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 ecaade2008_190
id ecaade2008_190
authors Russell, Peter; Elger, Dietrich
year 2008
title The Meaning of BIM
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.531
source Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 531-536
summary The paper is a position paper, not a report about a research project. It concerns the paradigm-shift that is taking place in the CAAD software and its implications for the business of architecture and more importantly, for the education of future members of the profession. Twenty years ago the use of CAAD software as a replacement for hand drafting was starting. Since then the transformation is complete: hardly a final project in the universities is drawn by hand. Currently, we are witnessing a second paradigm shift and its name is BIM. The meaning of BIM is rooted in two significant differences to current CAAD software and this will have implications for teaching and practicing architecture. The first difference is the way the software structures information in the CAAD file. The standard way to save CAAD information was to organise simple geometric objects according to membership in groups and to sort them according to a layer-metaphor, which primarily controlled the visibility of the geometric elements. Three-dimensional modelling is/was nothing more than the same structure with a more complex geometry. BIM software changes this structure by storing classes of geometries and then to store the specific values of individual geometries according to factors that can be determined by external or internal logical factors. The implication for architects is that we have the chance to be the people in control of the building information model, so long as we invest the time and energy to fully understand what is happening to the building information during the planning process. If we ignore this, the real danger exists that the last control of the building’s final configuration will be usurped. As educators we are currently teaching students that will be leaving the schools in 2012 and beyond. By then, the paradigm-shift will be in full motion and so it behoves us to consider which skill sets we want the next generation of architects to possess. This means not just teaching students about how to use particular BIM software or how to program a certain parametric/genetic algorithm in a form-finding process. We need to teach our students to take the leadership in building information management and that means understanding and controlling how the building information flows, how the methodologies that are used by the consulting engineers affect our building models, and knowing what kind of logical inconsistencies (internal or external) can threaten the design intention.
keywords Building Information Modelling, Digital Curriculum, Architectural Pedagogy
series eCAADe
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:56

_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 ijac20086405
id ijac20086405
authors Ahlquist, Sean; Fleischmann, Moritz
year 2008
title Elemental Methods for Integrated Architectures: Experimentation with Design Processes for Cable Net Structures
source International Journal of Architectural Computing vol. 6 - no. 4, 453-475
summary Tension active systems are compelling architectural structures having an intimate connection between structural performance and the arrangement of material. The direct flow of structural forces through the material makes these systems attractive and unique from an aesthetic point of view, but they are a challenge to develop from a design and an engineering perspective. Traditional methods for solving such structural systems rely on both analog modeling techniques and the use of highly advanced engineering software. The complexity and laborious nature of both processes presents a challenge for iterating through design variations. To experiment with the spacemaking capabilities of tension active systems, it is necessary to design methods that can actively couple the digital simulation with the analog methods for building the physical structure. What we propose is a designer-authored process that digitally simulates the behaviors of tension active systems using simple geometric components related to material and structural performance, activated and varied through elemental techniques of scripting. The logics for manufacturing and assembly are to be embedded in the digital generation of form. The intention is to transform what is a highly engineered system into an architectural system where investigation is as much about the determination of space and environment as it is about the arrangement of structure and material.
series journal
last changed 2009/03/03 07:48

_id cdc2008_377
id cdc2008_377
authors Conrad, Erik
year 2008
title Rethinking the Space of Intelligent Environments
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 377-382
summary Technologies are not mere exterior aids but interior changes of consciousness that shape the way the world is experienced. As we enter the age of ubiquitous computing, where computers are worn, carried or embedded into the environment, we must be careful that the ideology the technology embodies is not blindly incorporated into the environment as well. As disciplines, engineering and computer science make implicit assumptions about the world that conflict with traditional modes of cultural production. Space is commonly understood to be the void left behind when no objects are present. Unfortunately, once we see space in this way, we are unable to understand the role it plays in our everyday experience. In this paper, I argue that with the realization of the vision of ubiquitous computing, the fields of computer science and engineering reify the dominance of abstract space in real space. A new approach to the design of computing systems is necessary to reembody space. The social nature of the interface allows us to situate it within Henrí Lefebvre’s notions of space, providing new tools for thinking about how computing practice engages space as well as opening avenues to rematerialize the environment through embodied interaction.
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

