This paper describes a CAAD teaching strategy in which some Artificial Intelligence techniques are integrated with 3D modelling exploration. The main objective is to lead the students towards "repertoire" acquisition and creative exploration of design alternatives. This strategy is based on dialogue emulation, graphic precedent libraries, and 3D modelling as a medium of design study.

The course syllabus is developed in two parts: a first stage in which the students interact with an intelligent interface that emulates a dialogue. This interface produces advice composed of either precedents or possible new solutions. Textual descriptions of precedents are coupled with graphical illustrations and textual descriptions of possible new solutions are coupled with sets of 3D components. The second and final stage of the course is based on 3D modelling, not simply as a means of presentation, but as a design study medium. The students are then encouraged to get the system’s output from the first stage of the course and explore it graphically. This is done through an environment in which modelling in 3D is straightforward allowing the focus to be placed on design exploration rather than simply on design presentation. The students go back to the first stage for further advice depending on the results achieved in the second stage. This cycle is repeated until the design solution receives a satisfactory assessment.

This paper discusses the process for developing digital interpretations of the Teocalli or Ceremonial Precinct of Tenochtitlan based on historical, iconographical, and archaeological materials. To this end, digital models were constructed by taking into consideration Aztec archaeoastronomical principles and measuring systems. The result is an interactive view of the Ceremonial Precinct, perhaps the most comprehensive since Tenochtitlan was destroyed more than 500 years ago. This project has been recently published on CD-ROM.

However, if information on architectural precedents are represented digitally in a system designed to promote understanding of the material rather than just present facts, then some disadvantages of the traditional method may be overcome and additional advantages may be achieved. This paper describes a computer-assisted lesson system designed to represent architectural concepts related to spatial composition in design by using graphic images and text and reports on its development, implementation and testing. The system relies on many characteristics, such as accessibility, interactivity, flexibility, rapid feedback, etc., which are known to foster effective concept learning. The paper also evaluates the viability and effectiveness of this system from a technological and logistical viewpoint as well as from a concept learning viewpoint, and concludes with a discussion on other potential applications.

Within contemporary digital environments, there are increasing opportunities to explore and evaluate design proposals which integrate both architectural and landscape aspects. The production of integrated design solutions exploring buildings and their surrounding context is now possible through the design development of shared 3-D and 4-D virtual environments, in which buildings no longer float in space.

The scope of landscape design has expanded through the application of techniques such as GIS allowing interpretations that include social, economic and environmental dimensions. In architecture, for example, object-oriented CAD environments now make it feasible to integrate conventional modelling techniques with analytical evaluations such as energy calculations and lighting simulations. These were all ambitions of architects and landscape designers in the 70s when computer power restricted the successful implementation of these ideas. Instead, the commercial trend at that time moved towards isolated specialist design tools in particular areas. Prior to recent innovations in computing, the closely related disciplines of architecture and landscape have been separated through the unnecessary development, in our view, of their own symbolic representations, and the subsequent computer applications. This has led to an unnatural separation between what were once closely related disciplines.

Significant increases in the performance of computers are now making it possible to move on from symbolic representations towards more contextual and meaningful representations. For example, the application of realistic materials textures to CAD-generated building models can then be linked to energy calculations using the chosen materials. It is now possible for a tree to look like a tree, to have leaves and even to be botanicaly identifiable. The building and landscape can be rendered from a common database of digital samples taken from the real world. The complete model may be viewed in a more meaningful way either through stills or animation, or better still, through a total simulation of the lifecycle of the design proposal. The model may also be used to explore environmental/energy considerations and changes in the balance between the building and its context most immediately through the growth simulation of vegetation but also as part of a larger planning model.

The Internet has a key role to play in facilitating this emerging collaborative design process. Design professionals are now able via the net to work on a shared model and to explore and test designs through the development of VRML, JAVA, whiteboarding and video conferencing. The end product may potentially be something that can be more easily viewed by the client/user. The ideas presented in this paper form the basis for the development of a dual course in landscape and architecture. This will create new teaching opportunities for exploring the design of buildings and sites through the shared development of a common computer model.