Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

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	sigradi2007_af541
id	sigradi2007_af541
authors	Al-Attili, Aghlab; Rosa María Mendoza Robles
year	2007
title	Digitizing Heritage or reconstructing Imagination [Digitalizando la herencia o reconstruyendo la imaginación]
source	SIGraDi 2007 - [Proceedings of the 11th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] México D.F. - México 23-25 October 2007, pp. 48-53
summary	To advance the theme of digital conservation of heritage and tie it to museums, we report on two case studies of digitising archaeological sites; the first is the remains of a typical Scottish Crannog typical of the sixth-century BC., and the second is a UNESCO protected site in the Middle East (the desert castle of Qusayr Amra, Jordan), which dates back to early 8th century. Then we relate both to our investigation into embodiment, interaction and metaphor in virtual environments.
keywords	Virtual Environments; Embodiment; Representation; Interaction; Heritage
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	ecaade2008_055
id	ecaade2008_055
authors	Beirão, José; Duarte, José; Stouffs, Rudi
year	2008
title	Structuring a Generative Model for Urban Design: Linking GIS to Shape Grammars
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.929
source	Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 929-938
summary	Urban Design processes need to adopt flexible and adaptive procedures to respond to the evolving demands of the contemporary city. To support such dynamic processes, a specific design methodology and a supporting tool are needed. This design methodology considers the development of a design system rather than a single design solution. It is based on patterns and shape grammars. The idea is to link the descriptions of each pattern to specific shape rules inducing the generation of formal solutions that satisfy the pattern. The methodology explores, from the urban designer point of view, the capacity of a shape grammar to codify and generate urban form (Duarte et al, 2007). This paper defines the ontology of urban entities to build on a GIS platform the topology describing the various components of the city structure. By choosing different sets of patterns the designer defines his vision for a specific context. The patterns are explicated into shape rules that encode the designer’s interpretation of the pattern, and operate on this ontology of urban entities generating solutions that satisfy the pattern’s concept. Some examples of the topological relations are shown.
keywords	Patterns, shape grammars, ontology, generative urban design
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	cf2011_p135
id	cf2011_p135
authors	Chen Rui, Irene; Schnabel Marc Aurel
year	2011
title	Multi-touch - the future of design interaction
source	Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2011 [Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / ISBN 9782874561429] Liege (Belgium) 4-8 July 2011, pp. 557-572.
summary	The next major revolution for design is to bring the natural user interaction into design activities. Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) brought a new approach that was more effective compared to their conventional predecessors. In recent years, Natural User Interfaces (NUI) have advanced user experiences and multi-touch and gesture technologies provide new opportunities for a variety of potential uses in design. Much attention has been paid to leverage in the design of interactive interfaces. The mouse input and desktop screen metaphors limit the information sharing for multiple users and also delayed the direct interaction for communication between each other. This paper proposes the innovative method by integrating game engine ‘Unity3D’ with multi-touch tangible interfaces. Unity3D provides a game development tool as part of its application package that has been designed to let users to focus on creating new games. However, it does not limit the usage of area to design additional game scenarios since the benefits of Unity3D is allowing users to build 3D environments with its customizable and easy to use editor, graphical pipelines to openGL (http://unity3d.com/, 2010 ). It creates Virtual Reality (VR) environments which can simulates places in the real world, as well as the virtual environments helping architects and designers to vividly represent their design concepts through 3D visualizations, and interactive media installations in a detailed multi-sensory experience. Stereoscopic displays advanced their spatial ability while solving issues to design e.g. urban spaces. The paper presents how a multi-touch tabletop can be used for these design collaboration and communication tasks. By using natural gestures, designers can now communicate and share their ideas by manipulating the same reference simultaneously using their own input simultaneously. Further studies showed that 3Dl forms are perceived and understood more readily through haptic and proprioceptive perception of tangible representations than through visual representation alone (Gillet et al, 2005). Based on the authors’ framework presented at the last CAADFutures, the benefits of integrating 3D visualization and tactile sensory can be illustrated in this platform (Chen and Wang, 2009), For instance, more than one designer can manipulate the 3D geometry objects on tabletop directly and can communicate successfully their ideas freely without having to waiting for the next person response. It made the work more effective which increases the overall efficiency. Designers can also collect the real-time data by any change they make instantly. The possibilities of Uniy3D make designing very flexible and fun, it is deeply engaging and expressive. Furthermore, the unity3D is revolutionizing the game development industry, its breakthrough development platform for creating highly interactive 3D content on the web (http://unity3d.com/ , 2010) or similar to the interface of modern multimedia devices such as the iPhone, therefore it allows the designers to work remotely in a collaborative way to integrate the design process by using the individual mobile devices while interacting design in a common platform. In design activities, people create an external representation of a domain, often of their own ideas and understanding. This platform helps learners to make their ideas concrete and explicit, and once externalized, subsequently they reflect upon their work how well it sits the real situation. The paper demonstrates how this tabletop innovatively replaces the typical desktop metaphor. In summary, the paper addresses two major issues through samples of collaborative design: firstly presenting aspects of learners’ interactions with physical objects, whereby tangible interfaces enables them constructing expressive representations passively (Marshall, 2007), while focussing on other tasks; and secondly showing how this novel design tool allows designers to actively create constructions that might not be possible with conventional media.
keywords	Multi-touch tabletop, Tangible User Interface
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2012/02/11 19:21

