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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	17ae
authors	McCullogh, M.
year	2000
title	Abstracting Craft: The Practised Digital Hand
source	MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
summary	Can designing for computers be a craft? This is the question this book sets out to answer. At first sight, the situation is unpromising: craft is the work of hands, and "hands are underrated," in modern life; especially as computers are seen as abstract, conceptual, creations of pure mind. Yet since computation has become a medium, rather than just a tool kit, the correspondence between digital work and traditional craft is increasing. Modern software products, though immaterial, are nevertheless the creation of "practised hands" and eyes, as well as minds. Moreover, to craft is to care: humane values can - and should - inform a software designer's work just as a potter's or carpenter's. McCullough gives all those who work with code the chance to proclaim: "I am not a programmer! I am a digital craftsperson!"
series	other
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last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	ga0015
id	ga0015
authors	Daru, R., Vreedenburgh, E. and Scha, R.
year	2000
title	Architectural Innovation as an evolutionary process
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Traditionally in art and architectural history, innovation is treated as a history of ideas of individuals (pioneers), movements and schools. The monograph is in that context one of the most used forms of scientific exercise. History of architecture is then mostly seen as a succession of dominant architectural paradigms imposed by great architectural creators fighting at the beginning against mainstream establishment until they themselves come to be recognised. However, there have been attempts to place architectural innovation and creativity in an evolutionary perspective. Charles Jencks for example, has described the evolution of architectural and art movements according to a diagram inspired by ecological models. Philip Steadman, in his book "The Evolution of Designs. Biological analogy in architecture and the applied arts" (1979), sketches the history of various biological analogies and their impact on architectural theory: the organic, classificatory, anatomical, ecological and Darwinian or evolutionary analogies. This last analogy "explains the design of useful objects and buildings, particularly in primitive society and in the craft tradition, in terms of a sequence of repeated copyings (corresponding to inheritance), with small changes made at each stage ('variations'), which are then subjected to a testing process when the object is put into use ('selection')." However, Steadman has confined his study to a literature survey as the basis of a history of ideas. Since this pioneering work, new developments like Dawkins' concept of memes allow further steps in the field of cultural evolution of architectural innovation. The application of the concept of memes to architectural design has been put forward in a preceding "Generative Art" conference (Daru, 1999), showing its application in a pilot study on the analysis of projects of and by architectural students. This first empirical study is now followed by a study of 'real life' architectural practice. The case taken has a double implication for the evolutionary analogy. It takes a specific architectural innovative concept as a 'meme' and develops the analysis of the trajectory of this meme in the individual context of the designer and at large. At the same time, the architect involved (Eric Vreedenburgh, Archipel Ontwerpers) is knowledgeable about the theory of memetic evolution and is applying a computer tool (called 'Artificial') together with Remko Scha, the authoring computer scientist of the program who collaborates frequently with artists and architects. This case study (the penthouse in Dutch town planning and the application of 'Artificial') shall be discussed in the paper as presented. The theoretical and methodological problems of various models of diffusion of memes shall be discussed and a preliminary model shall be presented as a framework to account for not only Darwinian but also Lamarckian processes, and for individual as well as collective transmission, consumption and creative transformation of memes.
keywords	evolutionary design, architectural innovation, memetic diffusion, CAAD, penthouses, Dutch design, creativity, Darwinian and Lamarckian processes
series	other
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

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