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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
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_id	ga0026
id	ga0026
authors	Ransen, Owen F.
year	2000
title	Possible Futures in Computer Art Generation
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Years of trying to create an "Image Idea Generator" program have convinced me that the perfect solution would be to have an artificial artistic person, a design slave. This paper describes how I came to that conclusion, realistic alternatives, and briefly, how it could possibly happen. 1. The history of Repligator and Gliftic 1.1 Repligator In 1996 I had the idea of creating an “image idea generator”. I wanted something which would create images out of nothing, but guided by the user. The biggest conceptual problem I had was “out of nothing”. What does that mean? So I put aside that problem and forced the user to give the program a starting image. This program eventually turned into Repligator, commercially described as an “easy to use graphical effects program”, but actually, to my mind, an Image Idea Generator. The first release came out in October 1997. In December 1998 I described Repligator V4 [1] and how I thought it could be developed away from simply being an effects program. In July 1999 Repligator V4 won the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation prize for "Best Graphics Program of 1999". Prize winners are never told why they won, but I am sure that it was because of two things: 1) Easy of use 2) Ease of experimentation "Ease of experimentation" means that Repligator does in fact come up with new graphics ideas. Once you have input your original image you can generate new versions of that image simply by pushing a single key. Repligator is currently at version 6, but, apart from adding many new effects and a few new features, is basically the same program as version 4. Following on from the ideas in [1] I started to develop Gliftic, which is closer to my original thoughts of an image idea generator which "starts from nothing". The Gliftic model of images was that they are composed of three components: 1. Layout or form, for example the outline of a mandala is a form. 2. Color scheme, for example colors selected from autumn leaves from an oak tree. 3. Interpretation, for example Van Gogh would paint a mandala with oak tree colors in a different way to Andy Warhol. There is a Van Gogh interpretation and an Andy Warhol interpretation. Further I wanted to be able to genetically breed images, for example crossing two layouts to produce a child layout. And the same with interpretations and color schemes. If I could achieve this then the program would be very powerful. 1.2 Getting to Gliftic Programming has an amazing way of crystalising ideas. If you want to put an idea into practice via a computer program you really have to understand the idea not only globally, but just as importantly, in detail. You have to make hard design decisions, there can be no vagueness, and so implementing what I had decribed above turned out to be a considerable challenge. I soon found out that the hardest thing to do would be the breeding of forms. What are the "genes" of a form? What are the genes of a circle, say, and how do they compare to the genes of the outline of the UK? I wanted the genotype representation (inside the computer program's data) to be directly linked to the phenotype representation (on the computer screen). This seemed to be the best way of making sure that bred-forms would bare some visual relationship to their parents. I also wanted symmetry to be preserved. For example if two symmetrical objects were bred then their children should be symmetrical. I decided to represent shapes as simply closed polygonal shapes, and the "genes" of these shapes were simply the list of points defining the polygon. Thus a circle would have to be represented by a regular polygon of, say, 100 sides. The outline of the UK could easily be represented as a list of points every 10 Kilometers along the coast line. Now for the important question: what do you get when you cross a circle with the outline of the UK? I tried various ways of combining the "genes" (i.e. coordinates) of the shapes, but none of them really ended up producing interesting shapes. And of the methods I used, many of them, applied over several "generations" simply resulted in amorphous blobs, with no distinct family characteristics. Or rather maybe I should say that no single method of breeding shapes gave decent results for all types of images. Figure 1 shows an example of breeding a mandala with 6 regular polygons: Figure 1 Mandala bred with array of regular polygons I did not try out all my ideas, and maybe in the future I will return to the problem, but it was clear to me that it is a non-trivial problem. And if the breeding of shapes is a non-trivial problem, then what about the breeding of interpretations? I abandoned the genetic (breeding) model of generating designs but retained the idea of the three components (form, color scheme, interpretation). 1.3 Gliftic today Gliftic Version 1.0 was released in May 2000. It allows the user to change a form, a color scheme and an interpretation. The user can experiment with combining different components together and can thus home in on an personally pleasing image. Just as in Repligator, pushing the F7 key make the program choose all the options. Unlike Repligator however the user can also easily experiment with the form (only) by pushing F4, the color scheme (only) by pushing F5 and the interpretation (only) by pushing F6. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show some example images created by Gliftic. Figure 2 Mandala interpreted with arabesques Figure 3 Trellis interpreted with "graphic ivy" Figure 4 Regular dots interpreted as "sparks" 1.4 Forms in Gliftic V1 Forms are simply collections of graphics primitives (points, lines, ellipses and polygons). The program generates these collections according to the user's instructions. Currently the forms are: Mandala, Regular Polygon, Random Dots, Random Sticks, Random Shapes, Grid Of Polygons, Trellis, Flying Leap, Sticks And Waves, Spoked Wheel, Biological Growth, Chequer Squares, Regular Dots, Single Line, Paisley, Random Circles, Chevrons. 1.5 Color Schemes in Gliftic V1 When combining a form with an interpretation (described later) the program needs to know what colors it can use. The range of colors is called a color scheme. Gliftic has three color scheme types: 1. Random colors: Colors for the various parts of the image are chosen purely at random. 2. Hue Saturation Value (HSV) colors: The user can choose the main hue (e.g. red or yellow), the saturation (purity) of the color scheme and the value (brightness/darkness) . The user also has to choose how much variation is allowed in the color scheme. A wide variation allows the various colors of the final image to depart a long way from the HSV settings. A smaller variation results in the final image using almost a single color. 3. Colors chosen from an image: The user can choose an image (for example a JPG file of a famous painting, or a digital photograph he took while on holiday in Greece) and Gliftic will select colors from that image. Only colors from the selected image will appear in the output image. 1.6 Interpretations in Gliftic V1 Interpretation in Gliftic is best decribed with a few examples. A pure geometric line could be interpreted as: 1) the branch of a tree 2) a long thin arabesque 3) a sequence of disks 4) a chain, 5) a row of diamonds. An pure geometric ellipse could be interpreted as 1) a lake, 2) a planet, 3) an eye. Gliftic V1 has the following interpretations: Standard, Circles, Flying Leap, Graphic Ivy, Diamond Bar, Sparkz, Ess Disk, Ribbons, George Haite, Arabesque, ZigZag. 1.7 Applications of Gliftic Currently Gliftic is mostly used for creating WEB graphics, often backgrounds as it has an option to enable "tiling" of the generated images. There is also a possibility that it will be used in the custom textile business sometime within the next year or two. The real application of Gliftic is that of generating new graphics ideas, and I suspect that, like Repligator, many users will only understand this later. 