_id	caadria2007_013
id	caadria2007_013
authors	Cheng, Yuan-Bang; Teng-Wen Chang
year	2007
title	Solving Design Puzzle with Physical Interaction – A Collage Table Implementation
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.o6o
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	Design process can be treated as a puzzle exploration process. With puzzle exploration as the interactive metaphor and mechanism, design collage reframes the design visual information as an interactive puzzle-solving game. Based on the design puzzle researches, this paper adapts an intuitive interface approach - physical interaction. A system using multi-touch technology (FTIR) called Collage Table has been implemented as the device to combine a design collage game with the physical interaction. The mechanism for invoking the search is developed and elaborated, and the implementation (both in software and hardware) and possible interaction are also documented in this paper.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	caadria2007_021
id	caadria2007_021
authors	Chiu, Mao-Lin; Guan-Cheng Lee
year	2007
title	Spatial Cypin: Smart Interface Design for Context Awareness and Event Reminding
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.c6j
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	The emergence of ubiquitous computing and smart technologies become the impetus for novel spatial design in the information era. Smart living interface becomes important for usercentric spatial design. This paper depicts the research framework and demonstrates the design concept “Spatial Cypin” as a metaphor of smart living interface in a ubiquitous computing environment that reminds users of events. “Mind Garden” is created as a test-bed for representing the memory landscape. The prototype and findings are reported.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	acadia07_212
id	acadia07_212
authors	Christenson, Mike
year	2007
title	Re-representation of Urban Imagery: Strategies for Constructing Knowledge
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2007.212
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, 212-221
summary	Productive analysis of photographically composed urban imagery is a ‘wicked’ problem due to the presence of multiple, entangled systems. This paper proposes constructive analytic techniques for composite imagery, consisting of digitally generating and superimposing graphic overlaps within and adjacent to original images, producing new images not rationally related to nameable systems. These new images promote pattern identifi cation, which in turn has the potential to inform conclusions about memory and navigation in urban sites. Thus, the difficulty inherent in systemic urban analysis is shifted to one of abstract image interpretation, and a new set of refl ective strategies becomes relevant. These strategies are illustrated through analysis of two existing systems in a midsize, Midwestern city: a system of pedestrian walkways connecting several downtown buildings, and a system of overhead power distribution structures. The systems have observable characteristics in common. But, while the walkways represent a deliberate attempt to structure memory and thus to aid navigation, the system of power distribution structures makes no such claim. The paper discusses specific implications of the method informing the author’s ongoing research and architectural design teaching. In conclusion, wider implications are suggested, informing the general question of constructing urban knowledge.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	cf2007_167
id	cf2007_167
authors	Herr, Christiane M.; Justyna Karakiewicz
year	2007
title	ALGOGRAM: Automated Diagrams for an Architectural Design Studio
source	Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / 978-1-4020-6527-9 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / 978-1-4020-6527-9] Sydney (Australia) 11–13 July 2007, pp. 167-180
summary	Building on a previously presented theoretical model for the integration of cellular automata into the design process, this paper introduces cellular automata as architectural design process support in the form of automated conceptual diagrams. This approach is the outcome of a series of successive software implementations, which are briefly outlined in terms of key features and observations made during their applications. The main part of the paper focuses on Algogram, the latest implementation, and its application in a second year design studio. The integrated concept of abstract representations, automated design exploration and individual interpretation is introduced as automated diagram.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2007/07/06 12:47

