Computer-aided exploration of architectural design spaces: a digital sketchbook

Het ontwerpproces van architecten vormt vaak geen lineair pad van ontwerpopgave tot eindresultaat, maar wordt veeleer gekenmerkt door exploratie of het doorzoeken van meerdere alternatieven in een (conceptuele) ontwerpruimte. Dit proces wordt in de praktijk vaak ondersteund door manueel schetsen, waarbij de ontwerpers schetsboek kan gelezen worden als een reeks exploraties. Dit soort interactie met de ontwerpruimte wordt in veel mindere mate ondersteund door hedendaagse computerondersteunde ontwerpsystemen. De metafoor van een digitaal schetsboek, waarbij menselijke exploratie wordt versterkt door de (reken)kracht van een computer, is het centrale onderzoeksthema van dit proefschrift. Hoewel het opzet van een ontwerpruimte op het eerste gezicht schatplichtig lijkt aan het onderzoeksveld van de artificiële intelligentie (AI), wordt het ontwerpen hier ruimer geïnterpreteerd dan het oplossen van problemen. Als onderzoeksmethodologie worden vormengrammatica’s ingezet, die enerzijds nauw aanleunen bij de AI en een formeel raamwerk bieden voor de exploratie van ontwerpruimtes, maar tegelijkertijd ook weerstand bieden tegen de AI en een vorm van visueel denken en ambiguïteit toelaten. De twee bijhorende onderzoeksvragen zijn hoe deze vormengrammatica’s digitaal kunnen worden gerepresenteerd, en op welke manier de ontwerper-computer interactie kan gebeuren. De resultaten van deze twee onderzoeksvragen vormen de basis van een nieuw hulpmiddel voor architecten: het digitaal schetsboek

SAGA: A project to automate the management of software production systems

The Software Automation, Generation and Administration (SAGA) project is investigating the design and construction of practical software engineering environments for developing and maintaining aerospace systems and applications software. The research includes the practical organization of the software lifecycle, configuration management, software requirements specifications, executable specifications, design methodologies, programming, verification, validation and testing, version control, maintenance, the reuse of software, software libraries, documentation, and automated management

AI EDAM special issue: advances in implemented shape grammars: solutions and applications

This paper introduces the special issue “Advances in Implemented Shape Grammars: Solutions and Applications” and frames the topic of computer implementations of shape grammars, both with a theoretical and an applied focus. This special issue focuses on the current state of the art regarding computer implementations of shape grammars and brings a discussion about how those systems can evolve in the coming years so that they can be used in real life design scenarios. This paper presents a brief state of the art of shape grammars implementation and an overview of the papers included in the current special issue categorized under technical design, interpreters and interface design, and uses cases. The paper ends with a comprehensive outlook into the future of shape grammars implementations.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Graph Rewriting Approach for Transformational Design of Digital Systems

Transformational design integrates design and verification. It combines “correctness by construction” and design creativity by the use of pre-proven behaviour preserving transformations as design steps. The formal aspects of this methodology are hidden in the transformations. A constraint is the availability of a design representation with a compositional formal semantics. Graph representations are useful design representations because of their visualisation of design information. In this paper graph rewriting theory, as developed in the last twenty years in mathematics, is shown to be a useful basis for a formal framework for transformational design. The semantic aspects of graphs which are no part of graph rewriting theory are included by the use of attributed graphs. The used attribute algebra, table algebra, is a relation algebra derived from database theory. The combination of graph rewriting, table algebra and transformational design is new

Determining the Limits of Automated Program Recognition

This working paper was submitted as a Ph.D. thesis proposal.Program recognition is a program understanding technique in which stereotypic computational structures are identified in a program. From this identification and the known relationships between the structures, a hierarchical description of the program's design is recovered. The feasibility of this technique for small programs has been shown by several researchers. However, it seems unlikely that the existing program recognition systems will scale up to realistic, full-sized programs without some guidance (e.g., from a person using the recognition system as an assistant). One reason is that there are limits to what can be recovered by a purely code-driven approach. Some of the information about the program that is useful to know for common software engineering tasks, particularly maintenance, is missing from the code. Another reason guidance must be provided is to reduce the cost of recognition. To determine what guidance is appropriate, therefore, we must know what information is recoverable from the code and where the complexity of program recognition lies. I propose to study the limits of program recognition, both empirically and analytically. First, I will build an experimental system that performs recognition on realistic programs on the order of thousands of lines. This will allow me to characterize the information that can be recovered by this code-driven technique. Second, I will formally analyze the complexity of the recognition process. This will help determine how guidance can be applied most profitably to improve the efficiency of program recognition.MIT Artificial Intelligence Laborator

