possible that an opportunity is being missed? This paper is written from the standpoint of a designer of architectural CAD software, and seeks to explore the extent to which computer graphics techniques, which have proved useful in architecture, could be used in Production Design, and the simulation of Cinematography. Several experiments, using commercial software of the sort that architects find useful, have lead to the realisation that much is possible, but that a full realisation of the benefits would require software specially adapted to the task. The bulk of this paper describes the nature of this adaptation; it is in the nature of a preliminary specification for software for Computer-aided art direction. The initial investigation centred on the needs of film students; it has since broadened to look at the needs of established practitioners.
series other
email
more http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/pubs/pdfs/rich97a.pdf
last changed 2003/03/05 13:10

_id e43a
authors Richens, P.
year 1997
title Beyond Photorealism
source Architects’ Journal, 12/6/97
summary Computer rendering has come a long way in the last twenty years. But is it going in the right direction? Is the glossy photo-realistic image the only goal worth pursuing? And does the process of making it contribute enough to the design, or the ongoing dialogue with the client? There certainly are alternative modes of image-making. Frank Lloyd Wright, according to legend, could conceive a whole building in his head, and set it down rapidly, in plan and section. He would leave these drawings overnight to his assistant, who would set up a perspective. In the morning, FLW would spend an hour or two completing the rendering, ready for a lunch-time meeting with his clients. Today, many architects use their computers in the same way as FLW used his night-staff, to set-up an outline perspective, over which a rendering is produced by hand. Students, we observe, will often attempt to complete the rendering using a paint program such as Photoshop to apply textures and entourage in a kind of electronic collage.
series journal paper
email
more http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/pubs/html/rich97c/
last changed 2003/05/15 21:45

_id diss_ruhl
id diss_ruhl
authors Ruhl, Volker R.
year 1997
title Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing of Complex Shaped Concrete Formwork
source Doctor of Design Thesis, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
summary The research presented in this thesis challenges the appropriateness of existing, conventional forming practices in the building construction industry--both in situ or in prefabrication--for building concrete "freeforms," as they are characterized by impracticality and limitations in achieved geometric/formal quality. The author's theory proposes the application of alternative, non-traditional construction methods derived from the integration of information technology, in the form of Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Engineering (CAE) and Manufacturing (CAM), into the concrete tooling and placing process. This concept relies on a descriptive shape model of a physically non-existent building element which serves as a central database containing all the geometric data necessary to completely and accurately inform design development activities as well as the construction process. For this purpose, the thesis orients itself on existing, functioning models in manufacturing engineering and explores the broad spectrum of computer-aided manufacturing techniques applied in this industry. A two-phase, combined method study is applied to support the theory. Part I introduces the phenomenon of "complexity" in the architectural field, defines the goal of the thesis research and gives examples of complex shape. It also presents the two analyzed technologies: concrete tooling and automation technology. For both, it establishes terminology, classifications, gives insight into the state-of-the-art, and describes limitations. For concrete tooling it develops a set of quality criteria. Part II develops a theory in the form of a series of proposed "non-traditional" forming processes and concepts that are derived through a synthesis of state-of-the-art automation with current concrete forming and placing techniques, and describes them in varying depth, in both text and graphics, on the basis of their geometric versatility and their appropriateness for the proposed task. Emphasis is given to the newly emerging and most promising Solid Freeform Fabrication processes, and within this area, to laser-curing technology. The feasibility of using computer-aided formwork design, and computer-aided formwork fabrication in today's standard building practices is evaluated for this particular technology on the basis of case-studies. Performance in the categories of process, material, product, lead time and economy is analyzed over the complete tooling cycle and is compared to the performance of existing, conventional forming systems for steel, wood, plywood veneer and glassfiber reinforced plastic; value s added to the construction process and/or to the formwork product through information technology are pointed out and become part of the evaluation. For this purpose, an analytical framework was developed for testing the performance of various Solid Freeform Fabrication processes as well as the "sensitivity," or the impact of various influencing processes and/or product parameters on lead time and economy. This tool allows us to make various suggestions for optimization as well as to formulate recommendations and guidelines for the implementation of this technology. The primary objective of this research is to offer architects and engineers unprecedented independence from planar, orthogonal building geometry, in the realization of design ideas and/or design requirements for concrete structures and/or their components. The interplay between process-oriented design and innovative implementation technology may ultimately lead to an architecture conceived on a different level of complexity, with an extended form-vocabulary and of high quality.
series thesis:PhD
last changed 2005/09/09 12:58

_id 430b
authors Sahnouni, Y., Bignon, J.C. and Leonard, D.
year 1997
title Data Exchange in Design/Realisation Process in Building Trade - An Experimentation with Wood-Frame Panels
source CAAD Futures 1997 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-7923-4726-9] München (Germany), 4-6 August 1997, pp. 489-500
summary Exchange of computerized data is today at the centre of interest for most of trade partners and authorities of standardization. The aim is to set up continuous and cooperative processes of exchange, without "re-modeling" or loosing information. The paper presents our research on building modeling at design stage and its application to data exchange during the design/construction process. An experimentation about data transfer between two software is presented. The first one realizes the design process according to the developed data model (arTec). The second one is a trade software for the design of wood-frame panels (Woodpecker).
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 1999/04/06 09:19

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