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 557

_id cf2011_p157
id cf2011_p157
authors Boton, Conrad; Kubicki Sylvain, Halin Gilles
year 2011
title Understanding Pre-Construction Simulation Activities to Adapt Visualization in 4D CAD Collaborative Tools
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. 477-492.
summary Increasing productivity and efficiency is an important issue in the AEC field. This area is mainly characterized by fragmentation, heterogeneous teams with low lifetimes and many uncertainties. 4D CAD is one of the greatest innovations in recent years. It consists in linking a 3D model of the building with the works planning in order to simulate the construction evolution over time. 4D CAD can fill several needs from design to project management through constructivity analysis and tasks planning (Tommelein 2003). The literature shows that several applications have been proposed to improve the 4D CAD use (Chau et al. 2004; Lu et al. 2007; Seok & al. 2009). In addition, studies have shown the real impact of 4D CAD use in construction projects (Staub-French & Khanzode 2007; Dawood & Sika 2007). More recently, Mahalingam et al. (2010) showed that the collaborative use of 4D CAD is particularly useful during the pre-construction phase for comparing the constructability of working methods, for visually identifying conflicts and clashes (overlaps), and as visual tool for practitioners to discuss and to plan project progress. So the advantage of the 4D CAD collaborative use is demonstrated. Moreover, several studies have been conducted both in the scientific community and in the industrial world to improve it (Zhou et al. 2009; Kang et al. 2007). But an important need that remains in collaborative 4D CAD use in construction projects is about the adaptation of visualization to the users business needs. Indeed, construction projects have very specific characteristics (fragmentation, variable team, different roles from one project to another). Moreover, in the AEC field several visualization techniques can represent the same concept and actors choose one or another of these techniques according to their specific needs related to the task they have to perform. For example, the tasks planning may be represented by a Gantt chart or by a PERT network and the building elements can be depicted with a 3D model or a 2D plan. The classical view (3D + Gantt) proposed to all practitioners in the available 4D tools seems therefore not suiting the needs of all. So, our research is based on the hypothesis that adapting the visualization to individual business needs could significantly improve the collaboration. This work relies on previous ones and aim to develop a method 1) to choose the best suited views for performed tasks and 2) to compose adapted multiple views for each actor, that we call “business views”. We propose a 4 steps-method to compose business views. The first step identifies the users’ business needs, defining the individual practices performed by each actor, identifying his business tasks and his information needs. The second step identifies the visualization needs related to the identified business needs. For this purpose, the user’s interactions and visualization tasks are described. This enables choosing the most appropriate visualization techniques for each need (step 3). At this step, it is important to describe the visualization techniques and to be able to compare them. Therefore, we proposed a business view metamodel. The final step (step 4) selects the adapted views, defines the coordination mechanisms and the interaction principles in order to compose coordinated visualizations. A final step consists in a validation work to ensure that the composed views really match to the described business needs. This paper presents the latest version of the method and especially presents our latest works about its first and second steps. These include making more generic the business tasks description in order to be applicable within most of construction projects and enabling to make correspondence with visualization tasks.
keywords Pre-construction, Simulation, 4D CAD, Collaboration, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Human-Computer Interface, Information visualization, Business view, Model driven engineering
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2012/02/11 19:21

_id ijac20075301
id ijac20075301
authors de Velasco, Guillermo Vasquez
year 2007
title A Group of Friends: The Las Americas Network, Virtual Studios, and Distance Education in Architecture
source International Journal of Architectural Computing vol. 5 - no. 3, pp. 455-468
summary This paper celebrates the human factor by describing how our collective vocation towards innovation in design education has inspired the development of an active network across the Americas. Ten years after its creation, the Las Americas Digital Research Network has generated a stream of innovative implementations. This is the first time that the main stream of these research activities is articulated into a peer-reviewed journal publication. The narrative of the paper follows a time-line that starts with the creation of the Las Americas Digital Research Network in 1996. Supported by such a framework the paper continues to describe the implementation of virtual design studios as collaborations nested at the core of the network. Finally, the paper explains how the virtual design studios provide fundamental feasibility for the development of network-mediated distance education curricula in architecture and the opening of a new dimension in the development and deployment of collaborative networks.