CItyMaker:

Due to its complexity, the evolution of cities is something that is difficult to predict and planning new developments for cities is therefore a difficult task. This complexity can be identified on two levels: on a micro level, it emerges from the multiple relations between the many components and actors in cities, whereas on a macro level it stems from the geographical, social and economic relations between cities. However, many of these relations can be measured. The design of plans for cities can only be improved if designers are able to address measurements of some of the relationships between the components of cities during the design process. These measurements are called urban indicators. By calculating such measurements, designers can grasp the meaning of the changes being proposed, not just as simple alternative layouts, but also in terms of the changes in indicators adding a qualitative perception. This thesis presents a method and a set of tools to generate alternative solutions for an urban context. The method proposes the use of a combined set of design patterns encoding typical design moves used by urban designers. The combination of patterns generates different layouts which can be adjusted by manipulating several parameters in relation to updated urban indicators. The patterns were developed from observation of typical urban design procedures, first encoded as discursive grammars and later translated into parametric design patterns. The CItyMaker method and tools allows the designer to compose a design solution from a set of programmatic premises and fine-tune it by pulling parameters whilst checking the changes in urban indicators. These tools improve the designer’s awareness of the consequences of their design moves

CItyMaker

Due to its complexity, the evolution of cities is something that is difficult to predict and planning new developments for cities is therefore a difficult task. This complexity can be identified on two levels: on a micro level, it emerges from the multiple relations between the many components and actors in cities, whereas on a macro level it stems from the geographical, social and economic relations between cities. However, many of these relations can be measured. The design of plans for cities can only be improved if designers are able to address measurements of some of the relationships between the components of cities during the design process. These measurements are called urban indicators. By calculating such measurements, designers can grasp the meaning of the changes being proposed, not just as simple alternative layouts, but also in terms of the changes in indicators adding a qualitative perception. This thesis presents a method and a set of tools to generate alternative solutions for an urban context. The method proposes the use of a combined set of design patterns encoding typical design moves used by urban designers. The combination of patterns generates different layouts which can be adjusted by manipulating several parameters in relation to updated urban indicators. The patterns were developed from observation of typical urban design procedures, first encoded as discursive grammars and later translated into parametric design patterns. The CItyMaker method and tools allows the designer to compose a design solution from a set of programmatic premises and fine-tune it by pulling parameters whilst checking the changes in urban indicators. These tools improve the designer’s awareness of the consequences of their design moves