_id ascaad2012_003
id ascaad2012_003
authors Elseragy, Ahmed
year 2012
title Creative Design Between Representation and Simulation
source CAAD | INNOVATION | PRACTICE [6th International Conference Proceedings of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2012 / ISBN 978-99958-2-063-3], Manama (Kingdom of Bahrain), 21-23 February 2012, pp. 11-12
summary Milestone figures of architecture all have their different views on what comes first, form or function. They also vary in their definitions of creativity. Apparently, creativity is very strongly related to ideas and how they can be generated. It is also correlated with the process of thinking and developing. Creative products, whether architectural or otherwise, and whether tangible or intangible, are originated from ‘good ideas’ (Elnokaly, Elseragy and Alsaadani, 2008). On one hand, not any idea, or any good idea, can be considered creative but, on the other hand, any creative result can be traced back to a good idea that initiated it in the beginning (Goldschmit and Tatsa, 2005). Creativity in literature, music and other forms of art is immeasurable and unbounded by constraints of physical reality. Musicians, painters and sculptors do not create within tight restrictions. They create what becomes their own mind’s intellectual property, and viewers or listeners are free to interpret these creations from whichever angle they choose. However, this is not the case with architects, whose creations and creative products are always bound with different physical constraints that may be related to the building location, social and cultural values related to the context, environmental performance and energy efficiency, and many more (Elnokaly, Elseragy and Alsaadani, 2008). Remarkably, over the last three decades computers have dominated in almost all areas of design, taking over the burden of repetitive tasks so that the designers and students can focus on the act of creation. Computer aided design has been used for a long time as a tool of drafting, however in this last decade this tool of representation is being replaced by simulation in different areas such as simulation of form, function and environment. Thus, the crafting of objects is moving towards the generation of forms and integrated systems through designer-authored computational processes. The emergence and adoption of computational technologies has significantly changed design and design education beyond the replacement of drawing boards with computers or pens and paper with computer-aided design (CAD) computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications. This paper highlights the influence of the evolving transformation from Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Computational Design (CD) and how this presents a profound shift in creative design thinking and education. Computational-based design and simulation represent new tools that encourage designers and artists to continue progression of novel modes of design thinking and creativity for the 21st century designers. Today computational design calls for new ideas that will transcend conventional boundaries and support creative insights through design and into design. However, it is still believed that in architecture education one should not replace the design process and creative thinking at early stages by software tools that shape both process and final product which may become a limitation for creative designs to adapt to the decisions and metaphors chosen by the simulation tool. This paper explores the development of Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Computational Design (CD) Tools and their impact on contemporary design education and creative design.
series ASCAAD
email
more http://www.ascaad.org/conference/2012/papers/ascaad2012_003.pdf
last changed 2012/05/15 20:46

_id cdc2008_383
id cdc2008_383
authors Kallipoliti, Lydia and Alexandros Tsamis
year 2008
title The teleplastic abuse of ornamentation
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 383-392
summary Is it possible that psychoanalysis, a discipline that allegedly deals with abstract or invisible entities, and entomology, a discipline that predominantly taxonomizes insects by type, can offer us an insight into the nature of digital design processes and emergent material phenomena? One of Roger Caillois’ most controversial psychoanalytic theories, “teleplasty,” shows that psychoanalysis and entomology can indeed suggest an alternative perspective of how bodily or other material substances are initially fabricated by insects and how they can further transform. In several of his case studies, Caillois claims alliances between material and psychical structures in his psycho-material teleplastic theorem and eventually questions spatial distinctions: distinctions between geometry and material, purpose and function, cause and effect, between the imaginary and the real. Can digital media help us redefine the static relationship between a window and a wall as an interaction of chemical substances rather than a process of assembling joints and components? Can we perceive material, not as an application to predetermined geometries, but as an inherent condition, a subatomic organization of matter that precedes geometry? The aim of this paper is to problematize such distinctions as a discussion emerging through the prolific use of digital design processes.
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

