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	sigradi2008_012
id	sigradi2008_012
authors	Dokonal, Wolfgang
year	2008
title	What is the state of digital architectural design?
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	What is the state of digital architectural design? The ubiquity of the computer in architecture can be seen in the many computer based presentations from famous architectural practices. BIM (Building Information Modelling) is the key word and we can see implementations in very ambitious projects all over the world. Glossy magazines show the results of this kind of architecture and predict that this is the future of our profession. But when we go out into the “small world” (in Europe) and talk with architects in small firms, there is a very different reality – at least at the moment. Although they all agree that the computer is crucial for their work, it is a love/hate relationship for many them. Most still use the computer purely as a drafting device and AutoCAD is still the dominant tool. Although many of them agree with the statement that you can use the computer for design, only a minority really use the computer as a design tool in the early design stages. To find out more about the reality of the use of computers in design in “small town Europe” we have been undertaking two different kinds of research over the past 4 years. The first one is an educational experiment using first year’s students to find out about the different qualities of designing with and without the computer. The results have been presented at previous conferences and, since we are doing a last run of these experiments this year, we will update and finalise our findings in this paper. To make it comparable to previous years, we use largely the same settings using the same type of student (first year) and the same project/site. We will also be comparing the results for students designing ‘freestyle’ ie in the way that they want against the previous years controlled groups. The second strand of research we have followed is a survey amongst practitioners and some of the above statements came out of this survey. We did this survey using a web questionnaire and focused on a particular region of Europe. Although the numbers of participants for this survey were quite satisfying we are re-running the survey in a different region and country to see whether there are significant differences. The results of our research and our experience as teachers and architects leads us to the main question of how we can give recommendations on how to teach design the new generation of architects. In many aspects most of the teaching that is done in our faculties is still strictly divided into teaching design and teaching computer skills. The crucial question for architectural education are the implications of the ubiquity of the computer will have especially in the field of design. We will try to give some suggestions for these effects this could have on our teaching. In the long run, this is the only way to avoid some of the pitfalls and bring the benefits of computers in design to our small architectural firms. The paper will present a summary of the results of our research and try to propose an answer to the question: “What is the state of digital design in small town Europe?”
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:50

_id	sigradi2008_097
id	sigradi2008_097
authors	Nogueira de Carvalho, Ana Paula; Marcelo Tramontano, Marlon Rubio Longo
year	2008
title	D.O.S. Designers on Spot: Communication processes and Learning actions [Processos de Comunicação e Ações de Aprendizagem]
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	D.O.S. Designers on Spot: Communication processes and Learning actions This paper introduces some concepts that have been studied at D.O.S. project as part of the learning and communication actions. These concepts are relevant to the project as they brought to the team some improvements about design experiences based on network communication, as well as some reflections done by designers and researchers in different parts of the world. The project proposed by our research group is part of growing demands for experiments able to explore the Advanced Internet for fast transferring large packages of content. The activities are divided in two different instances: one is called exploratory research and aims to identify enrichments that a collaborative practice would add to the design process and to the production of interactive prototypes as well. The other one is related to remote learning strategies. It aims at investigating new methods of collective design and prototyping of objects with integrated media, and the diffusion of these techniques and methods in classroom environments, as a teaching strategy. Following are three different aspects about design experiences. The first one, called communication processes, presents a panoramic view about different ways the participants of a remote design session can share information. It targets to point and to systematize design actions by exploring transversal characteristics among designers, teams and the resulting objects. In order to achieve it, we have to understand some relations between remote communication and design processes, which explore issues in the project phases of conception, production and interaction. This exploration is part of the search for a conceptual scope for the D.O.S. project development, with an emphasis on the communication specificities between remote designers and the design process. The second one, learning action processes, introduces some issues about academic teaching and learning of design through remote and collaborative media. The third one, Virtual Design Studio (VDS), is related to the previous and aims to present a specific kind of remote design sessions targeting to create strategies to use new communication and information technologies (ICT) on remote project instances. The teaching of Architecture and Design is, above all, multidisciplinary – this means that it is not limited to the knowledge of one field of activity but, by a wide range of subjects from different areas - including Computing. The introduction of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the project process is commonly associated to the final stages, and not to the creation. The contribution of the digital environment is provided for the use of various software, which are not restricted to those responsible for graphical representation: programs responsible for the organization of data in tables, for example, enable monitoring developments with clarity. The multidisciplinary consideration supports new variables in the process of design, working quickly and accurately on the possibilities, which modifies the agency of decisions and management tasks.
