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	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	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_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	ecaade2008_127
id	ecaade2008_127
authors	Çagdas Durmazoglu, Mahmut; Çagdas, Gülen; Tong , Hakan
year	2008
title	An Agent Based Approach for Evaluation of Free-Form Surfaces
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2008.405
source	Architecture in Computro [26th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-0-9541183-7-2] Antwerpen (Belgium) 17-20 September 2008, pp. 405-412
summary	Designers; architects and artists in general always proceed with one crucial goal in their mind when they design: to be able to materialize the scheme in their mind. There are some tools that can help designers to test their design to see if it will be successfully constructed or functioned as close as possible as the way they imagined or expected; visual simulation models in digital environments of the designs are such important tools for architectural design process, but these models does not provide enough data to determine the design’s applicability. Therefore, the need of a tool that would work with the designer in order to determine the possibility of whether the design could be built or not as the way designer imagined, is vital.
keywords	Rain-flow analysis, performance analysis, agent systems, decision support system, free-form bodies
series	eCAADe
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:57

_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	ijac20076304
id	ijac20076304
authors	Baltazar, Ana Paula; Kapp, Silke; Nascimento, Denise Morado; Goncalves, Rodrigo Marcandier; Lino, Sulamita Fonseca; Coelho, Mara Lidia Rodrigues; Olalquiaga, Amanda Alves; Gontijo, Felipe Jose; Silva, Joana Vieira Da; Magalhaes, Pedro Arthur Novaes
year	2008
title	Noncopyright And The Digital Interface To Support The Autonomous Production Of Dwellings
source	International Journal of Architectural Computing vol. 6 - no. 3, pp. 279-297
summary	This paper presents the discussions on intellectual property crucial for the research group MOM to develop the system IDA (digital interface for supporting autonomous production of dwellings). It first introduces IDA, its conceptual framework, its database and its interactive interface. Then, it examines the arguments for copyright, identifying them as myths or disguises of other intentions, usually based on perpetuating privileges. From that it discusses the way IDA approaches interaction as a means to break the usual logic of perpetuating privileges in digital systems. This leads to examining some anti-copyright movements concluding that they follow the same logic of register of the copyright. Thus, noncopyright seems to be the best means to protest against the current logic and for conveying information towards autonomy of users in their processes of production of space. It also points to an alternative use of computers in architecture as proposed in IDA, which is not based on representation but on interaction.
series	journal
last changed	2008/10/14 14:00

_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	acadia08_340
id	acadia08_340
authors	Chalmers, Chris
year	2008
title	Chemical Signaling as a Model for Digital Process in Architecture
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2008.340
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, 340-345
summary	The role of the architect is quite literally one of assembly: synthesizing the various parts of a project into a cohesive whole. It is a difficult job, often requiring the architect to weave many seemingly contradictory concerns into a solution that benefits them all. It is not surprising then, that the many elegant and effective systems found in nature should be inspiring to the architect. Emerging fields like biomimicry and systems dynamics model the patterns of interaction between organisms and their environments in terms of dynamic part to part and part to whole relationships. ¶ Observations of real relationships between organisms and their environments, as they exist in nature, reveal complex feedback loops working across multiple scales. These feedback loops operate by the simultaneous action of two observed phenomena. The first is the classic phenotypic relationship seen when organisms of the same genetic makeup instantiate differently based upon differences in their environment. This is the relationship that was originally proposed by Charles Darwin in his theory of natural selection of 1859. Darwin’s model is unidirectional: the organism adapts to its environment, but not the other way around. It operates at the local scale as individual parts react to the conditions of the whole. (Canguilhem, 1952). ¶ The second phenomenon, which sees its effect at the global scale, is the individual’s role as consumer and producer in the flows of energy and material that surround it. It is the subtle and incremental influence of the organism upon its environment, the results of which are often invisible until they reach a catastrophic threshold, at which point all organisms in the system feel global changes. ; The research presented in this paper addresses the dialectic between organism and environment as each responds reciprocally to the others’ changing state. Such feedback loops act in a non-linear fashion, across nested scales in biological systems. They can be modeled to act that way in a digital design process as well. This research is an exploration into one such model and its application to architecture: the simple communication between organisms as they affect and are affected by their environments through the use of signal chemicals.
keywords	Biology; Cellular Automata; Feedback; Material; Scripting
series	ACADIA
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	ddss2004_ra-33
id	ddss2004_ra-33
authors	Diappi, L., P. Bolchim, and M. Buscema
year	2004
title	Improved Understanding of Urban Sprawl Using Neural Networks
source	Van Leeuwen, J.P. and H.J.P. Timmermans (eds.) Recent Advances in Design & Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN: 14020-2408-8, p. 33-49
summary	It is widely accepted that the spatial pattern of settlements is a crucial factor affecting quality of life and environmental sustainability, but few recent studies have attempted to examine the phenomenon of sprawl by modelling the process rather than adopting a descriptive approach. The issue was partly addressed by models of land use and transportation which were mainly developed in the UK and US in the 1970s and 1980s, but the major advances were made in the area of modelling transportation, while very little was achieved in the area of spatial and temporal land use. Models of land use and transportation are well-established tools, based on explicit, exogenouslyformulated rules within a theoretical framework. The new approaches of artificial intelligence, and in particular, systems involving parallel processing, (Neural Networks, Cellular Automata and Multi-Agent Systems) defined by the expression “Neurocomputing”, allow problems to be approached in the reverse, bottom-up, direction by discovering rules, relationships and scenarios from a database. In this article we examine the hypothesis that territorial micro-transformations occur according to a local logic, i.e. according to use, accessibility, the presence of services and conditions of centrality, periphericity or isolation of each territorial “cell” relative to its surroundings. The prediction capabilities of different architectures of supervised Neural networks are implemented to the south Metropolitan area of Milan at two different temporal thresholds and discussed. Starting from data on land use in 1980 and 1994 and by subdividing the area into square cells on an orthogonal grid, the model produces a spatial and functional map of urbanisation in 2008. An implementation of the SOM (Self Organizing Map) processing to the Data Base allows the typologies of transformation to be identified, i.e. the classes of area which are transformed in the same way and which give rise to territorial morphologies; this is an interesting by-product of the approach.
keywords	Neural Networks, Self-Organizing Maps, Land-Use Dynamics, Supervised Networks
series	DDSS
last changed	2004/07/03 22:13