2. The future of Gliftic, 3 possibilties Completing Gliftic V1 gave me the experience to understand what problems and opportunities there will be in future development of the program. Here I divide my many ideas into three oversimplified possibilities, and the real result may be a mix of two or all three of them. 2.1 Continue the current development "linearly" Gliftic could grow simply by the addition of more forms and interpretations. In fact I am sure that initially it will grow like this. However this limits the possibilities to what is inside the program itself. These limits can be mitigated by allowing the user to add forms (as vector files). The user can already add color schemes (as images). The biggest problem with leaving the program in its current state is that there is no easy way to add interpretations. 2.2 Allow the artist to program Gliftic It would be interesting to add a language to Gliftic which allows the user to program his own form generators and interpreters. In this way Gliftic becomes a "platform" for the development of dynamic graphics styles by the artist. The advantage of not having to deal with the complexities of Windows programming could attract the more adventurous artists and designers. The choice of programming language of course needs to take into account the fact that the "programmer" is probably not be an expert computer scientist. I have seen how LISP (an not exactly easy artificial intelligence language) has become very popular among non programming users of AutoCAD. If, to complete a job which you do manually and repeatedly, you can write a LISP macro of only 5 lines, then you may be tempted to learn enough LISP to write those 5 lines. Imagine also the ability to publish (and/or sell) "style generators". An artist could develop a particular interpretation function, it creates images of a given character which others find appealing. The interpretation (which runs inside Gliftic as a routine) could be offered to interior designers (for example) to unify carpets, wallpaper, furniture coverings for single projects. As Adrian Ward [3] says on his WEB site: "Programming is no less an artform than painting is a technical process." Learning a computer language to create a single image is overkill and impractical. Learning a computer language to create your own artistic style which generates an infinite series of images in that style may well be attractive. 2.3 Add an artificial conciousness to Gliftic This is a wild science fiction idea which comes into my head regularly. Gliftic manages to surprise the users with the images it makes, but, currently, is limited by what gets programmed into it or by pure chance. How about adding a real artifical conciousness to the program? Creating an intelligent artificial designer? According to Igor Aleksander [1] conciousness is required for programs (computers) to really become usefully intelligent. Aleksander thinks that "the line has been drawn under the philosophical discussion of conciousness, and the way is open to sound scientific investigation". Without going into the details, and with great over-simplification, there are roughly two sorts of artificial intelligence: 1) Programmed intelligence, where, to all intents and purposes, the programmer is the "intelligence". The program may perform well (but often, in practice, doesn't) and any learning which is done is simply statistical and pre-programmed. There is no way that this type of program could become concious. 2) Neural network intelligence, where the programs are based roughly on a simple model of the brain, and the network learns how to do specific tasks. It is this sort of program which, according to Aleksander, could, in the future, become concious, and thus usefully intelligent. What could the advantages of an artificial artist be? 1) There would be no need for programming. Presumbably the human artist would dialog with the artificial artist, directing its development. 2) The artificial artist could be used as an apprentice, doing the "drudge" work of art, which needs intelligence, but is, anyway, monotonous for the human artist. 3) The human artist imagines "concepts", the artificial artist makes them concrete. 4) An concious artificial artist may come up with ideas of its own. Is this science fiction? Arthur C. Clarke's 1st Law: "If a famous scientist says that something can be done, then he is in all probability correct. If a famous scientist says that something cannot be done, then he is in all probability wrong". Arthur C Clarke's 2nd Law: "Only by trying to go beyond the current limits can you find out what the real limits are." One of Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments: "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric" 3. References 1. "From Ramon Llull to Image Idea Generation". Ransen, Owen. Proceedings of the 1998 Milan First International Conference on Generative Art. 2. "How To Build A Mind" Aleksander, Igor. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 3. "How I Drew One of My Pictures: or, The Authorship of Generative Art" by Adrian Ward and Geof Cox. Proceedings of the 1999 Milan 2nd International Conference on Generative Art.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	6430
authors	Jabi, Wassim (Ed.)
year	2001
title	ACADIA 2001 [Conference Proceedings]
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2001
source	Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture / ISBN 1-880250-10-1/ Buffalo (New York) 11-14 October 2001, 415 p.
summary	The theme, which preceded my knowledge of ACADIA’s true age, resulted from a realization regarding the development and current state of CAD in Research, Education, and Practice. While I only got involved with ACADIA in the last half of its current life to date, I had the honor of studying with some of the early pioneers of CAD: 1) Harold Borkin, a founding member of ACADIA, 2) Jim Turner, a longtime ACADIAn, and a past ACADIA Conference organizer (actually the very first conference I attended), and 3) Ted Hall, another longtime ACADIAn. What I have learned from conversations with them and later witnessed for myself is a fundamental shift of focus in CAD from building tools to using tools. That is, while early CAD students, including myself, used to learn how to create software and tools to solve a particular problem, the current focus in the majority of schools that include a CAD component in their curriculum is on teaching the use of commercial software and/or the use of digital media in the design studio. One need only take a look at old list of courses that used to be offered in the CAD area and compare it with a new list to see this shift. Yet, one form of tool building that is continuing in a significant number of schools is the creation of scripts or small software modules (usually built using a visual editor) to create interactive systems for delivery over the web or on CD-ROM. Examples include the use of Macromedia Director or Flash for creating interactive digital titles. While this current state of affairs has increased the receptivity to digital tools and media, it does obscure an important fact. For knowledge to advance in this area, we need researchers who can not only use tools, but also invent new ones to solve new problems that are not addressed by the existing crop of commercial software. The more time we spend not educating our students in the art and science of building digital tools, the harder it will be to: 1) find teachers in the future with those skills, 2) advance and influence the development of the state-of-the-art in CAD, and 3) erase the use of CAD as a euphemism for slick computer-generated imagery. While not common, the tradition of tool building is still going on most notably in architecture schools with strong financial resources and those that offer doctoral level education. Commercial, governmental and business/education entities are also continuing the research tradition of tool building. ACADIA, as a reflection of the field it focuses on, has widened its scope to solicit papers that deal with CAD education and the use of CAD in practice. Thus, you will read in this book papers that focus on all three aspects: research, education, and practice and in some cases the intersection of two or more of those areas. Thankfully, ACADIA, while concerned with CAD in education has maintained its receptivity to basic research papers as well as a willingness to publish innovative papers in the area of practice. As chair of the technical committee, I made sure that the call for papers and the final selection reflects this desire. We should continue to emphasize the need for presenting this diversity of work in our annual conferences and I am optimistic that the ACADIA community is in support of this notion.