series journal
email
last changed 2007/11/20 18:06

_id acadia07_056
id acadia07_056
authors Dritsas, Stylianos; Becker, Mirco
year 2007
title Research & Design in Shifting from Analog to Digital
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, 56-65
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2007.056
summary In this paper we track the evolution of computational design from its analog origins to its contemporary digital regime. Our long term goal is to qualify and quantify the implications of digital computation on design thinking and its influence on the architectural practice. Meanwhile, we present the results of our past few years of collaborative research in design and computation that illustrate the nature of the intellectual engagement required for appreciating the potential of digital design thinking and making. In a temporal frame, these results are expressed as a constellation of punctuated innovations emerging sporadically during the painstaking process of tackling architectural problems using digital means. In the long run, they hopefully amount to an approach to fleshing out a paradigm shift from analog to digital and building a knowledge foundation of architectural methods.
series ACADIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id ecaade2007_118
id ecaade2007_118
authors Fricker, Pia; Hovestadt, Ludger; Braach, Markus; Dillenburger, Benjamin; Dohmen, Philipp; Rüdenauer, Kai; Lemmerzahl, Steffen; Lehnerer, Alexander
year 2007
title Organised Complexity
source Predicting the Future [25th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-6-5] Frankfurt am Main (Germany) 26-29 September 2007, pp. 695-701
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2007.695
summary The objective of the paper is to demonstrate the application of architectural research and design methods from the fields of strategic design, digital production and design chains to facilitate the completion of demanding large-scale building projects. Since we have concentrated the efforts of the past few years on various aspects of building practice while applying and testing the “Digital Chain” method to several concrete projects, we are now engaged with linking the individual phases in order to make the final step towards the reality of building practice. With this knowledge, we attempt to propose a new way of thinking in the design and building sector based on digitized planning processes.
keywords Collaborative design, parametric design, user participation in design, strategic design
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id caadria2010_049
id caadria2010_049
authors Fukuda, Tomohiro and Hitoshi Takeuchi
year 2010
title Development of use flow of 3D CAD / VR software for citizens who are non-specialists in city design
source Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / Hong Kong 7-10 April 2010, pp. 521-530
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2010.521
summary The purpose of this study is the development of a tool by which citizens who are non-specialists can design a regional revitalisation project. Therefore, a 3D CAD / VR (3-dimensional computer-aided design / virtual reality) combination system was developed by using SketchUP Pro, GIMP, and UC-win / Road. This system has the advantages of low cost and easy operation. The utility of the system was verified as a result of applying the developed prototype system in the Super Science High School program for high school students created by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. It has been used for two years, since 2007. In addition, the characteristics of the VR made by the non-specialists were considered.
keywords Urban renewal design; participatory planning; 3D CAD; VR; design by non-specialists
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id caadria2007_593
id caadria2007_593
authors Fukuda, Tomohiro; Atsuko Kaga, Masahiro Kawaguchi and Wookhyun Yeo
year 2007
title Development of Soil Calculation Function in 3-D VR System for Environmental Design
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.i5u
summary When performing an architectural design or an environmental design with complicated geographical features, soil calculation is needed to study the soil balance between the amount of cut and the amount of bank. In recent years, construction activities involving small environmental load have been called for. Therefore, it is necessary to stop the discharge of surplus soil. Moreover, the result of soil calculation can show that the landscape after completion may change greatly. A system which can study soil calculation and landscape simultaneously is called for. Furthermore, to correspond to the citizen participation type design process, a system which can allow understanding of a plan by stakeholders who do not have professional knowledge is called for. This research studies landscape and soil calculation with the aim of developing a possible system. A 3D-VR system which studies environmental design is extended and a soil calculation function in which high precision calculation and visual expression are possible is developed.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id caadria2007_203
id caadria2007_203
authors Heidrich, Felix; Peter Russell and Thomas Stachelhaus
year 2007
title Intervision3D: Online 3D Visualisation and Conferencing
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.l3p