_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	cdc2008_035
id	cdc2008_035
authors	Fiamma, Paolo
year	2008
title	D.I.G.I.T.A.L. Defining Internal Goals In The Architectural Landscape
source	First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 35-40
summary	The digital factor is a challenge to regain the meaning of Design on Architecture, in addition to evaluating its possible extension and transformations. Digital could be an answer for the actual needs of architectural design: Architecture should be digital because digital is profit. Digital could help to understand architectural design as ""verified conception"" through the concept of computational modelling: Architecture should be digital because digital goes in line and not against design tradition. Digital could enhance the didactic dimension, really important for students: Architecture should be digital because is actual. Digital offers cognitive and ontological value for the design and new skills for the designer: Architecture should be digital because digital is a catalyst of new and creativity. Digital reshapes constructed architecture introducing new aesthetic paradigms: Architecture should be digital because digital is the mental landscape as reference point for the actual theoretical phase of Architecture … There are several answers to the question: “Why Architecture should be digital?”, but without rigor and critical dimension cannot be any digital benefit in architectural landscape, and the main risk could be that the “representation” prevails over ""the fact"".
email
last changed	2009/01/07 08:05

_id	ddss2008-02
id	ddss2008-02
authors	Gonçalves Barros, Ana Paula Borba; Valério Augusto Soares de Medeiros, Paulo Cesar Marques da Silva and Frederico de Holanda
year	2008
title	Road hierarchy and speed limits in Brasília/Brazil
source	H.J.P. Timmermans, B. de Vries (eds.) 2008, Design & Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, ISBN 978-90-6814-173-3, University of Technology Eindhoven, published on CD
summary	This paper aims at exploring the theory of the Social Logic of Space or Space Syntax as a strategy to define parameters of road hierarchy and, if this use is found possible, to establish maximum speeds allowed in the transportation system of Brasília, the capital city of Brazil. Space Syntax – a theory developed by Hillier and Hanson (1984) – incorporates the space topological relationships, considering the city shape and its influence in the distribution of movements within the space. The theory’s axiality method – used in this study – analyses the accessibility to the street network relationships, by means of the system’s integration, one of its explicative variables in terms of copresence, or potential co-existence between the through-passing movements of people and vehicles (Hillier, 1996). One of the most used concepts of Space Syntax in the integration, which represents the potential flow generation in the road axes and is the focus of this paper. It is believed there is a strong correlation between urban space-form configuration and the way flows and movements are distributed in the city, considering nodes articulations and the topological location of segments and streets in the grid (Holanda, 2002; Medeiros, 2006). For urban transportation studies, traffic-related problems are often investigated and simulated by assignment models – well-established in traffic studies. Space Syntax, on the other hand, is a tool with few applications in transport (Barros, 2006; Barros et al, 2007), an area where configurational models are considered to present inconsistencies when used in transportation (cf. Cybis et al, 1996). Although this is true in some cases, it should not be generalized. Therefore, in order to simulate and evaluate Space Syntax for the traffic approach, the city of Brasília was used as a case study. The reason for the choice was the fact the capital of Brazil is a masterpiece of modern urban design and presents a unique urban layout based on an axial grid system considering several express and arterial long roads, each one with 3 to 6 lanes,
keywords	Space syntax, road hierarchy
series	DDSS
last changed	2008/09/01 17:06