series	ACADIA
email
more	www.acadia.org
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

_id	0c9c
authors	Tweed, Christopher
year	1999
title	Prescribing Designs
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.051
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 51-57
summary	Much of the debate and argument among CAAD researchers has turned on the degree to which CAAD systems limit the ways in which designers can express themselves. By defining representations for design objects and design functions, systems determine what it is possible to describe. Aart Bijl used the term 'prescriptiveness' to refer to this property of systems, and the need to overcome it was a major preoccupation of research at EdCAAD during the 1980s, including the development of the MOLE (Modelling Objects with Logic Expressions) system. But in trying to offer designers the freedom that was judged to be essential to evolving design practices, MOLE transferred much of the burden of programming from system developers to end-users - you can have any design objects you want, as long as you write the code. Close examination of MOLE's logic reveals that it too had to rely on fundamental definitions that, even if not domain-specific, are certainly historically contingent. This paper will return to the issue of prescriptiveness, summarising the lessons learned from the MOLE 'experiment,' and identifying new prescriptions that are deciding what designs can be. Looking beyond computer representations, we find that designs are shaped by much larger, and arguably more powerful, historical, social and cultural forces surrounding design practice. These forces are shaping the way CAAD is used and how new systems are conceived and developed.
keywords	Bijl, Prescriptiveness
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	bba7
authors	Alexander, Christopher W.
year	1964
title	Notes on the Synthesis of Form
source	Harvard Graduate School of Design
summary	Every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities: the form in question and its context. The form is the solution to the problem; the context defines the problem. We want to put the context and the form into effortless contact or frictionless coexistence, i.e., we want to find a good fit. For a good fit to occur in practice, one vital condition must be satisfied. It must have time to happen. In slow-changing, traditional, unselfconscious cultures, a form is adjusted soon after each slight misfit occurs. If there was good fit at some stage in the past, no matter how removed, it will have persisted, because there is an active stability at work. Tradition and taboo dampen and control the rate of change in an unselfconscious culture's designs. It is important to understand that the individual person in an unselfconscious culture needs no creative strength. He does not need to be able to improve the form, only to make some sort of change when he notices a failure. The changes may not always be for the better; but it is not necessary that they should be, since the operation of the process allows only the improvements to persist. Unselfconscious design is a process of slow adaptation and error reduction. In the unselfconscious process there is no possibility of misconstruing the situation. Nobody makes a picture of the context, so the picture cannot be wrong. But the modern, selfconscious designer works entirely from a picture in his mind - a conceptualization of the forces at work and their interrelationships - and this picture is almost always wrong. To achieve in a few hours at the drawing board what once took centuries of adaptation and development, to invent a form suddenly which clearly fits its context - the extent of invention necessary is beyond the individual designer. A designer who sets out to achieve an adaptive good fit in a single leap is not unlike the child who shakes his glass-topped puzzle fretfully, expecting at one shake to arrange the bits inside correctly. The designer's attempt is hardly as random as the child's is; but the difficulties are the same. His chances of success are small because the number of factors which must fall simultaneously into place is so enormous. The process of design, even when it has become selfconscious, remains a process of error-reduction. No complex system will succeed in adapting in a reasonable amount of time or effort unless the adaptation can proceed component by component, each component relatively independent of the others. The search for the right components, and the right way to build the form up from these components, is the greatest challenge faced by the modern, selfconscious designer. The culmination of the modern designer's task is to make every unit of design both a component and a system. As a component it will fit into the hierarchy of larger components that are above it; as a system it will specify the hierarchy of smaller components of which it itself is made.
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	acadia23_v3_129
id	acadia23_v3_129
authors	Ayres, Phil
year	2023
title	Sensitive Scaffolds – Cultivating Spatio-temporal Dialogues with Living Complexes
source	ACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene: Scarcity and Abundance in a Post-Material Economy [Volume 3: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference for the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ISBN 979-8-9891764-1-0]. Denver. 26-28 October 2023. edited by A. Crawford, N. Diniz, R. Beckett, J. Vanucchi, M. Swackhamer 24-32.
summary	Thank you to the ACADIA team for extending the invitation to come here. For me, it's a really fantastic moment to reconnect with the ACADIA community. I've been dipping in and out of it since -- I think my first ACADIA was in Savannah, Georgia. Does anyone remember what year that was? 2001? 2002? I've been dipping in and out. And I really see this community as a model. You know, we could talk about the Mississippi and how it meanders, and passages of energy and matter and information begin to change. And the ACADIA community meanders across these different territories, but somehow it maintains its particular identity. And that identity, I think, is shrouded within ideals of sharing -- knowledge sharing -- and within a kind of creative design research, you know, rigor, which I find really fascinating.
series	ACADIA
type	keynote
email
last changed	2024/04/17 13:59

_id	22d6
authors	Ballheim, F. and Leppert, J.
