TEACHING CAD PROGRAMMING TO ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS

[Ensino da Programação CAD para Estudantes de Arquitetura] O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a relevância da inclusão de uma disciplina de programação de computadores no currículo de Graduação em Arquitetura e urbanismo. Ele começa explicando como a programação tem sido aplicada em outros contextos educacionais com grande sucesso pedagógico, e descrevendo os princípios de Papert. Em seguida, é apresentado um resumo da evolução do CAD e três exemplos históricos de aplicações da programação no ensino de arquitetura são apresentados, seguidos por um exemplo contemporâneo de grande relevância. Finalmente, é proposta uma metodologia para o ensino de programação para arquitetos, com o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade dos projetos, tornando os conceitos arquitetônicos mais explícitos. Essa metodologia é baseada na experiência da autora de ensino de programação para alunos do curso de graduação em arquitetura na Universidade Estadual de Campinas. O trabalho termina com uma discussão sobre o papel da programação nos dias de hoje, quando a maioria dos programas de CAD são amigáveis. Como conclusão, sugere-se que a introdução da programação no currículo de CAD, dentro de um arcabouço teórico apropriado, pode vir a transformar o conceito de ensino da arquitetura. Palavras-chave: Computer programming; computer-aided design; architectural education. ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to discuss the relevance of including the discipline of computer programming in the architectural curriculum. To do so I start by explaining how computer programming has been applied in other educational contexts with pedagogical success, describing Seymour Papert's principles. After that, I summarize the historical development of CAD and provide three historical examples of educational applications of computer programming in architecture, followed by a contemporary case that I find of particular relevance. Next, I propose a methodology for teaching programming for architects that aims at improving the quality of designs by making their concepts more explicit. This methodology is based on my own experience teaching computer programming for architecture students at undergraduate and graduate levels at the State University of Campinas, Brazil. The paper ends with a discussion about the role of programming nowadays, when most CAD software are user-friendly and do not require any knowledge of programming for improving performance. I conclude that the introduction of programming in the CAD curriculum within a proper conceptual framework may transform the concept of architectural education. Key-words: Computer programming; computer-aided design; architectural education.The objective of this paper is to discuss the relevance of including the discipline of computer programming in the architectural curriculum. To do so I start by explaining how computer programming has been applied in other educational contexts with pedagogical success, describing Seymour Papert's principles. After that, I summarize the historical development of CAD and provide three historical examples of educational applications of computer programming in architecture, followed by a contemporary case that I find of particular relevance. Next, I propose a methodology for teaching programming for architects that aims at improving the quality of designs by making their concepts more explicit. This methodology is based on my own experience teaching computer programming for architecture students at undergraduate and graduate levels at the State University of Campinas, Brazil. The paper ends with a discussion about the role of programming nowadays, when most CAD software are user-friendly and do not require any knowledge of programming for improving performance. I conclude that the introduction of programming in the CAD curriculum within a proper conceptual framework may transform the concept of architectural education. Key-words: Computer programming; computer-aided design; architectural education

Volumetric Procedural Models for Shape Representation

This article describes a volumetric approach for procedural shape modeling and a new Procedural Shape Modeling Language (PSML) that facilitates the specification of these models. PSML provides programmers the ability to describe shapes in terms of their 3D elements where each element may be a semantic group of 3D objects, e.g., a brick wall, or an indivisible object, e.g., an individual brick. Modeling shapes in this manner facilitates the creation of models that more closely approximate the organization and structure of their real-world counterparts. As such, users may query these models for volumetric information such as the number, position, orientation and volume of 3D elements which cannot be provided using surface based model-building techniques. PSML also provides a number of new language-specific capabilities that allow for a rich variety of context-sensitive behaviors and post-processing functions. These capabilities include an object-oriented approach for model design, methods for querying the model for component-based information and the ability to access model elements and components to perform Boolean operations on the model parts. PSML is open-source and includes freely available tutorial videos, demonstration code and an integrated development environment to support writing PSML programs

Digitally interpreting traditional folk crafts

The cultural heritage preservation requires that objects persist throughout time to continue to communicate an intended meaning. The necessity of computer-based preservation and interpretation of traditional folk crafts is validated by the decreasing number of masters, fading technologies, and crafts losing economic ground. We present a long-term applied research project on the development of a mathematical basis, software tools, and technology for application of desktop or personal fabrication using compact, cheap, and environmentally friendly fabrication devices, including '3D printers', in traditional crafts. We illustrate the properties of this new modeling and fabrication system using several case studies involving the digital capture of traditional objects and craft patterns, which we also reuse in modern designs. The test application areas for the development are traditional crafts from different cultural backgrounds, namely Japanese lacquer ware and Norwegian carvings. Our project includes modeling existing artifacts, Web presentations of the models, automation of the models fabrication, and the experimental manufacturing of new designs and forms