keywords	Advanced internet, collaborative design, virtual design studio
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:56

_id	cf2011_p108
id	cf2011_p108
authors	Iordanova, Ivanka; Forgues Daniel, Chiocchio François
year	2011
title	Creation of an Evolutive Conceptual Know-how Framework for Integrative Building Design
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. 435-450.
summary	Low productivity of the building sector today is attributed to the fragmentation of tasks, disciplines and responsibilities, as well as to the resistance to adopt integrative work processes and digital means. The increased complexity of architectural projects and the aroused social consciousness for sustainable environment calls for integrative design collaboration. Thus, there is need for a Conceptual Framework combining work processes, technological means and policy aspects. According to the literature, integrative multidisciplinary design is a strategy resulting in high performance buildings nurturing sustainable way of living (Reed et al. 2009, Krygiel & Nies 2008). Responding to the increased technological complexity of our built environment, as well as to the objective of meeting multiple criteria of quality, both necessitating multidisciplinary collaboration during design, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is seen as a powerful means for fostering quality, augmenting productivity and decreasing loss in construction. Based on recent research, we can propose that a sustainable building can be designed through an integrative design process (IDP) which is best supported by BIM. However, our ongoing research program and consultations with advanced practitioners underscore a number of limitations. For example, a large portion of the interviewed professionals and construction stakeholders do not necessarily see a link between sustainable building, integrative design process and BIM, while in our opinion, their joint use augments the power of each of these approaches taken separately. Thus, there is an urgent necessity for the definition of an IDP-BIM framework, which could guide the building industry to sustainable results and better productivity. This paper defines such a framework, whose theoretical background lays on studies in social learning (activity theory and situated action theories). These theories suggest that learning and knowledge generation occurs mainly within a social process defined as an activity. This corresponds to the context in which the IDP-BIM framework will be used, its final objective being the transformation of building design practices. The proposed IDP-BIM framework is based on previous research and developments. Thus, firstly, IDP process was well formalized in the Roadmap for the Integrated Design Process‚ (Reed et al.) which is widely used as a guideline for collaborative integrative design by innovating practices in USA and Canada. Secondly, the National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) of the USA is putting an enormous effort in creating a BIM standard, Succar (2008) recently proposed a conceptual framework for BIM, but BIM ontology is still under development (Gursel et al 2009). Thirdly, an iterative design process bound to gating reviews (inspired from software development processes) was found to be successful in the context of multidisciplinary design studios (reported in our previous papers). The feedback from this study allowed for modifications and adjustments included in the present proposal. The gating process assures the good quality of the project and its compliance to the client's requirements. The challenge of this research is to map the above mentioned approaches, processes and technologies into the design process, thus creating an integrated framework supporting and nurturing sustainable design. The IDP-BIM framework can be represented by a multidimensional matrix linked to a semantic network knowledge database: - the axes of the matrix being the project timeline, the design process actors and building stakeholders (architect, engineers, client, contractor, environmental biologist, etc.), or different aspects of building performance (environmental, functional, social, interior environment quality, cost, etc.); and - the knowledge database providing multiple layers of semantic support in terms of process, domain knowledge, technology and workflow at a given moment of the project and for a given actor or building aspect. The IDP-BIM framework is created as an evolutive digital environment for know-how and will have an established protocol for regular updates. The paper will firstly present the state of the art in IDP and BIM. Secondly, it will expose the methodology used for the definition of the Framework, followed by a description of its structure, contents and digital implementation. Then, some scenarios for the use of the Framework will be shown as validation.
