A study of digital presentation techniques in architecture

Since the successful application of computer animation in the film and video-game industries, we have seen a rise in the general education of people in the areas of graphics and audio-visual media. In contrast, the average level of understanding of architectural representation is still much lower than it is with regard to other visual media. Architectural presentations are of great importance in revealing how the built environment is conceptualised, constructed and perceived. As media types may vary, their contribution to the creation of the built environment differs too. Writings allow readers to envisage images in their minds, while perspectives and computer graphics provide more realistic and objective images, although still restricted to flat surfaces. Contemporary technology permits architects and clients to virtually visit 'the buildable'. The core problem of these presentations, however, is how to interpret them, as they represent different motivations, attitudes and values. There has been no clear conception or definition of the nature and consistency of architectural space. The need for its representation and mass diffusion perhaps has consequently not been exploited as much as it should have been. This paper investigates the nature and characteristics of architectural presentation in the context of contemporary computer graphics technology

Contextual Hypermedia in the Design Studio

The focus of this paper is on the development and use of hypermedia applications for the presentation of design studio projects, based upon the author's own recent experience of teaching CAD at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The contention of this paper is that this activity cannot be reduced to routine Hypercard stack development. Instead, the development of applications in this area need to give support to the expression of the design-theoretical issues that are central to the presentation of any design studio project, by exploiting the many issues of concern that are emerging from the field of human- computer interaction (HCI) The hypermedia application i.e. in this case design-theoretical views of a design project, will inevitably influence the specification of a user-interface, and hence the presentation and appearance of the design project. This paper will investigate the extent to which the interface can be separated out from the application and the converse issue namely, whether non-contextual hypermedia environments restrict design applications

Contemporary architecture and the digital design process

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Architecture in Landscape: Integrated CAD Environments for Contextually Situated Design

This paper explores the future role of a more holistic and integrated approach to the design of architecture in landscape. Many of the design exploration and presentation techniques presently used by particular design professions do not lend themselves to an inherently collaborative design strategy.  Within contemporary digital environments, there are increasing opportunities to explore and evaluate design proposals which integrate both architectural and landscape aspects. The production of integrated design solutions exploring buildings and their surrounding context is now possible through the design development of shared 3-D and 4-D virtual environments, in which buildings no longer float in space.  The scope of landscape design has expanded through the application of techniques such as GIS allowing interpretations that include social, economic and environmental dimensions. In architecture, for example, object-oriented CAD environments now make it feasible to integrate conventional modelling techniques with analytical evaluations such as energy calculations and lighting simulations. These were all ambitions of architects and landscape designers in the 70s when computer power restricted the successful implementation of these ideas. Instead, the commercial trend at that time moved towards isolated specialist design tools in particular areas. Prior to recent innovations in computing, the closely related disciplines of architecture and landscape have been separated through the unnecessary development, in our view, of their own symbolic representations, and the subsequent computer applications. This has led to an unnatural separation between what were once closely related disciplines.  Significant increases in the performance of computers are now making it possible to move on from symbolic representations towards more contextual and meaningful representations. For example, the application of realistic materials textures to CAD-generated building models can then be linked to energy calculations using the chosen materials. It is now possible for a tree to look like a tree, to have leaves and even to be botanicaly identifiable. The building and landscape can be rendered from a common database of digital samples taken from the real world. The complete model may be viewed in a more meaningful way either through stills or animation, or better still, through a total simulation of the lifecycle of the design proposal. The model may also be used to explore environmental/energy considerations and changes in the balance between the building and its context most immediately through the growth simulation of vegetation but also as part of a larger planning model. The Internet has a key role to play in facilitating this emerging collaborative design process. Design professionals are now able via the net to work on a shared model and to explore and test designs through the development of VRML, JAVA, whiteboarding and video conferencing. The end product may potentially be something that can be more easily viewed by the client/user. The ideas presented in this paper form the basis for the development of a dual course in landscape and architecture. This will create new teaching opportunities for exploring the design of buildings and sites through the shared development of a common computer model