IM-sgi an interface model for shape grammar implementations

This research arises from the interest in computing as offering new paradigms in the design practice. Information technologies are the driving force for progress in the processes of design, enabling new forms of creativity. The increasing sophistication of computer applications, their easier access, and lower cost have had a significant impact on design practices and can be regarded as a paradigm shift. The invention and creativity are thus seen as knowledge processing activities and can, at least partially, be carried out with the support of computer applications. In this context Shape Grammars (SG) as production systems of designs through rules have the potential to create designs with variable user input and the ability to evaluate a large number of alternatives that may lead to innovative designs. Most architects and designers use computers on their daily practice as a representation tool for their projects, but not as a facilitator or increaser of the creative process. SG computational implementations have the potential to enhance creativity with the test of a wide range of design options, helping the appearance of new solutions, either through the emergence of new shapes or by stimulating the designer’s creativity with the possibilities presented. As Architects and Designers haven't adopted existing SG computational implementations, that take advantage of computation to facilitate and enhance their work, could the problem be on the communication between the applications and the user? If the interface of the SG implementation does not allow the user to understand how to use it or how to control and make use of its results, it can’t be successfully used. With interest in SG implementations as creative partners in the creative process, our research starts with the analysis of existing SG implementations, trying to understand if they had the potential to be adopted by architects and designers in their practice and, if not, what could be done to lead to that objective. User Interface Inspection Methods were used to perform this analysis and allowed us to understand that there are interactions and communication issues that need to be addressed for SG implementations to be adopted by designers. Taking this direction, we understood that models of interaction between the user and SG implementations have already been developed. The present research proposal started from the analysis of the interaction model of Scott Chase, where he defines the different levels of interaction between the user and SG implementation, with more or less input from the user, establishing different ways to combine synergies to obtain new creative solutions. Taking this interaction model as a starting point, next, we must assure the correct communication between user and implementation occurs. The means of communication between these two agents is the computational interface. Understanding the importance of the interface to allow the user to know how to use the computational implementation and be able to produce results, our research presents the development of an interface model for SG implementations to help to take a step towards the adoption of SG for creative projects. For this, we used methods from Human-Computer Interaction discipline, and we also took Bastien & Scapin's "List of Ergonomic Criteria Guidelines" as guiding lines to define the Criteria of our interface model, called IM-sgi, Interface Model for Shape Grammar Implementations. Thus, IM-sgi, an interface model for SG Implementations, has the purpose of helping SG implementations developers to address the interface on the right path to a correct communication with the particular type of user that architects and designers are. Interface prototypes following IM-sgi criteria are finally developed and presented to test the suitability of the IM-sgi Model to SG implementations and validate the objectives we propose.A presente pesquisa surge do interesse na computação por oferecer novos paradigmas na prática do design. As tecnologias da informação são a força motriz para o progresso nos processos de design, permitindo novas formas de criatividade. A crescente sofisticação das aplicações computacionais, o acesso mais fácil às mesmas e menor custo associado tiveram um grande impacto nas práticas de projeto e podemos considerar estar perante uma mudança de paradigma. A invenção e a criatividade são, portanto, vistas como atividades de processamento de conhecimento e podem, pelo menos parcialmente, ser realizadas com o suporte do computador. Nesse contexto, As Gramáticas de Forma, como sistemas de produção de designs através de regras, têm o potencial de criar projetos com entradas com níveis variáveis de intervenção do utilizador e apresentam a capacidade de avaliar um grande número de alternativas que podem levar a designs inovadores. A maioria dos arquitetos e designers usa o computador na sua prática diária como uma ferramenta de representação para seus projetos, mas não como um facilitador ou potenciador do processo criativo. As implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma têm o potencial de aumentar a criatividade com o teste de uma ampla gama de opções de design, ajudando no surgimento de novas soluções, seja pela emergência de novas formas ou estimulando a criatividade do designer com as opções desenvolvidas. Uma vez que as implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma existentes não foram adotadas por Arquitetos e Designers, que claramente tiram proveito de aplicações computacionais para facilitar e aperfeiçoar o seu trabalho, poderá o problema estar na comunicação entre as implementações e o utilizador? Se a interface da implementação não permitir que o utilizador entenda como usá-la ou como controlar e utilizar os seus resultados, ela não poderá ser utilizada com sucesso. Com interesse nas implementações de Gramáticas de Forma como parceiros criativos no processo criativo, a nossa investigação começa com a análise das implementações de Gramáticas de Forma existentes, tentando entender se estas têm potencial para ser adotadas pelos criativos na sua prática e, se não, o que poderia ser feito para chegar a este objetivo. Foram usados métodos de inspeção para realizar esta análise para nos permitir compreender que há interações e problemas de comunicação que precisam de ser resolvidos para que as implementações de Gramáticas de Forma sejam adotadas pelos projetistas. Seguindo essa direção de investigação, percebemos que foram já desenvolvidos modelos de interação entre o utilizador e as implementações de Gramáticas de Forma. A presente proposta de pesquisa surgiu a partir da análise do modelo de interação de Scott Chase, onde este define os diferentes níveis de interação entre utilizador e implementação de Gramáticas de Forma, com maior ou menor input do utilizador, estabelecendo diferentes formas de combinar sinergias para obter novas soluções criativas. Tomando esse modelo de interação como ponto de partida, devemos assegurar que a comunicação correta entre o utilizador e a implementação ocorra. O meio de comunicação desses dois agentes é o interface computacional. Entendendo a importância do interface para permitir que o utilizador entenda como usar a implementação computacional e seja capaz de produzir resultados, a nossa pesquisa apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo de interface para implementações de Gramáticas de Forma para ajudar a dar um passo na direção da adoção das Gramáticas de Forma para projetos criativos. Deste modo, aplicámos métodos da disciplina de HCI e também adotámos a Lista de Diretrizes e Critérios Ergonómicos de Bastien & Scapin como linhas de orientação para definir os Critérios do nosso modelo de interface, denominado IM-sgi. O IM-sgi, um modelo de interface para Implementações de Gramática de Forma, tem a finalidade de ajudar programadores de implementações de Gramáticas de Forma a endereçar a interface no sentido de atingir uma comunicação correta com o tipo particular de utilizador que são os arquitetos e designers. Protótipos de interface seguindo os critérios IM-sgi são finalmente desenvolvidos e apresentados para testar a adequação do modelo IM-sgi e validar os objetivos que propomos