keywords	integrated design process, BIM, multidisciplinary design, conceptual framework
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2012/02/11 19:21

_id	sigradi2008_103
id	sigradi2008_103
authors	Baltazar, Ana Paula; Maria Lucia Malard, Silke Kapp, Pedro Schultz
year	2008
title	From physical models to immersive collaborative environments: testing the best way for homeless people to visualise and negotiate spaces
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	This paper describes an experiment to investigate the best way for lay people to use representation to visualise and negotiate space. It was motivated by our observations in workshops for digital inclusion in the context of a housing project for a homeless association. Computers were used to make it easier for the community to understand and change the spaces in real time. The first workshops proved that our approach was efficient as an exercise but not certainly effective concerning the understanding of spatial qualities. So we have designed an experiment to compare the usability of different media in participatory design processes. For that we have adapted the ‘Usability’ methodology, which is fully described in the paper. We started with three main questions. The first concerned the effectiveness of different media to represent spatial quality; the second concerned the best way for novices to approach space, whether by refurbishing a pre-existing space or by starting from the scratch; and the third concerned the effectiveness of negotiation by means of discourse and by means of or action. We also had two main hypothesis: one coming from research on digital environments and stereo visualisation, indicating that the more people feel immersed in the represented environment the more they are able to correlate it with physical space; and the other coming from our own observations in the participatory design workshops, in which the collective decision-making was manipulated by those people with more advanced communication skills who use their ability in an authoritative way regardless of the relevance of what they have to say. This paper describes the whole experiment, which was an exercise of spatial negotiation in 5 versions. In the first version we provided fixed digital views of a room in plan and axonometry; for another two versions we provided a physical model of the room in 1:10 scale, with some pieces of the existing furniture in different scales. This was done to check if people were just playing with a puzzle or actually grasping the correspondence between representation and the object or the space represented. One version proposes refurbishment and the other starts from the scratch. And the last two versions repeated the same task made with the physical model, but this time using a 3D interactive digital model. People were required not only to organise the furniture in the space but also to build a full scale cardboard structure and organise the real furniture reproducing their proposed model. Their comments on the spaces they had built confronted with what they had imaged when working with the model has enabled us to compare the different models, as also the different ways of negotiating spaces. This paper describes this experiment in detail concluding that 3D digital interactive models are far more effective than physical models and 2D drawings; when negotiation happens by means of action it provides more creative results than when the discoursive practice prevails; people are more creative when they start something from scratch, though they spend more time. The results of this experiment led us to formulate a new hypothesis leading to the development of an immersive collaborative environment using stereoscopy.
keywords	Visualisation, negotiation, immersive environment, digital interfaces, homeless people
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	sigradi2008_077
id	sigradi2008_077
authors	Briones, Carolina
year	2008
title	A collaborative project experience in an architectural framework, working with Open Source applications and physical computing [Diseño de Plataformas Digitales e Interactivas: una experiencia educativa trabajando colaborativamente con aplicaciones de Código Abierto y Computación Física]
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	Nowadays, thanks to the telecommunication revolution and therefore the massive spread of Internet, we have seen the come up of international architectural offices with branches located in different continent, working in a collaborative fashion, surpassing physical and time frontiers. At the same time, the multidisciplinary work between designers, architects, engineers, programmers and even biologist, between others, have been taking place in the new network society. All transformations also supported by the arising of FOSS (Free Open Source Software) and the virtual communities behind them, which allow the creation of non-traditional or specific software, the association between disciplines, and also, the formation of meeting scenarios for a mixture of individuals coming up with multiple motivation to coexist in collaborative environment. Furthermore, it is possible to argue that Open Source applications are also the reflection of a social movement, based on the open creation and exchange of information and knowledge. Do the appeared of FOSS compel us to re-think our working and teaching methods? Do they allow new modes of organizing and collaborating inside our architectural practices?. This paper would like to address these questions, by presenting the results of the “Experience Design” course, which by implementing teaching methods based on Open Source principles and cutting-edge tools, seeks to approach students to these new “way of do”, knowledge and methodologies, and overall, focus them on the science behind the computer. This paper describes the “Experience Design” course, in which architectural graduate students of Universidad Diego Portales (Chile), put for first time their hands on the creation of interactive interfaces. By acquiring basic knowledge of programming and physical computing, students built in a collaborative way a responsive physical installation. The course use as applications “Processing” and “Arduino”. The first one is an Open Source programming language and environment for users who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It has a visual context and serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is a project initiated by Ben Fry and Casey Reas, at the MIT Media Lab (www.processing.org). The second is an Open Source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino has a microcontroller (programmed with Processing language) which can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators (www.arduino.cc). Both environments shared a growing community of people working in related projects and extending useful assistance for beginners. In this paper it is presented the current state of the pilot course and some of the initials results collected during the process. Students and teacher’s debates and evaluations of the experience have been exposed. Together with a critical evaluation in relation to the accomplishment of the effort of place together different disciplines in one collaborative project akin, architecture, design, programming and electronic. Finally, futures modifications of the course are discussed, together with consideration to take in account at the moment of bring Open Source and programming culture into the student curriculum.
keywords	Physical computing, teaching framework, Open Source, Interactive Installation
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	ecaade2008_177
id	ecaade2008_177
authors	Fatah gen. Schieck, Ava
year	2008
title	Exploring Architectural Education in the Digital Age
source	Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 861-870
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.861
summary	This paper reports on work carried out within the module ‘Digital Space & Society as part of the MSc Adaptive Architecture & Computation course at UCL. I describe my approach in investigating possibilities for integrating digital media and computation into a module taught to students coming predominantly from a design background. The teaching adopts the design studio culture, which integrates: teaching, discovery (research), and application (practice). Here I present an attempt to develop new ways that extend beyond conventionally applied methods within traditional architectural education by adopting project based learning that is carried out in the real world. The project is driven by my recent research activities. Donald Schon’s concept of the ‘knowledge in action’ provides a useful framework for interpreting my approach.