Generative Mesh Modeling

Generative Modeling is an alternative approach for the description of three-dimensional shape. The basic idea is to represent a model not as usual by an agglomeration of geometric primitives (triangles, point clouds, NURBS patches), but by functions. The paradigm change from objects to operations allows for a procedural representation of procedural shapes, such as most man-made objects. Instead of storing only the result of a 3D construction, the construction process itself is stored in a model file. The generative approach opens truly new perspectives in many ways, among others also for 3D knowledge management. It permits for instance to resort to a repository of already solved modeling problems, in order to re-use this knowledge also in different, slightly varied situations. The construction knowledge can be collected in digital libraries containing domain-specific parametric modeling tools. A concrete realization of this approach is a new general description language for 3D models, the "Generative Modeling Language" GML. As a Turing-complete "shape programming language" it is a basis of existing, primitv based 3D model formats. Together with its Runtime engine the GML permits - to store highly complex 3D models in a compact form, - to evaluate the description within fractions of a second, - to adaptively tesselate and to interactively display the model, - and even to change the models high-level parameters at runtime.Die generative Modellierung ist ein alternativer Ansatz zur Beschreibung von dreidimensionaler Form. Zugrunde liegt die Idee, ein Modell nicht wie üblich durch eine Ansammlung geometrischer Primitive (Dreiecke, Punkte, NURBS-Patches) zu beschreiben, sondern durch Funktionen. Der Paradigmenwechsel von Objekten zu Geometrie-erzeugenden Operationen ermöglicht es, prozedurale Modelle auch prozedural zu repräsentieren. Statt das Resultat eines 3D-Konstruktionsprozesses zu speichern, kann so der Konstruktionsprozess selber repräsentiert werden. Der generative Ansatz eröffnet unter anderem gänzlich neue Perspektiven für das Wissensmanagement im 3D-Bereich. Er ermöglicht etwa, auf einen Fundus bereits gelöster Konstruktions-Aufgaben zurückzugreifen, um sie in ähnlichen, aber leicht variierten Situationen wiederverwenden zu können. Das Konstruktions-Wissen kann dazu in Form von Bibliotheken parametrisierter, Domänen-spezifischer Modellier-Werkzeuge gesammelt werden. Konkret wird dazu eine neue allgemeine Modell-Beschreibungs-Sprache vorgeschlagen, die "Generative Modeling Language" GML. Als Turing-mächtige "Programmiersprache für Form" stellt sie eine echte Verallgemeinerung existierender Primitiv-basierter 3D-Modellformate dar. Zusammen mit ihrer Runtime-Engine erlaubt die GML, - hochkomplexe 3D-Objekte extrem kompakt zu beschreiben, - die Beschreibung innerhalb von Sekundenbruchteilen auszuwerten, - das Modell adaptiv darzustellen und interaktiv zu betrachten, - und die Modell-Parameter interaktiv zu verändern

Two- and three-dimensional geometry in tierceron vaults: A case study of the cloister at Norwich Cathedral

Located at the heart of Norfolk in East Anglia, the cloister at Norwich Cathedral has one of the most con-tested construction histories in English medieval architecture. Built 1297-1430 under a succession of patrons and master masons, the cloister’s complex building sequence has invited a wide range of interpretations by architectural historians, including various theories regarding its design and construction process. However, these discussions have rarely taken account of the two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry of the tierceron vaults above. A key exception to this is the work of Robert Willis (1800-75), who used what he termed the ‘middle plan’ to identify changes in the vault’s three-dimensional form, identifying four designs in the east, south, west and north walks of the cloister. This paper uses a variety of digital surveying and analytical methods to re-examine the concept of the middle plan and its potential as a tool for comparing forms and geometries in medieval vaulting. Focusing on the east walk, it investigates the relationship between this comparative tool and the two- and three-dimensional geometries which it purportedly represents, outlining a series of design and constructional differences between the individual bays of the vault. By considering the potential implications of these observations for the building’s construction sequence, the paper represents a comprehensive re-evaluation of the middle plan as a method for architectural study, suggesting new directions for research both for the cloister and construction history more generally

Revolutions in Parallel: The Rise and Fall of Drawing in Architectural Design.

This dissertation examines how the foundational principles of architectural design are influenced and reflected the discipline’s conceptual media. The first section explores the transition to drawing as architecture’s conceptual medium. Arguing that the use of drawing within masonic traditions of the Gothic period was not the same as its use during the early Renaissance, this work maintains that the simultaneous employment of plan, section and elevation (i.e. triadic form) was key to changing how drawing was understood and utilized in design. Examinations of Strasbourg Plan A (c. 1260) and the Milan Cathedral Plan and Section (c. 1390) demonstrate how drawings that appear orthographic may not indicate the use of orthography to prefigure forms in space. The examination of Raphael’s interior drawing of the Pantheon (c. 1509) further demonstrates that more than just a technical hurdle, the use of triadic form indicates epistemic shifts in both the understanding of design as a human rather than exclusively divine activity, and in the elevation of form as the primary quality of architectural contemplation. The second section of this dissertation examines the transition to computation as the medium of design. Through an exploration of Peter Eisenman’s House VI (c. 1975), this section demonstrates that the shift towards process-based (as opposed to form-based) thinking isn’t dependant on computation as a medium, and yet the medium of drawing constrains the ways in which process can contemplated. Further, this section suggests that rather than being a twentieth-century development, a turn to process is evidenced during the nineteenth-century by emerging fields like morphology, biology and genetics. Gehry Technologies’ project for the Yas Island Formula-One Hotel and Evan Douglis’ project for Choice Restaurant (both 2009) demonstrate how the focus on process and the use of computation as a medium impact both the practice and aesthetics of architecture. Tying these sections together, the over-arching argument of this work is that these two shifts in medium are similar in scope and impact for the architectural discipline. Like the transition to drawing centuries before, today’s shift to computation imbricates both technical and epistemological developments for the representation, design and practice of architecture.Ph.D.ArchitectureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64659/1/kluce_1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64659/2/kluce_2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64659/3/kluce_3.pd