_id acadia08_472
id acadia08_472
authors Key, Sora; Mark D Gross; Ellen Yi-Luen Do
year 2008
title Computing Spatial Qualities For Architecture
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2008.472
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, 472-477
summary Computational representation of spatial qualities can lead us to a better understanding of how we construct spatial concepts. Analyses of spatial qualities can support architects in reasoning about the form of a configuration, helping them predict the consequences of a design. ¶ In this paper we present three definitions (enclosure, viewfield, continuity) that describe experiential qualities of architectural spaces. Our project aims to provide computable definitions to these qualities to describe common spatial experiences that are implicitly understood by architects. The description, using familiar terms, reveals the analytical structure of spatial qualities that is based on the geometry of the physical elements. ; We therefore introduce a graphic editor, Descriptor, that provides visualization of spatial qualities as the designer diagrams building elements. The system calculates perceived relationships (surrounded, visible, nearby, nearest) between a viewpoint and the architectural elements based on their geometric properties such as location and distance. The relationships are the components of the three qualities we define. We also present a use scenario to demonstrate how one might use our Descriptor system during early design. ¶ Descriptor is an attempt to formalize descriptions of the spatial qualities to help beginners understand how to make design decisions. In the future, we plan to extend the set of qualities and add detailed attributes of the physical elements to the system.
keywords Analysis; Computation; Environment; Representation; Spatial
series ACADIA
last changed 2022/06/07 07:52

_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 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 cdc2008_205
id cdc2008_205
authors Telhan, Orkan
year 2008
title Towards a Material Agency: New Behaviors and New Materials for Urban Artifacts
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 205-212
summary As computationally augmented materials find their applications in architectural practice, we observe a new kind of material culture shaping architectural discourse. This is a kind of material intelligence that is not only introducing a richer vocabulary for designing more expressive, responsive and customizable spaces, but also encouraging us to think of new ways to contextualize the technical imperative within today’s and tomorrow’s architectural design. It becomes important not only to discuss and extend the technical vocabulary of computational materials in relation to other disciplines that are also concerned with ‘designing intelligence,’ but also to tie the research’s connection to a broader discourse that can respond to it in multiple perspectives. In this paper, I present a position on this emerging field and frame my work in two main threads: 1) the design of new materials that can exercise computationally complex behaviors and 2) the design of new behaviors for these materials to tie them to higher-level goals connected to social, cultural and ecological applications. I discuss these research themes in two design implementations and frame them in an applied context.
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

_id cdc2008_171
id cdc2008_171
authors Tryfonidou, Katerina and Dimitris Gourdoukis
year 2008
title What comes first: the chicken or the egg? Pattern Formation Models in Biology, Music and Design
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 171-178
summary The popular saying that wonders if the egg is coming before the chicken or vice versa, implies a vicious circle where all the elements are known to us and the one is just succeeding the other in a totally predictable way. In this paper we will argue, using arguments from fields as diverse as experimental music and molecular biology, that development in architecture, with the help of computation, can escape such a repetitive motif. On the contrary, by employing stochastic processes and systems of self organization each new step can be a step into the unknown where predictability gives its place to unpredictability and controlled randomness.
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