Teaching Design by Analysis of Precedents

Designers, using their intuitive understanding of the decomposition of particular design objects, whether in terms of structural, functional, or some other analytical framework, should be able to interact with computational environments such that the understanding they achieve in turn invokes changes or transformations to the spatial properties of design proposals. Decompositions and transformations of design precedents can be a very useful method of enabling design students to develop analytical strategies. The benefit of an analytical approach is that it can lead to a structured understanding of design precedents. This in turn allows students to develop their own insights and ideas which are central to the activity of designing. The creation of a 3-D library of user-defined models of precedents in a computational environment permits an under-exploited method of undertaking analysis, since by modelling design precedents through the construction of 3-D Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) models, and then analytically decomposing them in terms of relevant features, significant insights into the nature of designs can be achieved. Using CAAD systems in this way, therefore, runs counter to the more common approach of detailed modelling, rendering and animation, which produces realistic pictures that do not reflect the design thinking that went into their production. The significance of the analytical approach to design teaching is that it encourages students to represent design ideas, but not necessarily the final form of design objects. The analytical approach therefore, allows students to depict features and execute tasks that are meaningful with respect to design students'own knowledge of particular domains. Such computational interaction can also be useful in helping students explore the consequences of proposed actions in actual design contexts

Computer Architectural Representation - Applying the VOIDs Framework to a Bridge Design Scheme

A virtual environment presents sensory information and visual feedback to the user in order to give convincing illusion of an artificial world. In the architectural profession, the spatio-temporal metaphor in itself constitutes significant information retrieval, because we understand architecture by seeing it. This paper attempts to understand, and then to analyse the characteristics of representation of architectural models in virtual environments. We will examine the use and creativity of current computer generated architectural presentation in virtual environments. Our observations will be applied to the modelling of a bridge in Castlefield, Manchester, and evaluated by a group of students within the School of Architecture at Sheffield University. The conclusion of this paper will be the presentation of a conceptual structure for representing architectural models in virtual environments. This paper also explores the tension between the correspondence and constructivist views of representation. The correspondence view of representation relies on the idea that a representation corresponds to what is out there in the world. The constructivist view of representation advocates that any actual interpretation would depend on the context of their social and cultural backgrounds. However, the authors believe there should be a combination of these two views for architectural representation in virtual environments, and a framework developed by the authors - VOIDs will be presented

Putting Cad in Perspective

New developments in CAD software technology should allow users more freedom in the kinds of visual metaphors they choose to work with. CAD systems currently exploit only a small subset of both 2-D and 3-D graphical options. The options that are used are predominantly targeted at supporting the general trend towards a very narrow understanding of realism. Perceptual and artistic evidence points to a much wider range of possible images than that currently represented within CAD software. This extended range of graphical knowledge includes both perceptually “real” images, as well as constructed, “artificial” images. It is our contention that in order for CAD software to support analysis of design proposals, a much wider range of both 2-D and 3-D transformations should be supported, such as explosion, distortion, post-hoc decomposition, superimposition, etc. The consequences of such transformations frequently result in the formation of co-existing, multiple images, each of which may then be manipulated further in distinct ways. Support for user-interaction with such graphic objects, therefore, requires computational representations of multiple conceptual objects. Issues related to multiple representations and multiple viewpoints, therefore, are of paramount importance. Typically, designers use many representations and move rapidly between them. They tend to tolerate and even exploit inconsist-ency between different representations as they develop a design. Consistency is only relevant at certain stages and cannot therefore be enforced as a matter of course. The paper describes in detail each type of transformation that we consider to be of benefit for use in design analysis, together with a description of how each transformation can be integrated into a multiple viewpoint knowledge-based framework

Techniques of Superimposition

This paper addresses the issues of 2-D and 3-D image manipulation in the context of a Computational Design Formulation System. The central feature of such a system is the ability to bring together two or more design objects in the same reference space for the purpose of analysis. Studies of traditional design methods has revealed the effectiveness of this technique of superimposition. This paper describes ways in which superimposition can be achieved, and, in particular, focuses on a range of domain-independent knowledge-based graphical operators that enable the decomposition of complex design forms into simpler aspects (secondary models) that can then be superimposed and/or analysed from a design-theoretic point of view. Examples of domain-independent knowledge-base graphical operators include object selection, planar bisection, 2-D closure (the grouping of lines into regions), aggregation (the decomposition of 2-D regions into aggregations of lines), spatial bisection, 3-D closure (the grouping of 2-D regions into volumes), 3-D aggregation (the decomposition of volumes into aggregations of 2-D regions). The representation of these operators is dependent upon the notion of a parameterisable volume, thus avoiding the need for translations between multiple representations of graphical objects by providing a common representation form for all objects. Secondary models can therefore subsequently be manipulated either through subtractive procedures (e.g. carving voids from solids), or by additive ones (e.g. assembling given design elements), or by other means such as transformation or distortion. The same techniques of superimposition can also be used to support the visualisation of design forms in two ways: by the juxtaposition of plans and sections with the 3-D form, by the multiple superimposition of alternative design representations e.g. structural schematic, parti schematic, volumetric schematic and architectural model