year	1991
title	Architecture with Machines, Principles and Examples of CAAD-Education at the Technische Universität München
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1991.x.h3w
source	Experiences with CAAD in Education and Practice [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Munich (Germany) 17-19 October 1991
summary	"Design tools affect the results of the design process" - this is the starting point of our considerations about the efficient use of CAAD within architecture. To give you a short overview about what we want to say with this thesis lets have a short - an surely incomplete - trip through the fourth dimension back into the early time of civil engineering. As CAD in our faculty is integrated in the "Lehrstuhl für Hochbaustatik und Tragwerksplanung" (if we try to say it in English it would approximately be "institute of structural design"), we chose an example we are very familiar with because of its mathematical background - the cone sections: Circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola. If we start our trip two thousand years ago we only find the circle - or in very few cases the ellipse - in their use for the ground plan of greek or roman theaters - if you think of Greek amphitheaters or the Colosseum in Rome - or for the design of the cross section of a building - for example the Pantheon, roman aqueducts or bridges. With the rediscovery of the perspective during the Renaissance the handling of the ellipse was brought to perfection. May be the most famous example is the Capitol in Rome designed by Michelangelo Buonarotti with its elliptical ground plan that looks like a circle if the visitor comes up the famous stairway. During the following centuries - caused by the further development of the natural sciences and the use of new construction materials, i.e. cast-iron, steel or concrete - new design ideas could be realized. With the growing influence of mathematics on the design of buildings we got the division into two professions: Civil engineering and architecture. To the regret of the architects the most innovative constructions were designed by civil engineers, e.g. the early iron bridges in Britain or the famous bridges of Robert Maillard. Nowadays we are in the situation that we try to reintegrate the divided professions. We will return to that point later discussing possible solutions of this problem. But let us continue our 'historical survey demonstrating the state of the art we have today. As the logical consequence of the parabolic and hyperbolic arcs the hyperbolic parabolic shells were developed using traditional design techniques like models and orthogonal sections. Now we reach the point where the question comes up whether complex structures can be completely described by using traditional methods. A question that can be answered by "no" if we take the final step to the completely irregular geometry of cable- net-constructions or deconstructivistic designs. What we see - and what seems to support our thesis of the connection between design tools and the results of the design process - is, that on the one hand new tools enabled the designer to realize new ideas and on the other hand new ideas affected the development of new tools to realize them.
series	eCAADe
more	http://www.mediatecture.at/ecaade/91/ballheim_leppert.pdf
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	acadia23_v3_157
id	acadia23_v3_157
authors	C Niquille, Simone
year	2023
title	Model Home
source	ACADIA 2023: Habits of the Anthropocene: Scarcity and Abundance in a Post-Material Economy [Volume 3: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference for the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ISBN 979-8-9891764-1-0]. Denver. 26-28 October 2023. edited by A. Crawford, N. Diniz, R. Beckett, J. Vanucchi, M. Swackhamer 24-32.
summary	Well, hello. Thanks for having me. Hopefully, not everyone is too exhausted. But we'll get through it. So, you know, in some ways I feel like a guest, an intruder -- there's different words -- to a conference such as this. I am trained as a graphic designer and a photographer. But somehow, you know, I find myself between disciplines. And one of them is architecture. What we will talk about today is a project that started around 2018 called ""Model Home"", which is sort of the larger chapter. Most of the work I do is either in writing essays, as well as film. There's not enough time to show the film today, but if you are interested, just come and ask me after.
series	ACADIA
type	keynote
email
last changed	2024/04/17 13:59

_id	ec4d
authors	Croser, J.
year	2001
title	GDL Object
source	The Architect’s Journal, 14 June 2001, pp. 49-50
summary	It is all too common for technology companies to seek a new route to solving the same problem but for the most part the solutions address the effect and not the cause. The good old-fashioned pencil is the perfect example where inventors have sought to design-out the effect of the inherent brittleness of lead. Traditionally different methods of sharpening were suggested and more recently the propelling pencil has reigned king, the lead being supported by the dispensing sleeve thus reducing the likelihood of breakage. Developers convinced by the Single Building Model approach to design development have each embarked on a difficult journey to create an easy to use feature packed application. Unfortunately it seems that the two are not mutually compatible if we are to believe what we see emanating from Technology giants Autodesk in the guise of Architectural Desktop 3. The effect of their development is a feature rich environment but the cost and in this case the cause is a tool which is far from easy to use. However, this is only a small part of a much bigger problem, Interoperability. You see when one designer develops a model with one tool the information is typically locked in that environment. Of course the geometry can be distributed and shared amongst the team for use with their tools but the properties, or as often misquoted, the intelligence is lost along the way. The effect is the technological version of rubble; the cause is the low quality of data-translation available to us. Fortunately there is one company, which is making rapid advancements on the whole issue of collaboration, and data sharing. An old timer (Graphisoft - famous for ArchiCAD) has just donned a smart new suit, set up a new company called GDL Technology and stepped into the ring to do battle, with a difference. The difference is that GDL Technology does not rely on conquering the competition, quite the opposite in fact their success relies upon the continued success of all the major CAD platforms including AutoCAD, MicroStation and ArchiCAD (of course). GDL Technology have created a standard data format for manufacturers called GDL Objects. Product manufacturers such as Velux are now able to develop product libraries using GDL Objects, which can then be placed in a CAD model, or drawing using almost any CAD tool. The product libraries can be stored on the web or on CD giving easy download access to any building industry professional. These objects are created using scripts which makes them tiny for downloading from the web. Each object contains 3 important types of information: · Parametric scale dependant 2d plan symbols · Full 3d geometric data · Manufacturers information such as material, colour and price Whilst manufacturers are racing to GDL Technologies door to sign up, developers and clients are quick to see the benefit too. Porsche are using GDL Objects to manage their brand identity as they build over 300 new showrooms worldwide. Having defined the building style and interior Porsche, in conjunction with the product suppliers, have produced a CD-ROM with all of the selected building components such as cladding, doors, furniture, and finishes. Designing and detailing the various schemes will therefore be as straightforward as using Lego. To ease the process of accessing, sizing and placing the product libraries GDL Technology have developed a product called GDL Object Explorer, a free-standing application which can be placed on the CD with the product libraries. Furthermore, whilst the Object Explorer gives access to the GDL Objects it also enables the user to save the object in one of many file formats including DWG, DGN, DXF, 3DS and even the IAI's IFC. However, if you are an AutoCAD user there is another tool, which has been designed especially for you, it is called the Object Adapter and it works inside of AutoCAD 14 and 2000. The Object Adapter will dynamically convert all GDL Objects to AutoCAD Blocks during placement, which means that they can be controlled with standard AutoCAD commands. Furthermore, each object can be linked to an online document from the manufacturer web site, which is ideal for more extensive product information. Other tools, which have been developed to make the most of the objects, are the Web Plug-in and SalesCAD. The Plug-in enables objects to be dynamically modified and displayed on web pages and Sales CAD is an easy to learn and use design tool for sales teams to explore, develop and cost designs on a Notebook PC whilst sitting in the architects office. All sales quotations are directly extracted from the model and presented in HTML format as a mixture of product images, product descriptions and tables identifying quantities and costs. With full lifecycle information stored in each GDL Object it is no surprise that GDL Technology see their objects as the future for building design. Indeed they are not alone, the IAI have already said that they are going to explore the possibility of associating GDL Objects with their own data sharing format the IFC. So down to the dirty stuff, money and how much it costs? Well, at the risk of sounding like a market trader in Petticoat Lane, "To you guv? Nuffin". That's right as a user of this technology it will cost you nothing! Not a penny, it is gratis, free. The product manufacturer pays for the license to host their libraries on the web or on CD and even then their costs are small costing from as little as 50p for each CD filled with objects. GDL Technology has come up trumps with their GDL Objects. They have developed a new way to solve old problems. If CAD were a pencil then GDL Objects would be ballistic lead, which would never break or loose its point. A much better alternative to the strategy used by many of their competitors who seek to avoid breaking the pencil by persuading the artist not to press down so hard. If you are still reading and you have not already dropped the magazine and run off to find out if your favorite product supplier has already signed up then I suggest you check out the following web sites www.gdlcentral.com and www.gdltechnology.com. If you do not see them there, pick up the phone and ask them why.