keywords	Architectural education, digital, project based, teaching & research
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	sigradi2008_089
id	sigradi2008_089
authors	Godoi,Giovana; Gabriela Celani
year	2008
title	A study about facades from historical brazilian town using shape grammar
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	Shape grammars have been used in architecture for analysis and synthesis - in the first case, mainly for the characterization of styles and in the later for the generation of novel compositions. The present research proposes the use of shape grammars for establishing guidelines for the requalification of historical areas that have lost their original characteristics due to improper renovations. The use of shape grammars proposed here starts with the definition of a set of rules for characterizing the original style of an area. Based on these rules, the main characteristics of the area are confirmed, such as siting, proportions between walls and openings in the façades, overall dimensions constraints, and so on. Next, the rules of the grammar are transformed, to allow the use of contemporary building materials, as well as the incorporation of contemporary living styles in the new design. Rules must take into account two cases: original buildings that have been inadequately transformed, and buildings that have been completely torn down and will replace been completely replaced by new constructions. Both cases need to be harmonious with the remaining original buildings, however without simply copying the existing style. In both cases, rules have been used to establish the guidelines for the renovations, which resulted in modern urban environments that resemble the original historical sites in terms of spatial relations and proportions. They also create an appropriate environment for the observations of the preserved original buildings, which would otherwise look like aliens in a completely transformed neighborhood. The latter case is very common in most Brazilian cities, especially in the case of São Paulo, where houses from the late 1800´s and early 1900´s are flanked by high rise apartment buildings. In order to develop and test the proposed method, a study will be carried out in a small Brazilian town called Monte Alegre do Sul. The town was chosen because its original urban morphology, developed in the XIXth century, is still relatively well preserved, although part of the original façades have been transformed. The objective of the research is to develop a shape grammar to set guidelines for the re-adaptation of the already renovated façades and reconstruction of other ones in Monte Alegre do Sul.
keywords	Shape grammar, generative design systems
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:52

_id	cf2011_p035
id	cf2011_p035
authors	Langenhan, Christoph; Weber Markus, Petzold Frank, Liwicki Marcus, Dengel Andreas
year	2011
title	Sketch-based Methods for Researching Building Layouts through the Semantic Fingerprint of Architecture
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. 85-102.
summary	The paper focuses on the early stages of the design process where the architect needs assistance in finding reference projects and describes different aspects of a concept for retrieving previous design solutions with similar layout characteristics. Such references are typically used to see how others have solved a similar architectural problem or simply for inspiration. Current electronic search methods use textual information rather than graphical information. The configuration of space and the relations between rooms are hard to represent using keywords, in fact transforming these spatial configurations into verbally expressed typologies tends to result in unclear and often imprecise descriptions of architecture. Nowadays, modern IT-technologies lead to fundamental changes during the process of designing buildings. Digital representations of architecture require suitable approaches to the storage, indexing and management of information as well as adequate retrieval methods. Traditionally planning information is represented in the form of floor plans, elevations, sections and textual descriptions. State of the art digital representations include renderings, computer aided design (CAD) and semantic information like Building Information Modelling (BIM) including 2D and 3D file formats such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) (IAI, 2010). In the paper, we examine the development of IT-technologies in the area of case-based reasoning (Richter et al., 2007) to provide a sketch-based submission and retrieval system for publishing and researching building layouts including their manipulation and subsequent use. The user interface focuses on specifying space and their relations by drawing them. This query style supports the spatial thinking approach that architects use, who often have a visual representation in mind without being able to provide an accurate description of the spatial configuration. The semantic fingerprint proposed by (Langenhan, 2008) is a description and query language for creating an index of floor plans to store meta-data about architecture, which can be used as signature for retrieving reference projects. The functional spaces, such as living room or kitchen and the relation among on another, are used to create a fingerprint. Furthermore, we propose a visual sketch-based interface (Weber et al., 2010) based on the Touch&Write paradigm (Liwicki et al., 2010) for the submission and the retrieval phase. During the submission process the architect is sketching the space-boundaries, space relations and functional coherence's. Using state of the art document analysis techniques, the architects are supported offering an automatic detection of room boundaries and their physical relations. During the retrieval the application will interpret the sketches of the architect and find reference projects based on a similarity based search utilizing the semantic fingerprint. By recommending reference projects, architects will be able to reuse collective experience which match the current requirements. The way of performing a search using a sketch as a query is a new way of thinking and working. The retrieval of 3D models based on a sketched shape are already realized in several domains. We already propose a step further, using the semantics of a spatial configuration. Observing the design process of buildings reveals that the initial design phase serves as the foundation for the quality of the later outcome. The sketch-based approach to access valuable information using the semantic fingerprint enables the user to digitally capture knowledge about architecture, to recover and reuse it in common-sense. Furthermore, automatically analysed fingerprints can put forward both commonly used as well as best practice projects. It will be possible to rate architecture according to the fingerprint of a building.