summary The use of Internet communication technologies in distributed teams has been carried out for well over 10 years. In this time, various methods to communicate and transfer information have been developed. A large amount of effort has been placed on enabling normal conversation to take place and it could be said, that with technologies like Skype, this is established. This enables planning partners to discuss, but we still need to convey what they are discussing. In short, the contents are still lacking. Technologies exist to allow users to share files or images, however this does not nearly reach the intensity or quality of discussions when partners are sitting together in front of a drawing or model. At best, screen sharing allows participants to see the same image but with low resolution and bad system response. The goal of the Intervision3D project is to allow distributed team members to discuss design issues with a common 3D model where participants can manipulate the model together in real time. In contrast to screen-sharing solutions, the Intervision3D project uses a server, which delivers a copy of the model to each conference participant. The server then coordinates the perspective views of all conference participants. One of the participants (usually the first) is initially designated as the speaker and he or she controls the views of the model through an intuitive walk/fly-through interface. The speed of the system is also buttressed by the simplicity of the application: as a Java applet, it is possible to start the Intervision3D system in any browser or as a separate applet on any system. As such, none of the participants need to install anything. The resolution of the model is optimized for each participant's browser and computer display. Currently, Intervision3D can import .3ds files and then render them using the JOGL Engine (Java Bindings for Open GL). JOGL allows the full Open GL suite to be used in rendering the model including lighting and textures: even normal PCs can do this quite well. The first implementation of the system is within an existing internet-based Design Studio and the paper elucidates how the first uses of the system have (partially) helped to increase the exchange of design ideas over the Internet. Through the Intervison3D system, the participants who have been separated by distance can once again discuss the same 3D model.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id caadria2007_549
id caadria2007_549
authors Huang, Chuang-Yu
year 2007
title The Role of Physical Models in Digital Design Processes
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.d1s
summary In recent years, designers have used digital media at various points of the design process, which helps expand architectural possibilities. Digital media has changed not only the architectural style, but also the design process (Lynn, 1999). In earlier times, some researchers of design thinking have looked at how the role of physical models played in traditional design processes (Millon, 1994). However, the design process has been changed when media designers used to adjust from traditional to digital. Therefore, visual thinking and cognitive behavior of designers also change while using physical models in design processes. From the synthesis of the two aforementioned disciplines, we can find that there exists a point of deficiency. That is the cognitive research about designers who use physical models in digital design processes is absent. This is discussed in the current paper.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id caadria2007_107
id caadria2007_107
authors Ji, Peng
year 2007
title From Traditional Graphic of Architecture to Digital Graphic of Architecture
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.g9d
summary In Southeast University (SEU), the traditional instruction has been used in the course of Graphic of Architecture for more than 20 years. Today, the traditional instruction can’t reach the curriculum requirements completely. So it is very important to realize the necessity of the network instruction of Graphic of Architecture by using the multimedia and network technology in the digital age. Actually, Graphic of Architecture network instruction is a research item in the School of Architecture in SEU. This paper is intended to discuss the course from traditional Graphic of Architecture to the courseware, then to the e-classroom. So the point of the paper is how to use homepage manufacture software and cartography software to exploit the multimedia courseware and set up a e-classroom for the course of Graphic of Architecture.
series CAADRIA
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id bsct_jiraschek
id bsct_jiraschek
authors Jiraschek, Roberta
year 2007
title Improving Child Safety in Residential Buildings via Architectural Design and Technology Integration
source Vienna University of Technology; Building Science & Technology
summary This work intends to create design guidelines based on the classification of design elements in residential buildings according to risk levels. It suggests the inclusion of safety aspects in children’s immediate environment by better design solutions and technologies which can help to prevent home accidents that mainly affect children aged between 0 and 4 years. The guidelines could help to create new building and design standards for architects and the building industry. They are based on research, conducted mainly in the European Union and the United States of America, into regulations and programs focusing on the prevention of home accidents. This work may be of benefit to parents, manufacturers, the building industry, architects and governments. Parents may benefit, obviously, because they get information on how to decrease the number of hazards within their children’s environment. It may help manufacturers improve their safety standards. Consumers may choose from a range of safer products. It may prompt the building industry to create safer designs and products thus avoiding liability claims. It may inspire architects to a more safety-oriented design. Finally governments could reduce health costs – in Austria alone, for example, more than € 3.4 billion a year are spent on home and leisure accidents.
