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

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

The development of an integrated environmental building design tool

Environmental design implementations are generally applied within limited and specialised areas of environmental design making them difficult to use intuitively by designers (Maneesatid and Szalapaj, 2003). Building simulations have mostly focused on accurate parameters and physical properties of building elements. Such tools typically require numerous numerical data which is often only accurately known in the detail design stages. Conventional environmental building design systems (EBS) have typically required highly experienced users who are familiar with extensive qualitative input and output requirements. A successful architectural design solution that is both energy efficient and environmentally friendly, cannot be obtained simply by additively combining a set of discrete specialist analyses. A move towards better architectural design with environmental considerations can be achieved by allowing designers themselves to express relationships between salient environmental parameters that can subsequently be analysed in integrated ways. This presentation is concerned with the issues involved in developing a quick and intuitive interface for expression of relationships between environmental parameters

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

Making Sense of Presenting Design Ideas through Animated Form

This paper describes both conventional and computational ways of expressing and exploring design concepts with the use of models. We explain the role and function of the model in the design process, and investigate the ways in which models become reflections and representations of architects design thinking. We compare and contrast the physical properties of conventional models with those of three-dimensional computer models, and the corresponding processes of model creation, model development, and model modification. The paper includes a brief overview of commonly used forms of computer representations often encountered in Computer Aided Design applications. Whatever the visual richness of computer models in virtual environments can be, we believe that, just as in the use of conventional two-dimensional architectural drawings, computational presentations of architectural design concepts have their own conventions of use. This paper addresses the need to more accurately understand these conventions of using computer models for the representation of architectural design concepts. Therefore, we will illustrate the more dynamic qualities of computer models, which have the potential to allow designers to escape from the restrictions and constraints of physical form. In particular, we demonstrate these qualities in the context of architectural presentations in the medium of computer animation. These new forms of expression of design thoughts and ideas go beyond mere model making, and move more towards scene making and storytelling. The latter represents new methods of expression within computational environments for architects and designers

Intuitive Analysis as Mediator Between Concept and Representation

Representation in Computer Aided Architectural Design Systems has to date largely focused on the presentation of the end product of design activity, namely the ultimate built form. In thisrespect, 3-dimensional representations traditionally associated with CAAD visualization have relied heavily upon verisimilitude for their efficacy, and have therefore necessitated high levels of dimensional accuracy together with exhaustive description, both of which are absent in the early stages of design formulation. This paper investigates the desired structure of a computational design formulation system which is based, not upon the representation (or presentation) of ultimate form, but instead upon the representation of architectonic ideas resident in the designer's mind, which are central to the organization and generation of proposals. These ideas are of two kinds: conceptual generators, both poetic and architectonic, and the organizational parti or schematic proposals, which embody them. The representation of ideas rather than end form has two primaryobjectives. Firstly, it enables the designer's realization and clarification of concept or parti, and secondly, but most importantly, it enables the designer to critically assess these ideas in relation tothe contextual situation and brief. The computational representation must be structured in a manner which supports the designer's intuitive critical assessment of it, to in turn induce a modification and development of the initial design ideas. Repeated transformation, representation, and intuitive analysis, can then continue in a cyclical manner until an end proposal is achieved. Intuitive analysis, which becomes the mediator between idea and representation, is itself computationally supported by the dual methodologies of comparative and modal superimposition. Superimposition of previous with present representation (either in two or three dimensions)enhances comparative assessment of design developments. Modal analysis, on the other hand, facilitates the superimposition of schematic representations of modes of design thought (circulationpattern with volumetric arrangement, say) in order to intuitively assess their interaction or conflict

Giving Colour to Contextual Hypermedia

Design development evolves within design contexts that require expression as much as the design itself, and these contexts often constrain any presentation in ways that are not usually explicitly thought of. The context of a design object will therefore influence the conceptual ways of thinking about and presenting this object. Support in hypermedia applications for the expression of the colour context, therefore, should be based upon sound theoretical principles to ensure the effective communication of design ideas. Johannes Itten has postulated seven ways to communicate visual information by means of colour contrast effects, each of which is unique in character, artistic value, and symbolic effect. Of these seven contrasting effects, three are in terms of the nature of colour itself: hue, brightness, and saturation. Although conventional computer graphics applications support the application of these colour properties to discrete shapes, they give no analysis of contrasting colour relationships between shapes. The proposed system attempts to overcome this deficiency. The remaining four contrast effects concern human psychology and psychophysics, and are not supported at all in computer graphics applications. These include the cold-warm contrast, simultaneous contrast, complementary contrast, and the contrast of extension. Although contrast effects are divided into the above seven aspects, they are also related to one another. Thus, when the hue contrast works, the light-dark contrast and cold-warm contrast must work at the same time. Computational support for these colour effects form the focus of this paper