keywords	new media, case-based reasoning, ontology, semantic building design, sketch-based, knowledge management
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2012/02/11 19:21

_id	sigradi2008_080
id	sigradi2008_080
authors	Andrés, Roberto
year	2008
title	Hybrid Art > Synthesized Architecture
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	This paper investigates possible intersections between some contemporary artistic modalities and architectural practice. At first, it describes and discusses different uses of art in architectural history. Through the analyzes of Le Corbusier’s artistic and architectural practices, it observes the limits of looking at art as only ‘inspiration’ for architectural form and points to the necessity of surpassing this formal approach. More than bringing pictorial ‘inspiration’, art, as a experimental field, can change our architectural procedures and approaches - a much richer and powerful addition to the development of architecture. It discusses then, the confluence of architecture, information and communication technologies. Very commonly present in our contemporary life, not only on the making of architecture – computer drawings and modeling of extravagant buildings – nor in ‘automated rooms’ of the millionaire’s houses. Televisions, telephones and computers leave the walls of our houses “with as many holes as a Swiss cheese”, as Flusser has pointed. The architecture has historically manipulated the way people interact, but this interaction now has been greatly changed by new technologies. Since is inevitable to think the contemporary world without them, it is extreme urgent that architects start dealing with this whole universe in a creative way. Important changes in architecture occur after professionals start to research and experiment with different artistic medias, not limiting their visions to painting and sculpture. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the experiments with new media art can bring the field of architecture closer to information and communication technologies. This confluence can only take form when architects rise questions about technology based interaction and automation during their creative process, embodying these concepts into the architecture repertoire. An educational experience was conducted in 2007 at UFMG Architecture School, in Brazil, with the intention of this activity was to allow students to research creatively with both information technology and architecture. The students’ goal was to create site-specific interventions on the school building, using physical and digital devices. Finally, the paper contextualizes this experience with the discussion above exposed. Concluding with an exposition of the potentialities of some contemporary art modalities (specially the hybrid ones) in qualifying architectural practices.
keywords	Architecture; Information and Communication Technologies; Digital Art; Site Specific Art; Architectural Learning.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	ecaade2008_153
id	ecaade2008_153
authors	Andrés, Roberto
year	2008
title	Hybrid Art > Synthesized Architecture
source	Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 267-274
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.267
summary	This paper investigates possible intersections between some contemporary artistic modalities and architectural practice. It observes the limits of looking at art as only ‘inspiration’ for architectural form and points to the necessity of surpassing this formal approach. It discusses then, the confluence of architecture, information and communication technologies. The architecture has historically mediated the way people interact, but this interaction now has been greatly changed by new technologies. Then, it analyses the hypothesis that the experiments with new media art can bring the field of architecture closer to information and communication technologies. An educational experience is presented, aiming to verify some points discussed on the text. Concluding with an exposition of the potentialities of some hybrid art modalities in qualifying architectural practices.
keywords	Architecture, Information and Communication Technologies, Digital Art, Site Specific Art, Architectural Learning
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	cdc2008_137
id	cdc2008_137
authors	Cardoso, Daniel
year	2008
title	Certain assumptions in Digital Design Culture: Design and the Automated Utopia
source	First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 137-148
summary	Much of the research efforts in computational design for Architecture today aim to automate or bypass the production of construction documents as a means of freeing designers from the sticky and inconvenient contingencies of physical matter. This approach has yielded promising questions and applications, but is based on two related assumptions that often go unnoticed and that I wish to confront: 1. Designers are more creative if the simulations they rely on engage only with the superficial aspects of the objects they design (rather than with their structural and material-specific behaviors) and 2. The symbolic 3-D environments available in current design software are the ideal media for design because of their free nature as modeling spaces. These two assumptions are discussed both as cultural traits and in their relation to digital design technologies. The work presented is a step towards the far-sighted goal of answering the question: how can computation enable new kinds of dialogue between designer, design media and construction in a design process? In concrete, this paper proposes a critical framework for discussing contemporary digital design practices as a continuity –rather than as a rupture- of a long-standing tradition in architecture of separating design and construction.