_id sigradi2008_179
id sigradi2008_179
authors Toloudi, Zenovia
year 2008
title Architectural Brand valuations through a tag-based learning machine.
source SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary Brand is a set of associations related to an object from a particular source (Libai 2008). Such an object can be a product, person or service. Architecture is both service and product. However architectural Branding has never been clearly defined. This probably happens due to the lack of tools to measure the architectural Brand. This paper explores a direction to evaluate the architectural Brand by using computational methods in order to offer a better understanding regarding the awareness, reputation and prominence of the architectural firm. The methodology is based on case studies in which the brands of different types of architectural firms are analyzed, measured and compared to each other through a two-part process: a. the development of one tool to statistically measure the architectural Brand and b. the interpretation of the results of the measurements. a. Learning machine In order to make these brand measurements within a specific group of people or images, this paper develops an interactive tool that uses an image database. The tool constitutes a learning machine; it makes a hypothetic hierarchical categorization of the image database into + and – using an initial sample and it proposes to the user the first image of the list; finally, the user validates the image by confirming or not the machine’s guess. In this image database, each image is described as an array of attributes (tags). Tags can be generated either by the architectural firm itself or can emerge by users. b. Evaluation of results This interactive, user-friendly tool is drawing a user’s preference by proposing similar images from the database based on a learning process from the user input (initial sample and feedback); alternatively, it can be used as a questionnaire for quantitative research. Moreover, this tool categorizes photos of similar content. This research focuses on the following issues as parameters of the effectiveness of the process: o Simplicity of the database organization through computation. o Top-down Vs. Bottom-up tagging of works/ images mechanism. o Future use of the image database. o Transformation of the image database while becoming larger. o “Market” segmentation or not. o Combination of the tool with other Brand measurement tools. o Combination of the tool with other image databases. The outcome of this approach can provide an analysis and metric of the brand strength of different architectural firms. Furthermore, it can help architectural firms to understand better how they are perceived by others in order to improve their brand image and associations.
keywords Branding, learning machine, image database, attribute, tag
series SIGRADI
email
last changed 2016/03/10 10:01