series	journal paper
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	389b
authors	Do, Ellen Yi-Luen
year	2000
title	Sketch that Scene for Me: Creating Virtual Worlds by Freehand Drawing
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2000.265
source	Promise and Reality: State of the Art versus State of Practice in Computing for the Design and Planning Process [18th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-6-5] Weimar (Germany) 22-24 June 2000, pp. 265-268
summary	With the Web people can now view virtual threedimensional worlds and explore virtual space. Increasingly, novice users are interested in creating 3D Web sites. Virtual Reality Modeling Language gained ISO status in 1997, although it is being supplanted by the compatible Java3D API and alternative 3D Web technologies compete. Viewing VRML scenes is relatively straightforward on most hardware platforms and browsers, but currently there are only two ways to create 3D virtual scenes: One is to code the scene directly using VRML. The other is to use existing CAD and modeling software, and save the world in VRML format or convert to VRML from some other format. Both methods are time consuming, cumbersome, and have steep learning curves. Pen-based user interfaces, on the other hand, are for many an easy and intuitive method for graphics input. Not only are people familiar with the look and feel of paper and pencil, novice users also find it less intimidating to draw what they want, where they want it instead of using a complicated tool palette and pull-down menus. Architects and designers use sketches as a primary tool to generate design ideas and to explore alternatives, and numerous computer-based interfaces have played on the concept of "sketch". However, we restrict the notion of sketch to freehand drawing, which we believe helps people to think, to envision, and to recognize properties of the objects with which they are working. SKETCH employs a pen interface to create three-dimensional models, but it uses a simple language of gestures to control a three-dimensional modeler; it does not attempt to interpret freehand drawings. In contrast, our support of 3D world creation using freehand drawing depend on users’ traditional understanding of a floor plan representation. Igarashi et al. used a pen interface to drive browsing in a 3D world, by projecting the user’s marks on the ground plane in the virtual world. Our Sketch-3D project extends this approach, investigating an interface that allows direct interpretation of the drawing marks (what you draw is what you get) and serves as a rapid prototyping tool for creating 3D virtual scenes.
keywords	Freehand Sketching, Pen-Based User Interface, Interaction, VRML, Navigation
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://www.uni-weimar.de/ecaade/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_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	ecaade2023_000
id	ecaade2023_000
authors	Dokonal, Wolfgang, Hirschberg, Urs and Wurzer, Gabriel
year	2023
title	eCAADe 2023 Digital Design Reconsidered - Volume 1
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2023.1.001
source	Dokonal, W, Hirschberg, U and Wurzer, G (eds.), Digital Design Reconsidered - Proceedings of the 41st Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe 2023) - Volume 1, Graz, 20-22 September 2023, 905 p.
summary	The conference logo is a bird’s eye view of spiral stairs that join and separate – an homage to the famous double spiral staircase in Graz, a tourist attraction of this city and a must-see for any architecturally minded visitor. Carved out of limestone, the medieval construction of the original is a daring feat of masonry as well as a symbolic gesture. The design speaks of separation and reconciliation: The paths of two people that climb the double spiral stairs separate and then meet again at each platform. The relationship between architectural design and the growing digital repertoire of tools and possibilities seems to undergo similar cycles of attraction and rejection: enthusiasm about digital innovations – whether in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Energy Design, Robotic Fabrication, the many Dimensions of BIM or, as right now, in AI and Machine Learning – is typically followed by a certain disillusionment and a realization that the promises were somewhat overblown. But a turn away from these digital innovations can only be temporary. In our call for papers we refer to the first and second ‘digital turns’, a term Mario Carpo coined. Yes, it’s a bit of a pun, but you could indeed see these digital turns in our logo as well. Carpo would probably agree that design and the digital have become inseparably intertwined. While they may be circling in different directions, an innovative rejoinder is always just around the corner. The theme of the conference asked participants to re-consider the relationship between Design and the Digital. The notion of a cycle is already present in the syllable “re”. Indeed, 20 years earlier, in 2003, we held an ECAADE conference in Graz simply under the title “Digital Design” and our re-using – or is it re-cycling? – the theme can be seen as the completion of one of those cycles described above: One level up, we meet again, we’ve come full circle. The question of the relationship between Design and the Digital is still in flux, still worthy of renewed consideration. There is a historical notion implicit in the theme. To reconsider something, one needs to take a step back, to look into the past as well as into the future. Indeed, at this conference we wanted to take a longer view, something not done often enough in the fast-paced world of digital technology. Carefully considering one’s past can be a source of inspiration. In fact, the double spiral stair that inspired our conference logo also inspired many architects through the ages. Konrad Wachsmann, for example, is said to have come up with his famous Grapevine assembly system based on this double spiral stair and its intricate joinery. More recently, Rem Koolhaas deemed the double spiral staircase in Graz important enough to include a detailed model of it in his “elements of architecture” exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2014. Our interpretation of the stair is a typically digital one, you might say. First of all: it’s a rendering of a virtual model; it only exists inside a computer. Secondly, this virtual model isn’t true to the original. Instead, it does what the digital has made so easy to do: it exaggerates. Where the original has just two spiral stairs that separate and join, our model consists of countless stairs that are joined in this way. We see only a part of the model, but the stairs appear to continue in all directions. The implication is of an endless field of spiral stairs. As the 3D model was generated with a parametric script, it would be very easy to change all parameters of it – including the number of stairs that make it up. Everyone at this conference is familiar with the concept of parametric design: it makes generating models of seemingly endless amounts of connected spiral stairs really easy. Although, of course, if we’re too literal about the term ‘endless’, generating our stair model will eventually crash even the most advanced computers. We know that, too. – That's another truth about the Digital: it makes a promise of infinity, which, in the end, it can’t keep. And even if it could: what’s the point of just adding more of the same: more variations, more options, more possible ways to get lost? Doesn’t the original double spiral staircase contain all those derivatives already? Don’t we know that ‘more’ isn’t necessarily better? In the original double spiral stair the happy end is guaranteed: the lovers’ paths meet