email
last changed	2009/01/07 08:05

_id	acadia08_458
id	acadia08_458
authors	Hemsath, Timothy; Robert Williams; Ronald Bonnstetter; Leen-Kiat Soh
year	2008
title	Digital CADCAM Pedagogy Model: Intelligent Inquiry Education
source	Silicon + Skin: Biological Processes and Computation, [Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) / ISBN 978-0-9789463-4-0] Minneapolis 16-19 October 2008, 458-463
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2008.458
summary	Prototype manufacturing as an educational tool has been very successful at the college level in architecture and engineering design. This paper discusses an innovative inquiry-based learning approach rather than the problem-based learning models commonly utilized by other similar programs. For example, several research-funded technology projects (e.g., Cappelleri et al. 2007) look at involving students in problem-based learning exercises (e.g., building robots); however, these exercises (while providing valuable experiences) have predetermined outcomes ingrained by the teachers, the project structure, and the components used to construct the devices. Therefore, inquisitive and creative problem solving is limited to the “kit-of-parts” in their approach to solving the problem. The inquiry-based CADCAM pedagogy model is more concerned with the process of solving a problem through the vehicle of prototyping than with the specificity of the design project itself. This approach has great potential. First, the need to solve the problem drives learning on multiple levels, integrating interdisciplinary ideas into the problem and solution. Second, the problem interlocks disciplines through inquiry knowledge building in team exercises. Finally, it encourages diversity and flexibility by allowing students to look at problems from multiples perspectives and points of view.
keywords	CAD; Education; Evaluation; Pedagogy; Rapid Prototyping
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

_id	ecaade2008_012
id	ecaade2008_012
authors	Hudson, Roly
year	2008
title	Frameworks for Practical Parametric Design in Architecture
source	Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 847-854
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.847
summary	This paper is aimed at the development of a theoretical framework that addresses practical applications of parametric design that have been observed in architectural practice. Existing theoretical frameworks are not aimed at addressing this specific use of parametric tools but do provide a set of key themes. Based on these themes a simplified structure is presented here as a means for tackling architectural design development tasks. This is then used in order to examine a case study; the parametric design tasks involved in the design development and documentation of the new Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin Ireland. This project was undertaken in collaboration with HOK Sport Architects. The findings from this examination are used to discuss proposals and implications for a practical framework for parametric design in architecture.
keywords	Parametric, Practice, Theory, Case Study, Lansdowne Road Stadium
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	sigradi2008_081
id	sigradi2008_081
authors	Kirschner, Ursula
year	2008
title	Study of digital morphing tools during the design process - Application of freeware software and of tools in commercial products as well as their integration in AutoCAD
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	This research work examines methods of experimental designing with CAAD in a CAD laboratory with architecture students as the testing persons. Thereby the main focus is on the early phase of finding forms, in which different techniques with digital media are tried out in the didactic architectural design lessons. In these work have been traced the influences of the media employed on the design processes and combined the approaches of current CAAD research with aspects from classic design theory. For mathematical rules of proportion, atmospheric influence factors and analogy concepts in architecture, I have developed design methods which have been applied and verified in several series of seminars. (Kirschner, U.: 2000, Thesis, a CAAD supported architectural design teaching, Hamburg, school of arts). Previous experimental exercises showed that morphological sequences of modeling are effective sources for playful designing processes. In the current work these approaches are enhanced and supplemented by different morphological architectural concepts for creating shapes. For this purpose 2D based software like Morphit, Winmorph and other freeware were used. Whereas in the further development of this design technique we used 3D freeware morphing programs like zhu3D or Blender. The resulting morphological shapes were imported in CAD and refined. Ideally the morphing tool is integrated in the modeling environment of the standard software AutoCAD. A digital city model is the starting basis of the design process to guarantee the reference to the reality. The applied design didactic is predicated on the theories of Bernhard Hoesli. The act of designing viewed as „waiting for a good idea“ is, according to him, unteachable; students should, in contrast, learn to judge the „the force of an idea“. On the subject of morphology a form-generating method in the pre-design phase has been tested. Starting from urban-planning lines on an area map, two simple geometric initial images were produced which were merged by means of morphing software. Selected images from this film sequence were extruded with CAAD to produce solid models as sectional drawings. The high motivation of the students and the quality of the design results produced with these simple morphing techniques were the reason for the integration of the artistic and scientific software into the creative shape modeling process with the computer. The students learned in addition to the „bottom up “and „ top down” new design methods. In the presentation the properties and benefits of the morphing tools are presented in tables and are analyzed with regard to the architectural shape generating in an urban context. A catalogue of criteria with the following topics was developed: user friendliness, the ability of integrating the tools or as the case may be the import of data into a CAD environment, the artistic aspects in terms of the flexibility of shape generating as well as the evaluation of the aesthetic consideration of shapes.