_id	ddss2008-21
id	ddss2008-21
authors	Horeni, Oliver; T.A. Arentze, H.J.P. Timmermans, and B.G.C. Dellaert
year	2008
title	INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES FOR MEASURINGINDIVIDUALS’ MENTAL REPRESENTATIONSSPACE-TIME CHOICESAn outline of three IT-based survey methods
source	H.J.P. Timmermans, B. de Vries (eds.) 2008, Design & Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, ISBN 978-90-6814-173-3, University of Technology Eindhoven, published on CD
summary	A better exploration of human decision making is a necessary condition to understand individual activity-travel choices. With the advent of mental model theory a conceptual framework of individuals’ causal knowledge of the environment and its links to the behavioural choice outcome was available. Accordingly, interview techniques had been developed in order to elicit mental representations from individuals’ mind. Although these techniques delivered reliable and useful results, it turned out quickly, that they could not be applied to large-scale surveys. Hence, this paper will report on the development of three IT-based interview techniques, which are promising avenues to measure mental representations in an efficient and flexible way.
keywords	Activity-travel choice, Mental representations, Electronic surveying
series	DDSS
last changed	2008/09/01 17:06

_id	caadria2008_75_session7b_622
id	caadria2008_75_session7b_622
authors	Lam, Selina
year	2008
title	Enhancing Realism in Exploring in Virtual Environments
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2008.662
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. 662-628
summary	A virtual environment is a place which requires context, content and actors to promote realism in the exploration process. With the advancement in technologies and computing power, the context of virtual environments could be sculpted in finely. Referencing movie and video games, it would not be difficult to draft the content. The only component being overlooked is the actor. In this paper, I will address the mechanism and challenges in the implementation of autonomous agents as actors in virtual environment so as to promote social sense and enliven the environment, hence enhancing realism in the exploration.
keywords	Virtual environment: autonomous agents; place; place-making
series	CAADRIA
email
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	b678
id	b678
authors	Loemker, Thorsten Michael
year	2008
title	Designing with machines
source	Proceedings of the Dresden International Symposium of Architecture 2005, Technische Universitaet Dresden, P. 225-229
summary	In 1845 Edgar Allan Poe wrote the poem “The Raven”. An act full of poetry, love, passion, mourning, melancholia and death. In his essay “The Theory of Composition” which was published in 1846 Poe proved that the poem is based on an accurate mathematical description. Not only in literature are structures present that are based on mathematics. In the work of famous musicians, artists or architects like Bach, Escher or Palladio it is evident that the beauty and clarity of their work as well as its traceability has often been reached through the use of intrinsic mathematic coherences. If suchlike structures could be described within architecture, their mathematical abstraction could supplement “The Theory of Composition” of a building. This research focuses on a basic approach to describe principles in architectural layout planning in the form of mathematical rules that will be executed by the use of a computer. Provided that “design” is in principle a combinatorial problem, i.e. a constraint-based search for an overall optimal solution of a design problem, an exemplary method will be described to solve those problems. Mathematical and syntactical difficulties that arise from the attempt to extract rules that relate to the process of building design will be pointed out. As a consequence for teachings it will be demonstrated which competences are needed in order to aid designing with machines.
series	other
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2008/10/13 14:20

_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_085
id	cdc2008_085
authors	Morad, Sherif
year	2008
title	Building Information Modeling and Architectural Practice: On the Verge of a New Culture
source	First International Conference on Critical Digital: What Matters(s)? - 18-19 April 2008, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge (USA), pp. 85-90
summary	The introduction of machine-readable tools for architectural design, which do not just focus on mere geometry or presentation, but on the richness of information embedded computationally in the design, has impacted the way architects approach and manipulate their designs. With the rapid acceleration in building information modeling (BIM) as a process which fosters machine-readable applications, architects and other participants in the design and construction industry are using BIM tools in full collaboration. As a trend which is already invading architectural practice, BIM is gradually transforming the culture of the profession in many ways. This culture is developing new properties for its participants, knowledge construction mechanisms, resources, and production machineries. This paper puts forward the assumption that BIM has caused a state of transformation in the epistemic culture of architectural practice. It appears that practice in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is still in this phase of transformation; on the edge of developing a new culture. The paper attempts to address properties of such an emerging culture, and the new role architects are faced with to overcome its challenges.
email
last changed	2009/01/07 08:05

_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

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