at the top as well as when they exit the building. Therefore, the stair is also colloquially known as the Busserlstiege (the kissing stair) or the Versöhnungsstiege (reconciliation stair). In our digitally enhanced version, this outcome is no longer clear: we can choose between multiple directions at each level and we risk losing sight of the one we were with. This is also emblematic of our field of research. eCAADe was founded to promote “good practice and sharing information in relation to the use of computers in research and education in architecture and related professions” (see ecaade.org). That may have seemed a straightforward proposition forty years ago, when the association was founded. A look at the breadth and depth of research topics presented and discussed at this conference (and as a consequence in this book, for which you’re reading the editorial) shows how the field has developed over these forty years. There are sessions on Digital Design Education, on Digital Fabrication, on Virtual Reality, on Virtual Heritage, on Generative Design and Machine Learning, on Digital Cities, on Simulation and Digital Twins, on BIM, on Sustainability, on Circular Design, on Design Theory and on Digital Design Experimentations. We hope you will find what you’re looking for in this book and at the conference – and maybe even more than that: surprising turns and happy encounters between Design and the Digital.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2023/12/10 10:49

_id	ecaade2023_001
id	ecaade2023_001
authors	Dokonal, Wolfgang, Hirschberg, Urs and Wurzer, Gabriel
year	2023
title	eCAADe 2023 Digital Design Reconsidered - Volume 2
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2023.2.001
source	Dokonal, W, Hirschberg, U and Wurzer, G (eds.), Digital Design Reconsidered - Proceedings of the 41st Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe 2023) - Volume 2, Graz, 20-22 September 2023, 899 p.
summary	The conference logo is a bird’s eye view of spiral stairs that join and separate – an homage to the famous double spiral staircase in Graz, a tourist attraction of this city and a must-see for any architecturally minded visitor. Carved out of limestone, the medieval construction of the original is a daring feat of masonry as well as a symbolic gesture. The design speaks of separation and reconciliation: The paths of two people that climb the double spiral stairs separate and then meet again at each platform. The relationship between architectural design and the growing digital repertoire of tools and possibilities seems to undergo similar cycles of attraction and rejection: enthusiasm about digital innovations – whether in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Energy Design, Robotic Fabrication, the many Dimensions of BIM or, as right now, in AI and Machine Learning – is typically followed by a certain disillusionment and a realization that the promises were somewhat overblown. But a turn away from these digital innovations can only be temporary. In our call for papers we refer to the first and second ‘digital turns’, a term Mario Carpo coined. Yes, it’s a bit of a pun, but you could indeed see these digital turns in our logo as well. Carpo would probably agree that design and the digital have become inseparably intertwined. While they may be circling in different directions, an innovative rejoinder is always just around the corner. The theme of the conference asked participants to re-consider the relationship between Design and the Digital. The notion of a cycle is already present in the syllable “re”. Indeed, 20 years earlier, in 2003, we held an ECAADE conference in Graz simply under the title “Digital Design” and our re-using – or is it re-cycling? – the theme can be seen as the completion of one of those cycles described above: One level up, we meet again, we’ve come full circle. The question of the relationship between Design and the Digital is still in flux, still worthy of renewed consideration. There is a historical notion implicit in the theme. To reconsider something, one needs to take a step back, to look into the past as well as into the future. Indeed, at this conference we wanted to take a longer view, something not done often enough in the fast-paced world of digital technology. Carefully considering one’s past can be a source of inspiration. In fact, the double spiral stair that inspired our conference logo also inspired many architects through the ages. Konrad Wachsmann, for example, is said to have come up with his famous Grapevine assembly system based on this double spiral stair and its intricate joinery. More recently, Rem Koolhaas deemed the double spiral staircase in Graz important enough to include a detailed model of it in his “elements of architecture” exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2014. Our interpretation of the stair is a typically digital one, you might say. First of all: it’s a rendering of a virtual model; it only exists inside a computer. Secondly, this virtual model isn’t true to the original. Instead, it does what the digital has made so easy to do: it exaggerates. Where the original has just two spiral stairs that separate and join, our model consists of countless stairs that are joined in this way. We see only a part of the model, but the stairs appear to continue in all directions. The implication is of an endless field of spiral stairs. As the 3D model was generated with a parametric script, it would be very easy to change all parameters of it – including the number of stairs that make it up. Everyone at this conference is familiar with the concept of parametric design: it makes generating models of seemingly endless amounts of connected spiral stairs really easy. Although, of course, if we’re too literal about the term ‘endless’, generating our stair model will eventually crash even the most advanced computers. We know that, too. – That's another truth about the Digital: it makes a promise of infinity, which, in the end, it can’t keep. And even if it could: what’s the point of just adding more of the same: more variations, more options, more possible ways to get lost? Doesn’t the original double spiral staircase contain all those derivatives already? Don’t we know that ‘more’ isn’t necessarily better? In the original double spiral stair the happy end is guaranteed: the lovers’ paths meet at the top as well as when they exit the building. Therefore, the stair is also colloquially known as the Busserlstiege (the kissing stair) or the Versöhnungsstiege (reconciliation stair). In our digitally enhanced version, this outcome is no longer clear: we can choose between multiple directions at each level and we risk losing sight of the one we were with. This is also emblematic of our field of research. eCAADe was founded to promote “good practice and sharing information in relation to the use of computers in research and education in architecture and related professions” (see ecaade.org). That may have seemed a straightforward proposition forty years ago, when the association was founded. A look at the breadth and depth of research topics presented and discussed at this conference (and as a consequence in this book, for which you’re reading the editorial) shows how the field has developed over these forty years. There are sessions on Digital Design Education, on Digital Fabrication, on Virtual Reality, on Virtual Heritage, on Generative Design and Machine Learning, on Digital Cities, on Simulation and Digital Twins, on BIM, on Sustainability, on Circular Design, on Design Theory and on Digital Design Experimentations. We hope you will find what you’re looking for in this book and at the conference – and maybe even more than that: surprising turns and happy encounters between Design and the Digital.