keywords	Architectural design, freeware morphing software, AutoCAD
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:53

_id	ecaade2009_139
id	ecaade2009_139
authors	Knight, Michael; Dokonal, Wolfgang
year	2009
title	State of Affairs - Digital Architectural Design in Europe: A Look into into Education and Practice – Snapshot and Outlook
source	Computation: The New Realm of Architectural Design [27th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-8-9] Istanbul (Turkey) 16-19 September 2009, pp. 191-196
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2009.191
wos	WOS:000334282200023
summary	This paper updates a research project that tries to take a snapshot on the use of computers in the average architectural firms in two European countries. Our main interest is to see whether the digital design methods are starting to have an impact in these offices. First results of this research using an online web questionnaire have been presented at the eCAADe 2007 conference in Frankfurt and have been updated and presented at the Sigradi 2008 conference in Havana. At the moment we are working with additional interviews and we are preparing a rerun of the questionnaire to have an idea about the current developments. This paper is still based mainly on the findings we presented at the Sigradi conference to bring this information to the eCAADe community as well. We will be presenting the results of the new questionnaire in Istanbul.
keywords	Digital design, early stage design
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

_id	sigradi2008_087
id	sigradi2008_087
authors	Lautenschlaeger, Graziele; Anja Pratschke
year	2008
title	Electronic Art and Second Order Cybernetic: From Art in Process to Process in Art.
source	SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary	The goal of the paper presented below is to discuss partial results of a research which has been financed by the state sponsored agency FAPESP since 2007. Inserted in the research line Design Process, it aims to analyse connections between design process in electronic art and architecture, concerning the creation of mixed media spatialities, as well as present how each field can get the benefits from this analyses. Based on Grounded Theory methodology, a method of qualitative research which aims to understand “reality” from the meanings attributed by people for their experiences, the research has been started collecting data from bibliographical references, interviews with media artists, theoreticians and curators of electronic art and visits to media labs. Interviews and visits of media centers were taken in Europe while the researcher was as an exchange student in the Interface Culture Department in Kunstuniversität Linz, from March to September of 2008. By crossing data collected from the interviews and visits, with the cybernetic social system theory by Niklas Luhmann, and the discussion of an example of mixed media spatiality creation in the art field, this paper analyses how creative processes in digital era depends on different interdisciplinary relationships and how collaborative approaches are needed nowadays in the arts and architectural areas, seeing that artworks are always being influenced by their respective specific “mediality”. The aim of this paper is to discuss the relevance of the use of the cybernetic theory in digital culture, when concepts like participation, interaction and communication are some of the keywords, towards a “collective and distributed authorship”, and their reflects in the contemporary spatiality. The special interest in the comparison of art experience and second order cybernetics as a reference to architecture field is one of the findings of the paper. And, concerning the practical implication, due to cybernetics’ constant questioning of viability, adaptability and recursion, it should be able to point some ways to architects and artists´ works, especially if we consider that they never work in “ideal” conditions.