keywords children, accident prevention, hazards, risk assessment, design guideline
series thesis:MSc
type normal paper
email
more http://cec.tuwien.ac.at
last changed 2007/07/16 17:55

_id caadria2007_353
id caadria2007_353
authors John, Elys
year 2007
title Digital Ornament
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.i5h
summary Gaming and visualisation software has a history of developing economical and creative methods to deal with hardware limitations. Traditionally the visual representation of gaming has been a poor offspring of high-end architectural visualisation. In a twist of irony, the paper proposes that game production software leads the way into a new era of physical digital ornament. The toolbox of the rendering engine evolved rapidly between 1974-85 and it is still today 20 years later the main component of all visualisation programs. The development of the bump map is of particular interest; its evolution into a physical displacement map provides untold opportunities in the appropriation of the 2D image to a physical artifact. Contemporary Architects in tandem have been mapping to the façade a new era of complex three-dimensional sculptural representation. The Architect, Designer and Artist now have the opportunity to appropriate the image map and use advanced visualisation technologies in the application of digital ornament.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id ascaad2007_005
id ascaad2007_005
authors Loh, E.; N. Dawood and J. Dean
year 2007
title Integration of 3D Tool with Environmental Impact Assessment (3D EIA)
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. 51-66
summary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) tools have been available for some years now and their function is predominantly to predict and identify the environmental impact of building projects. However EIA analysis is often done after the completion of the project or building and when it is too late to influence the design, materials or components to be used. Also, more than 80% of the design decisions that influence the whole life cycle of a building are made at the initial design phase. EIA does not receive the required attention. A new approach is suggested in this research to ensure that designers, clients and stakeholders have all of the relevant information needed at the outline design stage for the assessment of cost and environmental impact. The idea is that building owners and users will have the opportunity to minimise their operating costs from ‘cradle to cradle’. As energy resources reduce over the next few decades, the value of this research will increase and it is possible to foresee government legislation which drives building construction in this direction. By making environmental impact analysis readily linked to 3D products at the very early stage of the design process, the value of 3D technology will be enhanced significantly resulting in more use of the technology in the construction process. In this context, the objective of this paper is to introduce and explore approaches for developing integrated 3D- EIA, LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) and LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis) and VR (Virtual Reality) tools and develop trade-off analysis to assist in the decision making process. To demonstrate initial results, a pilot case study in the UK is being developed.
series ASCAAD
last changed 2008/01/21 22:00

_id caadria2007_171
id caadria2007_171
authors Mannan, Ashik Vaskor; M.Saleh Uddin
year 2007
title Natural Behavior and Computational Logic for Optimization of Architectural Design
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.t3j
summary In recent years much avant-garde architectural work has been dominated by a process based theoretical paradigm, inspired largely by various thinkers, critics, and philosophers. This particular ‘process practice’ attempts to address the paradox at the heart of contemporary production, by looking dialectically at the relationship between structure and ornament in nature with brainstorming and use of computer simulation.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id ecaade2007_021
id ecaade2007_021
authors Mannan, Ashik Vaskor; Uddin, M. Saleh
year 2007
title Natural Behavior and Computational Logic for Optimization of Architectural Design
source Predicting the Future [25th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-6-5] Frankfurt am Main (Germany) 26-29 September 2007, pp. 493-498
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2007.493
summary In recent years much avant-garde architectural work has been dominated by a process based theoretical paradigm, inspired largely by various thinkers, critics, and philosophers. This particular ‘process practice’ attempts to address the paradox at the heart of contemporary production, by looking dialectically at the relationship between structure and ornament in nature with brainstorming and use of computer simulation. The goal of this paper is to develop a computer optimized system that can generate solutions for defining spaces involving a number of contextual relationships of activities. In particular, this research undertakes a pilot study (working team: Ashik Vaskor Mannan, Masrur Mamun Mithun, Lau Hon Yee Damien) on pattern and behavior in nature and implements the findings in to an architectural problem. The Initial Research focuses on Theory of emergence, Analysis of swarm behavior, and Analysis of ant system. Specific urban sites with different behavior patterns are chosen in Barcelona where this process is implemented to examine how they response to this course of action. This Bottom up method provides an optimum solution instead of a top down solution for an architectural problem
keywords Design optimization, computational logic, natural behavior
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:59

_id ecaade2007_105
id ecaade2007_105
authors Matejovská, Dana; Achten, Henri
year 2007
title CAAD Restarted
source Predicting the Future [25th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-6-5] Frankfurt am Main (Germany) 26-29 September 2007, pp. 409-414
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2007.409
summary In our faculty a new CAAD group has been started recently after a period of virtual non-existence of CAAD education. The responsibility of the group is twofold: to provide students with a basic competence in CAAD, and to develop a high standard of experimental studio work combined with research. In our philosophy, we aim to reach the first goal by giving a wide offer of basic skills teaching in many different CAAD softwares. Building on that, we offer more specialised classes for advanced modelling and integrate skills with design work in the design studio. Due to limited means, and a small staff, we develop this program step by step. Our preliminary scope therefore, is very modest, and mostly limited to the first years of CAAD education in the Bachelor studies. In this paper we summarise our goals and preliminary results. We monitor the progression of our educational program with an enquiry that was distributed among 200 students. In that way we can assess student response to our efforts. We report on the findings from the enquiry and formulate improvements and possible directions for our teaching.