series	eCAADe
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2024/08/29 08:36

_id	2edf
authors	Levy, Pierre
year	1998
title	Becoming Virtual, Reality in the Digital Age
source	Plenum Trade, New York
summary	Pierre Levy takes a fresh look at the whole idea of what is virtual. He's responding to the widespread belief, and sometimes even panic, that a digital society with emphasis on virtual interactions is necessarily depersonalizing. He takes particular exception to the notion that "virtual" and "real" are opposites. Instead, Levy argues that virtuality is one of four modes of existence, the rest of which he describes as reality, possibility, and actuality. Each is defined in terms of its relationship with its environment. In following Levy's world view, you may find that he interprets some or all of those terms in ways you're not used to, but the result is an interesting new approach to what it means to be part of an increasingly digital world. He examines the virtualization of several elements our society: the corporal body, text, the economy, language, technology, contracts, intelligence, subjects, and objects. What he finds is not a destruction of the personal so much as a transformation. Virtualization adds to, but does not replace, the real, the possible, and the actual. By understanding what virtualization means and involves, Levy believes that society will gain a greater variety of options for interaction in all areas. Becoming Virtual is a serious philosophical work, dense with ideas.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	cd2e
authors	O’Reilly, T.
year	1999
title	Hardware, Software and Infoware
source	Di Bona, C., Ockman, S. Stone, M.: Open Sources. Voices from the Open Source Revolution, First Edition, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Publishers
summary	I was talking with some friends recently, friends who don't own a computer. They were thinking of getting one so they could use Amazon.com to buy books and CDs. Not to use ``the Internet,'' not to use ``the Web,'' but to use Amazon.com. Now, that's the classic definition of a ``killer application'': one that makes someone go out and buy a computer. What's interesting is that the killer application is no longer a desktop productivity application or even a back-office enterprise software system, but an individual web site. And once you start thinking of web sites as applications, you soon come to realize that they represent an entirely new breed, something you might call an ``information application,'' or perhaps even ``infoware.'' Information applications are used to computerize tasks that just couldn't be handled in the old computing model. A few years ago, if you wanted to search a database of a million books, you talked to a librarian, who knew the arcane search syntax of the available computerized search tools and might be able to find what you wanted. If you wanted to buy a book, you went to a bookstore, and looked through its relatively small selection. Now, tens of thousands of people with no specialized training find and buy books online from that million-record database every day. The secret is that computers have come one step closer to the way that people communicate with each other. Web-based applications use plain English to build their interface -- words and pictures, not specialized little controls that acquire meaning only as you learn the software. Traditional software embeds small amounts of information in a lot of software; infoware embeds small amounts of software in a lot of information. The ``actions'' in an infoware product are generally fairly simple: make a choice, buy or sell, enter a small amount of data, and get back a customized result.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	c7e9
authors	Maver, T.W.
year	2002
title	Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future
source	SIGraDi 2002 - [Proceedings of the 6th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Caracas (Venezuela) 27-29 november 2002, pp. 2-3
summary	Charlas Magistrales 2There never has been such an exciting moment in time in the extraordinary 30 year history of our subject area, as NOW,when the philosophical theoretical and practical issues of virtuality are taking centre stage.The PastThere have, of course, been other defining moments during these exciting 30 years:• the first algorithms for generating building layouts (circa 1965).• the first use of Computer graphics for building appraisal (circa 1966).• the first integrated package for building performance appraisal (circa 1972).• the first computer generated perspective drawings (circa 1973).• the first robust drafting systems (circa 1975).• the first dynamic energy models (circa 1982).• the first photorealistic colour imaging (circa 1986).• the first animations (circa 1988)• the first multimedia systems (circa 1995), and• the first convincing demonstrations of virtual reality (circa 1996).Whereas the CAAD community has been hugely inventive in the development of ICT applications to building design, it hasbeen woefully remiss in its attempts to evaluate the contribution of those developments to the quality of the built environmentor to the efficiency of the design process. In the absence of any real evidence, one can only conjecture regarding the realbenefits which fall, it is suggested, under the following headings:• Verisimilitude: The extraordinary quality of still and animated images of the formal qualities of the interiors and exteriorsof individual buildings and of whole neighborhoods must surely give great comfort to practitioners and their clients thatwhat is intended, formally, is what will be delivered, i.e. WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.• Sustainability: The power of «first-principle» models of the dynamic energetic behaviour of buildings in response tochanging diurnal and seasonal conditions has the potential to save millions of dollars and dramatically to reduce thedamaging environmental pollution created by badly designed and managed buildings.• Productivity: CAD is now a multi-billion dollar business which offers design decision support systems which operate,effectively, across continents, time-zones, professions and companies.• Communication: Multi-media technology - cheap to deliver but high in value - is changing the way in which we canexplain and understand the past and, envisage and anticipate the future; virtual past and virtual future!MacromyopiaThe late John Lansdown offered the view, in his wonderfully prophetic way, that ...”the future will be just like the past, onlymore so...”So what can we expect the extraordinary trajectory of our subject area to be?To have any chance of being accurate we have to have an understanding of the phenomenon of macromyopia: thephenomenon exhibitted by society of greatly exaggerating the immediate short-term impact of new technologies (particularlythe information technologies) but, more importantly, seriously underestimating their sustained long-term impacts - socially,economically and intellectually . Examples of flawed predictions regarding the the future application of information technologiesinclude:• The British Government in 1880 declined to support the idea of a national telephonic system, backed by the argumentthat there were sufficient small boys in the countryside to run with messages.• Alexander Bell was modest enough to say that: «I am not boasting or exaggerating but I believe, one day, there will bea telephone in every American city».