_id	caadria2007_337
id	caadria2007_337
authors	Ho, Ting-Fung
year	2007
title	The Spatial Interpretation of Freehand Sketch – Using Programming and Rapid Prototyping
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.l6q
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	Freehand sketching has always been used in the conceptual design process. The importance of freehand sketching lies in its ability to freely represent various ambiguous drawing projections. This research implements a convenient sketch interpretation system called Spatial Charcoal to aid in the conceptual design process. The system interprets a designer’s sketch, generates a relative digital model and then fabricates it using a rapid prototyping machine.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	1500
id	1500
authors	Kalay, Yehuda; Thomas Kvan, Janice Affleck (eds.)
year	2007
title	New Heritage - New Media and Cultural Heritage
source	Routledge
summary	The use of new media in the service of cultural heritage is a fast growing field, known variously as virtual or digital heritage. New Heritage, under this denomination, broadens the definition of the field to address the complexity of cultural heritage such as the related social, political and economic issues. This book is a collection of 20 key essays, of authors from 11 countries, representing a wide range of professions including architecture, philosophy, history, cultural heritage management, new media, museology and computer science, which examine the application of new media to cultural heritage from a different points of view. Issues surrounding heritage interpretation to the public and the attempts to capture the essence of both tangible (buildings, monuments) and intangible (customs, rituals) cultural heritage are investigated in a series of innovative case studies.
series	other
type	normal paper
email
more	http://www.routledge.co.uk/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780415773560
last changed	2007/12/20 07:53

_id	sigradi2007_af49
id	sigradi2007_af49
authors	Kotsopoulos, Sotirios D.
year	2007
title	Bridging the gap between design intuition and computation [Reduciendo la diferencia entre el Diseño Intuitivo y la Computacion]
source	SIGraDi 2007 - [Proceedings of the 11th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] México D.F. - México 23-25 October 2007, pp. 295-299
summary	The paper examines the process of articulation and development of design concepts from a computational standpoint. The context of the research is the architectural studio and specifically the process of designing from scratch. The scope of the research is educational. Shape grammar formalism is used in the paper, to show how the concept of “porosity” was used by architect Steven Holl and his team in designing the 350-unit student residence Simmons Hall at MIT.
keywords	Production; interpretation; shape algebra; rule schema
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:54