keywords CAAD education, pedagogy
series eCAADe
type normal paper
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:59

_id caadria2007_489
id caadria2007_489
authors Neuckermans, Herman; Martin Wolpers, Mathias Casaer and Ann Heylighen
year 2007
title Data and Metadata in Architectural Repositories
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.c0s
summary In many schools all over the world, teachers as well as researchers have been developing digital learning contents. These contents exist mostly in isolation; that means in and within a school or in the personal files, although it would be much more profitable to the community of teachers in architecture to share the results of all these efforts. In this paper we present and discuss two different strategies regarding this ambition: The first develops digital pedagogical material and tries to invite others to contribute in order to create a big repository. As an example we will present DYNAMO, a dynamic architectural memory on-line built over the last 8 years, with to date more than 600 architectural projects fully documented with plans, pictures, texts and a fairly developed category search engine. In the second approach every owner of a repository keeps his/her data and shares its content with others through a central search engine. As an example we will present and discuss a recently launched EU-programme called MACE – Metadata for Architectural Contents in Europe – which aims at enhancing the metadata of as many as possible different repositories in order to allow searches by distant partners. Real access conditions to the data still will remain those specific for each repository. The purpose of this paper is to share information and (similar?) experiences in Asia or outside Europe in general.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id acadia07_204
id acadia07_204
authors Tamke, Martin and Kobiella, Olaf
year 2007
title Closing the Gap: The e4d Design Series and the Mediation of Digital Design Skills
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, 204-211
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2007.204
summary The e4d design series is looking for an innovative use of digital technology in architectural education to overcome the gap between design development and the acquisition of digital skills. Digital design approaches include multimedia technology, the crossover of analogue and digital techniques, rapid-prototyping, visualization, and the presentation in artistic movies. Over the past two years a problem- based design approach was developed, which enabled students to learn digital and architectural skills simultaneously and efficiently. The educational concept consisted generally of four steps, which, though independent of each other, are determined by questions of the ongoing design process. The first step consists of an abstract or subjective research phase; in the second step the findings are transferred into dynamic spatial structures. Later, the detected qualities are used to develop a given building program. Finally, the different traces are connected, when site-specific parameters are blended with the design traces. This paper examines and evaluates textual and visual design approaches, the precise use of different kinds of media for the projects’ visualization, and the way architectural projects can be discussed; in addition, a competent monitoring of the process and outcome of innovative and efficient design strategies in architectural and pedagogical aspect is included.
series ACADIA
type normal paper
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:56

_id caadria2007_133
id caadria2007_133
authors Tamke, Martin; Olaf Kobiella
year 2007
title Thinking the Fourth Dimension – The E4d Design Series and the Education of Digital Design Skills
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.e0r
summary The e4d design series is looking for new aspects of digital technology in the education of Digital Architecture approaches - overcoming the gap between the development of architectural and the necessary digital skills. Digital Design approaches using the full variety of multimedia technology, the parallelism and crossover of analogue and digital techniques, 3d-modelling, rapid-prototyping and visualization tools and finally the presentation in artistic movies or websites are characteristic for the e4d design method. This method was refined during several design projects within the last two years. A problem based design method was developed, that enabled students to learn digital and architectural skills simultaneously in an efficient manner.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id ecaade2007_140
id ecaade2007_140
authors Vermisso, Emmanouil
year 2007
title The Dancing Curve
source Predicting the Future [25th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-6-5] Frankfurt am Main (Germany) 26-29 September 2007, pp. 473-481
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2007.473
summary In his work ‘Cybernetics’, mathematician Norbert Wiener (1941) pointed to the interdisciplinary areas between the sciences as a promising field for research; embracing this notion of ‘synthesis’ fifty years later, the research discussed here uses the cornice, a typical element of Classical Architecture as the role-model for a series of experiments with light and shadow in nurbs software. This process encourages the development of digital design methodologies that go beyond current stylistic boundaries and hopes to set a possible threshold towards future design-based exploration.