_id cf2011_p109
id cf2011_p109
authors Abdelmohsen, Sherif; Lee Jinkook, Eastman Chuck
year 2011
title Automated Cost Analysis of Concept Design BIM Models
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. 403-418.
summary AUTOMATED COST ANALYSIS OF CONCEPT DESIGN BIM MODELS Interoperability: BIM models and cost models This paper introduces the automated cost analysis developed for the General Services Administration (GSA) and the analysis results of a case study involving a concept design courthouse BIM model. The purpose of this study is to investigate interoperability issues related to integrating design and analysis tools; specifically BIM models and cost models. Previous efforts to generate cost estimates from BIM models have focused on developing two necessary but disjoint processes: 1) extracting accurate quantity take off data from BIM models, and 2) manipulating cost analysis results to provide informative feedback. Some recent efforts involve developing detailed definitions, enhanced IFC-based formats and in-house standards for assemblies that encompass building models (e.g. US Corps of Engineers). Some commercial applications enhance the level of detail associated to BIM objects with assembly descriptions to produce lightweight BIM models that can be used by different applications for various purposes (e.g. Autodesk for design review, Navisworks for scheduling, Innovaya for visual estimating, etc.). This study suggests the integration of design and analysis tools by means of managing all building data in one shared repository accessible to multiple domains in the AEC industry (Eastman, 1999; Eastman et al., 2008; authors, 2010). Our approach aims at providing an integrated platform that incorporates a quantity take off extraction method from IFC models, a cost analysis model, and a comprehensive cost reporting scheme, using the Solibri Model Checker (SMC) development environment. Approach As part of the effort to improve the performance of federal buildings, GSA evaluates concept design alternatives based on their compliance with specific requirements, including cost analysis. Two basic challenges emerge in the process of automating cost analysis for BIM models: 1) At this early concept design stage, only minimal information is available to produce a reliable analysis, such as space names and areas, and building gross area, 2) design alternatives share a lot of programmatic requirements such as location, functional spaces and other data. It is thus crucial to integrate other factors that contribute to substantial cost differences such as perimeter, and exterior wall and roof areas. These are extracted from BIM models using IFC data and input through XML into the Parametric Cost Engineering System (PACES, 2010) software to generate cost analysis reports. PACES uses this limited dataset at a conceptual stage and RSMeans (2010) data to infer cost assemblies at different levels of detail. Functionalities Cost model import module The cost model import module has three main functionalities: generating the input dataset necessary for the cost model, performing a semantic mapping between building type specific names and name aggregation structures in PACES known as functional space areas (FSAs), and managing cost data external to the BIM model, such as location and construction duration. The module computes building data such as footprint, gross area, perimeter, external wall and roof area and building space areas. This data is generated through SMC in the form of an XML file and imported into PACES. Reporting module The reporting module uses the cost report generated by PACES to develop a comprehensive report in the form of an excel spreadsheet. This report consists of a systems-elemental estimate that shows the main systems of the building in terms of UniFormat categories, escalation, markups, overhead and conditions, a UniFormat Level III report, and a cost breakdown that provides a summary of material, equipment, labor and total costs. Building parameters are integrated in the report to provide insight on the variations among design alternatives.
keywords building information modeling, interoperability, cost analysis, IFC
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 asanowicz02_paper_eaea2007
id asanowicz02_paper_eaea2007
authors Asanowicz, Aleksander; Katarzyna Asanowicz
year 2008
title The Dynamic Perception of Digitally Created Abstract Urban Space
source Proceedings of the 8th European Architectural Endoscopy Association Conference
summary Sigmund Freud in his book has used a City as a Metaphor of human Psyche. According to him City is not only images of the forms given us in the process of perception but all invisible and nowadays not existing forms (buildings) too. This way of representing historical sequences is possible thanks to ability of our mind to parallel consideration of different spatial meanings. Aldo Rossi called it - “analogous City” – a city which includes the existing buildings, buildings which was existed in the same place in the past and imaginary buildings (our visions of future development of the city). As a result – City is a place where real and virtual meet. Aldo Rossi presents an “analogous city” as a mental map which includes real and unreal forms representing, at the same time, remembered and imagined events. He has written: “When we back to the place after long absence we not only recognize it, but at the same time start remembering events which has happened at this place in the past. Peter Eisenman in “The City of Artificial Excavation” has analyzed the city as an archaeologist, who excaved forgotten buildings and showed us unknown connections and meanings.
keywords city perception, emotions, digital composition
series EAEA
email
more http://info.tuwien.ac.at/eaea
last changed 2008/04/29 20:46

_id cdc2008_229
id cdc2008_229
authors Asut, Serdar
year 2008
title Rethinking the Creative Architectural Design in the Digital Culture
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 229-234
summary This paper tries to examine the effects of emerging digital tools in architectural design. Digital tools are not only practical instruments used for drawing, but they also affect design thinking. As the ones that are used in architectural design are mostly commercial, one can say that design thinking, the identity of the design and the creativity of the designer are defined by the companies which develop these tools. Therefore architects have to be able to manipulate these tools and personalize them in order to free their design thinking and creativity. This paper addresses the open source development in order to redefine creativity in architecture of digital culture.
keywords Design Tools, Digital Culture, CAD Software, Open Source
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

_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 cdc2008_359
id cdc2008_359
authors Burke, Anthony
year 2008
title Reframing “intelligence” in computational design environments
source First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 359-366
summary This paper seeks to establish a set of principals that form an understanding of intelligent systems related to design and architecture, through a review of intelligence as it has been understood over the last 60 years since Alan Turing first asked the question “can machines think?”1 From this review, principals of intelligence can be identified within the neurophysiological and artificial intelligence (AI) communities that provide a foundation for understanding intelligence in computational architecture and design systems. Through critiquing these principals, it is possible to re-frame a productive general theory of intelligent systems that can be applied to specific design processes, while simultaneously distinguishing the goals of design oriented intelligent systems from those goals of general Artificial Intelligence research.
email
last changed 2009/01/07 08:05

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