_id	caadria2007_081
id	caadria2007_081
authors	Lertlakkhanakul, Jumphon; Choungkyu Ryu and Jinwon Choi
year	2007
title	Providing Interactive Usability Framework and Scenario in Virtual Architecture: Ubiquitous Virtual Working Place Case Study
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.n7f
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	In virtual workplace, two-dimensional system with desktop metaphor can provide only limited functions and interactions. It is indispensable to create a framework that can change traditional computer generated 3D model into interactive virtual architecture exploited by end users. However, such framework cannot be established without fundamental understanding of the new virtual architecture. The aim of this research emphasizes on how to design a virtual working place supporting actual office activities to extend the boundary of the conventional office through ‘Digital Space Lab’ case study. To achieve our goals, potential usability of virtual architecture is investigated. The next step is to design the virtual working place. After that, a set of scenarios indicating how the end users will utilize our interactive workplace is demonstrated. Eventually, the result serves as basis knowledge to construct a usability framework for the novel virtual architecture.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	caadria2007_165
id	caadria2007_165
authors	Liu, Huai-Wie; Ji-Hyun Lee
year	2007
title	Personal Assistant: Autonomous Agents Base on Multi-Agent System among Different Industrial Design Stakeholders
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.f2e
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	To deal with complex communication problems, requires both a web-based collaborative system and a multi-agent system (MAS) integrated with knowledge management architecture. Agents have been acknowledged as a promising approach through the metaphor that an agent can act as a personal assistant. In this paper we proposes an approach to develop personal assistant agents, each of which can represent a different stakeholder and load different domain knowledge inside. To demonstrate our proposed concepts, we focus on a prototype system for notebook design for the company ASUS, a leading notebook manufacturer based in Taiwan.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	sigradi2007_000
id	sigradi2007_000
authors	Maganda Mercado, Adriana Gómez (et. al)
year	2007
title	Sigradi 2007: Communication in the Visual Society [La Comunicación en la Comunidad Visual]
source	Proceedings of the 11th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics Graphics / ISBN 13 978-968-7451-15-2] México D.F. - México 23-25 October 2007, 467 p.
summary	In a simple communication model we must talk about the understanding between participants. This is the result of a continuing connection and a dialog of agreements and disagreements in order to arrive at sharing an idea. However, society today is in an evolutionary lapse at an accelerated pace that interjects itself in this process. It is here where social forces distend and generate important ruptures between generations and individuals that fight to prevail or impose new languages and lifestyles. Today's society has become a visual society whose effect has been reinforced through technology in the devices that we use on a daily basis. The daily use of technology and its new languages has marked a disconnection between individuals that must be closed by using a new acculturation and teaching models. Disconnection is a omnipresent modern phenomenon that can be felt as the main effect in what specialists call the digital gap. This gap not only separates generations, but also ideologies with respect to the form in which we perceive, transmit and teach in our society today. This disconnection can be easily understood through a school system that has been designed for a manufacturing and agricultural world. However, many sectors within our society have been in state of constant change and evolution. This situation generates many opportunities where an agile society is required in response to these new local and global challenges. The students of today have, for example, multi-tasking abilities that better assimilate these changes. The researchers, Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj refer to this disconnection as the result of poor communication between digital natives (our present-day students) and digital immigrants (many present-day adults). This phenomenon results in the fact that parents and educators speak the digital dialect as a second language, and because of that are lacking in their models of communication. For example, digital natives prefer a variety of sources with rapid access, while the digital immigrants prefer slower, more controlled sources that are limited and regulated. Nowadays, our educational or production activities in which we find ourselves immersed on a daily basis cause us to participate in a wide range of processes of production, dissemination and analysis of visual forms as part of our final product or service. Much of the work that we elaborate in movies, video and photography explore meaning, perception and communication in context as well as anthropological and ethnographic themes. Using this framework for our society today, the importance of the search for the promotion of the study of visual representation and the media for the greatest development and generation of benefits is brought to the fore. Through the use of images we can describe, analyze, communicate and interpret human behavior. All these settings, full of digital disconnections and reencounters, impact on all the visual aspects of culture, including art, architecture and material objects, influencing the bodily expressions of human beings. We have created a visual society when we put emphasis on the meaning and interpretation of all we receive through our visual sense. Wherever we look, we find objects that have been modified beyond their primary function to communicate messages. In this ecosystem we are consumers and suppliers. The communication and research needed to achieve reconnection, as well as the creation of new forms of production and visual understanding, are the themes on which the works contained in this edition are centered.
series	SIGRADI
type	normal paper
more	http://www.sigradi.org
last changed	2016/03/10 09:55