Medallion: 3D-printed Wall Plaques based on Procedural Modeling

“Medallion” is a series of 3D-printed wall plaques featuring ornate shapes generated procedurally. The main purpose of this project is to sublimate a traditional beauty found in decorative ornaments into a modern algorithmic art by using a combination of procedural approach in Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and 3D-printing technology which has been growing rapidly. Each medallion was generated by using metaballs which are a kind of modeling method in CGI. A drawing algorithm for metaballs was modified and optimized for generating ornate relief-like objects in this project. Also, regular-polygonal shapes were used for the process of density calculation in drawing metaballs. Generated patterns were converted into 3D models, and the models were 3D-printed finally. The resultant artworks have been displayed at several art exhibitions; some of them was intended to display traditional art forms such as paintings and sculptures

Making music out of architecture and from-architecture-music-an oddyssey

These are the documents submitted for the First Review as work-in-progress, the first (longer) and the second (shorter) versions of the PhD research project to date, together with a summary titled The Final Proposal for PhD for First Review September 2019. Please note that the first version is unfinished and needs approximately another 30,000 words, questions answered, some further exploration of points raised in discussion and other relevant points, revision and editing. The second version is on-going. Please Note: The file titled Latest save of Making music out of architecture seems unable to be viewed in Preview perhaps due to its size. It can however be viewed from Download in which case please allow some time for this to occur. The other two documents can be viewed in Previe

Shape grammar based adaptive building envelopes: Towards a novel climate responsive facade systems for sustainable architectural design in Vietnam.

The concept of a dynamic building enclosure is a relatively novel and unexplored area in sustainable architectural design and engineering and as such, could be considered a new paradigm. These façade systems, kinetic and adaptive in their nature, can provide opportunities for significant reductions in building energy use and CO2 emissions, whilst at the same time having a positive impact on the quality of the indoor environment. Current research in this area reports on a growing increase in the application of new generative design approaches and computational techniques to assist the design of adaptable kinetic systems and to help quantify their relationships between the building envelope and the environment. In this research, a novel application of shape grammar for the design of kinetic façade shading systems has been developed, based upon a generative design approach that controls the creation of complex shape composites, starting from a set of initial shapes and pre-defined rules of their composition. Shape grammars provide an interesting generative design archetype in which a set of shape rules can be recursively applied to create a language of designs, with the rules themselves becoming descriptors of such generated designs. The research is inspired by traditional patterns and ornaments in Vietnam, seen as an important symbol of its cultural heritage, especially in the era of globalisation where many developing countries, including Vietnam, are experiencing substantial modernist transformations in their cities. Those are often perceived as a cause of the loss of both visual and historical connections with indigenous architectural origins and traditions. This research hence investigates how these aspects of spatial culture could be interpreted and used in designing of novel façade shading systems that draw their inspiration from Vietnamese vernacular styles and cultural identity. At the same time, they also have to satisfy modern building performance demands, such as a reduction in energy consumption and enhanced indoor comfort. This led to the exploration of a creative form-finding for different building façade shading configurations, the performance of which was tested via simulation and evaluation of indoor daylight levels and corresponding heating and cooling loads. The developed façade structures are intended to adapt real-time, via responding to both results of an undertaken simulation and data-regulation protocols responsible for sensing and processing building performance data. To this extent, a strategy for BIM integrated sustainable design analysis (SDA) has also been deliberated, as a framework for exploring the integration of building management systems (BMS) into smart building environments (SBEs). Finally, the research reports on the findings of a prototype system development and its testing, allowing continuous evaluation of multiple solutions and presenting an opportunity for further improvement via multi-objective optimisation, which would be very difficult to do, if not impossible, with conventional design methods.N/

A Lexical Description of English for Architecture: A Corpus-based Approach

Every knowledge community has a distinct type of discourse and a linguistic identity which brings together the ideas of that discipline. These are expressed through characteristic linguistic realizations which are of considerable interest in the study of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) from many different perspectives. Despite the fact that ESP is a recent area of linguistic research, there is already a varied literature on academic and professional languages: English for law, business, computer and technology, advertising, marketing and engineering, just to mention a few. According to Dudley-Evans (1998:19), the development of ESP arose as a result of general improvements in the world economy in the 1960’s, along with the expansion of science and technology. Other relevant factors were the growing use of English as the international language of science, technology and business, and the increasing flow of exchange students to and from the UK, US and Australia