keywords	Electronic art. Design process. Second order Cybernetic. Niklas Luhmann.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:54

_id	cdc2008_243
id	cdc2008_243
authors	Loukissas, Yanni
year	2008
title	Keepers of the Geometry: Architects in a Culture of Simulation
source	First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 243-244
summary	“Why do we have to change? We’ve been building buildings for years without CATIA?” Roger Norfleet, a practicing architect in his thirties poses this question to Tim Quix, a generation older and an expert in CATIA, a computer-aided design tool developed by Dassault Systemes in the early 1980’s for use by aerospace engineers. It is 2005 and CATIA has just come into use at Paul Morris Associates, the thirty-person architecture firm where Norfleet works; he is struggling with what it will mean for him, for his firm, for his profession. Computer-aided design is about creativity, but also about jurisdiction, about who controls the design process. In Architecture: The Story of Practice, Architectural theorist Dana Cuff writes that each generation of architects is educated to understand what constitutes a creative act and who in the system of their profession is empowered to use it and at what time. Creativity is socially constructed and Norfleet is coming of age as an architect in a time of technological but also social transition. He must come to terms with the increasingly complex computeraided design tools that have changed both creativity and the rules by which it can operate. In today’s practices, architects use computer-aided design software to produce threedimensional geometric models. Sometimes they use off-the-shelf commercial software like CATIA, sometimes they customize this software through plug-ins and macros, sometimes they work with software that they have themselves programmed. And yet, conforming to Larson’s ideas that they claim the higher ground by identifying with art and not with science, contemporary architects do not often use the term “simulation.” Rather, they have held onto traditional terms such as “modeling” to describe the buzz of new activity with digital technology. But whether or not they use the term, simulation is creating new architectural identities and transforming relationships among a range of design collaborators: masters and apprentices, students and teachers, technical experts and virtuoso programmers. These days, constructing an identity as an architect requires that one define oneself in relation to simulation. Case studies, primarily from two architectural firms, illustrate the transformation of traditional relationships, in particular that of master and apprentice, and the emergence of new roles, including a new professional identity, “keeper of the geometry,” defined by the fusion of person and machine. Like any profession, architecture may be seen as a system in flux. However, with their new roles and relationships, architects are learning that the fight for professional jurisdiction is increasingly for jurisdiction over simulation. Computer-aided design is changing professional patterns of production in architecture, the very way in which professionals compete with each other by making new claims to knowledge. Even today, employees at Paul Morris squabble about the role that simulation software should play in the office. Among other things, they fight about the role it should play in promotion and firm hierarchy. They bicker about the selection of new simulation software, knowing that choosing software implies greater power for those who are expert in it. Architects and their collaborators are in a continual struggle to define the creative roles that can bring them professional acceptance and greater control over design. New technologies for computer-aided design do not change this reality, they become players in it.
email
last changed	2009/01/07 08:05

_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
email
last changed	2016/03/10 10:02

_id	acadia08_390
id	acadia08_390
authors	Vrana, Andrew; Joe Meppelink; Ben Nicholson
year	2008
title	New Harmony Grotto
source	Silicon + Skin: Biological Processes and Computation, [Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) / ISBN 978-0-9789463-4-0] Minneapolis 16-19 October 2008, 390-399
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2008.390
summary	With the expanding wave of contemporary architecture inspired and informed by biomorphic design and biomimetic processes, the re-evaluation of work of Frederick Kiesler has become immanent. Throughout the mid 20th century he became increasingly interested in the relationship of natural form and structure to architectural space and organization. The Grotto for Meditation proposed in 1963 for New Harmony, Indiana commissioned by Mrs. Jane Blaffer-Owen was the culmination of his life’s work. Though the project was not realized, it embodies all of the influences of his time from surrealism to biology and cybernetic theory. Through our university and the Blaffer Foundation, we engaged in formal research and tectonic resolution of the project employing digital modeling and fabrication technologies at our College and in Houston where Mrs. Owen lives when she is not in New Harmony. We based this project on the full catalog of archival material made available to us with support from the Blaffer and Kielser Foundations. Our exploration also was influenced by discussions with Mrs. Blaffer-Owen who is still very interested in realizing this profoundly interesting and enigmatic project. Our university has opened the door to the opportunity that our reinterpreted Grotto become a permanent fixture on the campus next to a wetland landscape that it is currently under construction. Our research into Kiesler has engaged his esoteric concepts of “co-realism” and “continuous tension” as well as his early use of recursive geometry and biomorphic form in design. From reverse engineering and digital fabrication via 3D scanning to generative structural articulation, we are experimenting with a structural/spatial system that closely aligns with Kiesler’s originally proposed tile patterning dilated into a minimal structure. Our prototypes and the final version will be fabricated by one of the largest commercially for-hire water jet cutter in country and assembled on the site.
keywords	Biomorphic; Digital Fabrication; Prototype; Structure
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	caadria2008_9_session1b_075
id	caadria2008_9_session1b_075
authors	Chien, Sheng-Fen
year	2008
title	Probing elders’ needs for smart technologies in the domestic environment
source	CAADRIA 2008 [Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Chiang Mai (Thailand) 9-12 April 2008, pp. 75-80
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2008.075
summary	This paper presents an initial investigation into developing smart homes for the elderly. Smart homes refer to domestic living environments that equipped with “sensible” and “responsive” facilities, which employ smart technologies, to provide occupants a sound and comfortable living. Designers and sociologists have observed reluctances and even rejections to these technologies from the elderly. A Cultural Probes study shows that the elderly welcome new technologies but reject robotic companionships. In addition, a questionnaire survey concludes that smart technologies for home safety and security, energy conservation and usage monitoring, as well as health care and maintenance, are desirable.
keywords	Smart home; the elderly; cultural probe; questionnaire; survey
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

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