_id	sigradi2007_af59
id	sigradi2007_af59
authors	Mamoli, Myrsini; Matthew Swards; Athanassios Economou
year	2007
title	Paper Space: The Library of Nysa Revisited [Espacio Papel: La biblioteca de Nysa Revisited]
source	SIGraDi 2007 - [Proceedings of the 11th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] México D.F. - México 23-25 October 2007, pp. 409-412
summary	A computational environment for the description and interpretation of three existing architectural reconstructions of the Hellenistic library of Nysa is presented and several new interpretations based on the original language are suggested as outcomes in the computation.
keywords	Virtual Archaeology; Shape Grammars; Parametric Design; Immersive Environments; Game Engines
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:55

_id	caadria2007_249
id	caadria2007_249
authors	Nicholas, Paul; Mark Burry
year	2007
title	Import As: Interpretation and Precision Tools
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.g6n
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	This paper presents research on the relationship between digital tools and design communication, focussing on the interaction between architectural and lighting design. Early design integration often involves negotiating between different levels of resolution to inform a design that is still in formation, and part of the challenge is doing so in a manner appropriate to that phase of exploration. This paper describes some of the technical and social issues of translation and reports a project in which a generative design process supported the interaction between architectural design and lighting analysis; domains in which geometry is not necessarily a common ground.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	ascaad2007_032
id	ascaad2007_032
authors	Othman, A. and A. Al-Attili
year	2007
title	Re-Placing Embodied Interaction: Palestinian Architects Virtual Community
source	Em‘body’ing Virtual Architecture: The Third International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2007), 28-30 November 2007, Alexandria, Egypt, pp. 381-398
summary	Our ongoing project Palestine Architects Platform (PAP) –and PAP VE is a project intended to re-bond Palestinian architects and facilitate communication between them in Virtual Environments “virtual land” using virtual means. We used it as an example to argue that its inherently embedded spatial metaphor could compensate for the physical disconnectedness, and allow interaction on many different levels. Our paper proposes an interactive archiving and networking location where discourse is not only stored but categorised, analysed, retrieved and used to start new topics, or can be used to improve new debates. The focus is on the social values of PAP network and its empowering nature. The design and the structure is not simply a system for online socialisation rather it is a result of thoroughly studying available networks and their principles. It is a result of deep analysis of reality behind this community. We finally propose a set of principles that can secure a real innovative and creative knowledge exchange.
series	ASCAAD
email
last changed	2008/01/21 22:00

_id	ijac20097109
id	ijac20097109
authors	Tost, Laia Pujol; Economou, Maria
year	2009
title	Worth a Thousand Words? The Usefulness of Immersive Virtual Reality for Learning in Cultural Heritage Settings
source	International Journal of Architectural Computing vol. 7 - no. 1, 157-176
summary	The goal of this paper is to investigate whether immersive virtual reality is suitable for learning about archaeology and the past in cultural heritage settings. To that end it presents the conclusions related to learning from the visitors' survey undertaken in 2007 by the Museology Laboratory of the University of the Aegean at the Hellenic Cosmos (the exhibition centre of the Foundation of the Hellenic World) in Athens, and contrasts these with other similar studies. This project was aimed at comparing the learning outcomes, perception and use by audiences of two different virtual reality systems and a related exhibition. It included qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data gathered through in situ observations, interviews with museum educators and face-to-face questionnaires with visitors. The results confirmed that, as previous studies have shown, virtual reality systems allow a different kind of learning, but also questioned the common believe about their advantage for children in comparison with other interpretation methods.
series	journal
last changed	2009/06/23 08:07