• Tom Watson, in 1943 said: «I think there is a world market for about 5 computers».• In 1977, Ken Olssop of Digital said: «There is no reason for any individuals to have a computer in their home».The FutureJust as the ascent of woman/man-kind can be attributed to her/his capacity to discover amplifiers of the modest humancapability, so we shall discover how best to exploit our most important amplifier - that of the intellect. The more we know themore we can figure; the more we can figure the more we understand; the more we understand the more we can appraise;the more we can appraise the more we can decide; the more we can decide the more we can act; the more we can act themore we can shape; and the more we can shape, the better the chance that we can leave for future generations a trulysustainable built environment which is fit-for-purpose, cost-beneficial, environmentally friendly and culturally significactCentral to this aspiration will be our understanding of the relationship between real and virtual worlds and how to moveeffortlessly between them. We need to be able to design, from within the virtual world, environments which may be real ormay remain virtual or, perhaps, be part real and part virtual.What is certain is that the next 30 years will be every bit as exciting and challenging as the first 30 years.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:55

_id	acadia07_164
id	acadia07_164
authors	Diniz, Nancy; Turner, Alasdair
year	2007
title	Towards a Living Architecture
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2007.164
source	Expanding Bodies: Art • Cities• Environment [Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture / ISBN 978-0-9780978-6-8] Halifax (Nova Scotia) 1-7 October 2007, 164-173
summary	Interaction is the latest currency in architecture, as responsive components are now reacting to the inhabitant of the space. These components are designed and installed by the architect with a view to the phenomenology of space, where the experience of the environment is previewed and pre-constructed before it is translated into the conception of the space. However, this traditional approach to new technology leaves no scope for the architecture to be alive in and of itself, and thus the installed piece quickly becomes just that—an installation: isolated and uncontained by its environment. In this paper, we argue that a way to approach a responsive architecture is to design for a piece that is truly living, and in order to propose a living architecture first we need to understand what the architecture of a living system is. This paper suggests a conceptual framework based on the theory of Autopoiesis in order to create a “self-producing” system through an experiment entitled, “The Life of a Wall” (Maturana and Varela 1980). The wall has a responsive membrane controlled by a genetic algorithm that reconfigures its behaviour and learns to adapt itself continually to the evolutionary properties of the environment, thus becoming a situated, living piece.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

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

_id	caadria2007_119
id	caadria2007_119
authors	Mokhtar, Ahmed
year	2007
title	BIM as Learning Media for Building Construction
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.h4d
source	CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
summary	A fundamental module of any recognized architecture curricula is the understanding of buildings construction. A major component of such understanding is learning how to put together a structure system for a building. The difficulty most students find is not in knowing these structure systems in their abstract form, rather in applying this knowledge while making design decisions. Selecting the appropriate system and adapting it to the difficult conditions that accompany a particular design is the more challenging aspect to grasp. Instructors use various techniques to help students overcome this challenge. These techniques range from simply showing photos to requiring students to construct a building. This paper describes a new technique experimented with by the author. It is based on using Building Information Modeling (BIM) software as a learning media to help students face the challenge. The paper discusses the technique and the details of the experiment through a case study. The paper eventually reports on what the experiment reveals regarding the advantages and disadvantages of using BIM as a learning media.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	caadria2005_a_7b_a
id	caadria2005_a_7b_a
authors	Abdullah, A.Q.M. ; Md. Emran Hossain, Md. Shabab Habib Khan
year	2005
title	Digital Perception, Development and Presentation in Architecture: a study of Bangladesh with global context
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2005.255
source	CAADRIA 2005 [Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 89-7141-648-3] New Delhi (India) 28-30 April 2005, vol. 1, pp. 255-267
summary	In the recent past the computer has become an important tool in both the design and presentation media/method in architecture. In this paper digitalization in architectural practice and architectural education in both the global and Bangladesh contexts have been studied. A survey questionnaire was carried out to find how and to what extent available software are being used in Bangladesh for this purpose. Opinion, views, expectations of architects from leading architectural firms of Bangladesh were studied to understand the future prospect of this field in Bangladesh.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	sigradi2004_257
id	sigradi2004_257
authors	Antonio Serrato-Combe
year	2004
title	Something 's gotta give' architectural animations
source	SIGraDi 2004 - [Proceedings of the 8th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Porte Alegre - Brasil 10-12 november 2004
summary	Architectural animations are like Harry Langer, a fifty-something entertainment mogul played by best actor nominee Jack Nicholson in the film Something.s Gotta Give. They.ve been surrounded by plenty of pathetic spiritless gimmicks. And, like Harry in the film, they have suffered a heart attack. Harry did not die. Architectural animations are still around, barely. Something.s wrong with them. When Harry begins to recover, he.s surprised to find himself growing fond of a woman his own age (played by best actress nominee Dianne Keaton). This is precisely what should happen to architectural animations. They need to come to terms with more mature attitudes and approaches. This paper presents a new and different approach to architectural animations. In ninety nine percent of the cases, architectural animations have been produced at the end of the design process, just when architects or architecture students are ready to present their schemes to an audience or client group. All design decisions have been made. All aspects of the architectural solutions have been set. Tectonic qualities, lighting schemes, construction approaches, everything has been cast in stone. The animation is simply shown as a public relations gesture to broadcast to the audience that the design team is digitally savvy and uses the latest technologies. The proposition contained herein is that animations be used throughout the design process, that is, from beginning to end.
series	SIGRADI
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

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