keywords Style, classical, organic, synthetic, assembly, curve,
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:58

_id sigradi2008_180
id sigradi2008_180
authors Vincent, Charles
year 2008
title Gulliver in the land of Generative Design
source SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary The current trend in architectural design towards architectural computing has been treated both from a philosophical standing point and as an operational systems’ problem, in a quest for explications which could at last break ground for a more broad development and adoption of design tools. As Kostas Terzidis (2007) puts it, the intuitiveness that architects have put on so high a pedestal seems to be the central issue to be dealt with by both views. There seems to be no apparent shortcut toward the reconciliation between traditional practice and new media and most certainly it is not only a problem of interface design, but one of design method clarification and reinterpretation of those methods into computing systems. Furthermore, there’s no doubt left as to whether computing systems can generate such new patterns as to impact our own understanding of architecture. But even if computer algorithms can make possible the exploration of abstract alternatives to an abstract initial idea, as in Mathematica and Processing, the issue of relating abstract and geometric representations of human centered architecture lays in the hands of architects, programmers or, better yet, architect-programmers. What seems now to be the relevant change is that architectural design might escape from the traditional sequence embedded in the need – program – design iterations – solution timeline, substituted by a web of interactions among differing experimental paths, in which even the identification of needs is to be informed by computing. It is interesting to note that the computational approach to architectural design has been praised for the formal fluidity of bubbles and Bezier shapes it entails and for the overcoming of functionalist and serialization typical of modern architecture. That approach betrays a high degree of canonic fascination with the tools of the trade and very little connection to the day to day chores of building design. On the other hand, shall our new tools and toys open up new ways of thinking and designing our built landscape? What educational issues surface if we are to foster wider use of the existing technologies and simultaneously address the need to overtake mass construction? Is mass customization the answer for the dead end modern architecture has led us to? Can we let go the humanist approach begun in Renascence and culminated in Modernism or shall we review that approach in view of algorithmic architecture? Let us step back in time to 1726 when Swift’s ‘Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver’ was first published. In Swift’s fierce critic of what seemed to him the most outrageous ideas, he conceived a strange machine devised to automatically write books and poetry, in much the same generative fashion that now, three centuries later, we begin to cherish. “Every one knew how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas by his contrivance, the most ignorant person at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, may write books in philosophy, poetry, politicks, law, mathematics and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study. He then led me to the frame, about the sides whereof all his pupils stood in ranks. It was twenty foot square, placed in the middle of the room. The superficies was composed of several bits of wood, about the bigness of a dye, but some larger than others. They were all linked together by slender wires. These bits of wood were covered on every square with paper pasted on them; and, on these papers were written all the words of their language in their several moods, tenses, and declensions, but without any order. The professor then desired me to observe, for he was going to set his engine at work. The pupils at his command took each of them hold of an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixed round the edges of the frame; and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of words was entirely changed. He then commanded six and thirty of the lads to read the several lines softly as they appeared upon the frame; and where they found three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they dictated to the four remaining boys who were scribes. This work was repeated three or four times, and at every turn the engine was so contrived, that the words shifted into new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down.” (Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, A Voyage to Balnibarbi) What astonishing forecast did Swift show in that narrative that, in spite of the underlying incredulity and irony, still clarifies our surprise when faced to what might seem to some of us just an abandonment of all that architects and designers have cherished: creativeness and inventiveness. Yet, we could argue that such a radical shift in paradigm occurred once when master builders left the construction ground and took seat at drafting boards. The whole body of design and construction knowledge was split into what now seem to us just specialties undertaken by more and more isolated professionals. That shift entailed new forms of representation and prediction which now each and all architects take for granted. Also, Cartesian space representation turned out to be the main instrument for professional practice, even if one can argue that it is not more than the unfolding of stone carving techniques that master builders and guilds were so fond of. Enter computing and all its unfolding, i.e. DNA coding, fractal geometry, generative computing, nonlinear dynamics, pattern generation and cellular automata, as a whole new chapter in science, and compare that to conical perspective, descriptive and analytical geometry and calculus, and an image begins to form, delineating a separation between architect and digital designer. In previous works, we have tried approaching the issues regarding architects education in a more consensual way. But it seems now that the whole curricular corpus might be changed as well. The very foundations upon which we prepare future professionals shall change, not only in College, but in High School as well. In this paper, we delve further into the disconnect between current curricula and digital design practices and suggest new disciplinary grounds for a new architectural education.
keywords Educational paradigm; Design teaching; Design methods;
series SIGRADI
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last changed 2016/03/10 10:02

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