_id	sigradi2007_af102
id	sigradi2007_af102
authors	Venturelli, Suzete; Mario Luiz Belcino Maciel
year	2007
title	Art and Virtual Reality Research [El arte y la realidad virtual de investigación]
source	SIGraDi 2007 - [Proceedings of the 11th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] México D.F. - México 23-25 October 2007, pp. 393-396
summary	This text describes an art category which draws on the Augmented Reality (AR) Technology, which is capable of inspiring the copulation as well as the interaction, in real time, between images of reality, which might be those of the observer him/herself and the mental images, which might be artistic and generated by a computer. Stemming from the fusion of both types of image, where the former digitalises reality, whereas the latter simulates a three-dimensional image, a third image is obtained, which questions, it might be argued, reality itself. This text revolves around the attempt to demonstrate that AR is deemed a sub-group of Virtual Reality and its process as a whole as well as its imagetic system stems from the knowledge one has of the world, the exactness of reproduction one may attain of it and, finally, from the metaphor of one’s presence in it.
keywords	Art; Augmented Reality Technology; Art and Technology; Virtual Reality; Computer Art
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 10:02

_id	ascaad2007_058
id	ascaad2007_058
authors	Abdelhameed, W. and Y. Kobayashi
year	2007
title	Developing a New Approach of Computer Use ‘KISS Modeling’ for Design-Ideas Alternatives of Form Massing: A framework for three-Dimensional Shape Recognition in Initial Design Phases
source	Em‘body’ing Virtual Architecture: The Third International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2007), 28-30 November 2007, Alexandria, Egypt, pp. 745-756
summary	This research aims at developing a new approach called ‘KISS Modeling’. KISS is generally a rule of ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ that will be applied in modeling process investigated and presented by the research. The new approach is implemented in a computer program ‘KISS Modeling’ that generates three dimensional forms based on simplifying the concept of shape recognition in design. The research, however, does not employ totally concepts of shape recognition or shape understanding in Artificial Intelligence and psychology. The research, in summary, investigates and describes: 1) a new approach of computer use contributing to generating design-ideas alternatives of form massing in initial design phases, within a simple way that any designer can understand at single glance, 2) implementation of shape recognition for generative three dimensional forms, 3) function to generate different outputs from different recognition, and 4) case studies introduced through applications and functions of the three dimensional modeling system presented by the research. The research concluded that the introduced processes help the user improve the management of conceptual designing through facilitating a discourse of his/her modeling of design-ideas massing.
series	ASCAAD
email
last changed	2008/01/21 22:00

_id	ascaad2007_002
id	ascaad2007_002
authors	Abdellatif, R. and C. Calderon
year	2007
title	SecondLife: A Computer-Mediated Tool for Distance-Learning in Architecture Education?
source	Em‘body’ing Virtual Architecture: The Third International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2007), 28-30 November 2007, Alexandria, Egypt, pp. 17-34
summary	Despite the importance of distance learning for its ability to reach a wide audience, easiness to access materials, and its lower cost compared to traditional learning, architecture education has not been well served by distance education. This is because it has a higher level of learning objectives, it is taught by coaching methodologies, and involves nonverbal forms of communication. One of the most common learning methods used in the design studio is the Criticism/Critique, which is a graphic and oral type of communication between the tutor and the students. In this investigation, Second Life, a massive multi-user online virtual environment that offers three-dimensional spatial capabilities via Avatars impersonation, is used as a computer-mediated tool for text and graphic-based communication in a distance learning situation. The study describes a demonstration experiment where students had to communicate with their tutor, display and describe their projects at a distance, in a purposely designed criticism space in SecondLife. The main objective of this paper is to observe and document the effects and the use of SecondLife virtual environment as an online 3D graphical-based tool of computer-mediated communication in distance learning in architecture education. The study also answers some questions: How well did the students use the tools of the medium provide? Was there a sense of personal communication and realism gained through using Avatars in the virtual environment? Did SecondLife provide a successful means of communication for a graphic-based context? And what are the students’ opinions about the learning environment? Using multiple methods of data collection, mainly based on an electronic observation of the experiment, questioning the participants before and after the experiment, and the analysis of the chat transcripts, the study presents descriptive results of the experiment, and discusses its main features. Proposals for modifications are made for future replications.
series	ASCAAD
email
last changed	2008/01/21 22:00

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