Property-Oriented Information Systems for Design Prototypes for the BAS•CAAD system

Property-oriented systems are a new kind of information systems that are based on concepts of properties instead of concepts of things or classes of things. By focusing on properties, the property-oriented systems become more flexible and more suited to the dynamic early stages of design than the traditional class-oriented systems can be. The theoretical framework for property-oriented systems developed within the BAS*CAAD project and presented in this thesis has previously been presented in several papers, a selection of which are included here. Some of the basic considerations from the papers are further developed in a separate chapter. Additionally, the thesis covers several questions regarding prerequisites for and implications of property-oriented systems. These questions have not been addressed in earlier BAS*CAAD publications. The development of research proptotypes based on the theoretical framework is presented, with a discussion of the different versions and the considerations behind them. A study of the history of computer aided building design has revealed that many basic ideas of today were developed the first time at the beginning of electronic computing, in the early sixties. Since the early development seems to be unknown today, a brief account is presented in this thesis, with special focus on issues considered in the BAS*CAAD project. Finally, the experimental architectural design software DASK, developed mainly by the present author in the later 1980s, will get its first presentation in writing in this thesis.

Computers as a Creative Tool in Architecture

The School of Architecture at Lund Institute of Technology was augmented by the establishment of the Computer Studio in 1987. As a result the school now has a device for teaching and research in the architects'use of computers. We are now conducting several research projects as well as courses and an education project. The third and fourth years of the education at the school of architecture are arranged as education projects instead of traditional lecturing. The students choose from projects that are organised by different departments at the School of Architecture. The issue is that the students will ask for instruction when felt needed, and that learning will therefore be more efficient. The Computer Studio has conducted such a project during the first half of 1989. We have tried to encourage the students to use our different computers and programs in new and creative ways. One of the issues of the computer project is to teach the students how computers are used at the architects offices today as well as expected future developments. The students shall be acquainted well enough with present and future possibilities to make good choices when deciding upon buying computers for architectural use. Another issue is to develop new ways of making and presenting architecture by using computers. As a group the teachers at the school of architecture have a very restrictive attitude towards the use of computers. We hope that our project will open their minds for the possibilities of computers, and to engage them in the development of new ways to use computers creatively in architecture. An interesting question is if the use of computers will yield different outcomes of he students'work than traditional methods. An object for research is whether the added possibilities of considering different aspects of he design by using a computer will make for higher quality of the results.

A concept of space for building classification, product modelling, and design

Information about a building's spaces is of interest in every stage of the construction and facility management processes. An organisation1 or enterprise is located in and uses the building's spaces, and many of the building's spatial properties are determined on the basis of the user organisation's requirements. The definition of the concept “space” as applied in information systems for building classification and building product modelling today is unclear. A fundamental problem is to reconcile a material and construction method viewpoint with a space-centred viewpoint. In order to enable communication among actors and computer systems in the construction process, the concepts used in model development and the corresponding terms have to be formally defined and standardised. In this article, we analyse the concept of space and suggest a comprehensive definition for the construction context. The identification of a space in a building is based on a spatial view. We introduce the concept of aspectual unit and show how this concept can be used to integrate different aspect views in a conceptual schema. Additionally, we define the user organisation as a thing, which is separate from the building and has spatial properties of its own, so-called “activity spaces”. Finally, we show how space may be represented in a comprehensive conceptual schema.

Design and Modelling in a Computer Integrated Construction Process - the BAS-CAAD Project

A new approach to product modelling in a design context is proposed. CAD-software must not only enable product modelling, but must also support product design. This is not fully achieved in the traditional'enumerative'approach to product modelling. We discuss how product design and modelling can be based on a facetted'approach to information modelling, and how a data model that supports the design process can be based on a framework for system information. The background for our research is the current development in the construction industry towards a computer integrated construction process. A first prerequisite for this is the use of computer based models. Another prerequisite is that CAD-software can support the design of the results of the construction process, including construction works, user organisations, and the production and facility management processes. A third prerequisite is that computer based models are built with standardised concepts and terminology to enable exchange of information between different actors and computer systems during different stages of the construction process. Principles for organising frameworks for user organisation and construction works information are presented in an appendix

BAS.CAAD - Building and User Activity Systems Modelling for Computer-Aided Architectural Design

In the early stages of the building design process not only building and site but also user activities and experiences are formed. This paper presents a development programme for CAAD where conceptual models of some fundamental characteristics of building, site and user organisation will be developed and implemented in a prototype CAAD-programme. The models are based both on empirical studies and an ontological Framework which is also used for organising the basic object structure of the prototype CAD program. The architectural design process has several characteristics which a CAAD-programme must support, e.g incremental determination of properties, change of scale and shift of focus. The research investigates how the design object and the user interface can be formed to serve this working method. One important field is to study the usefulness of the user organisation model for the brief and building management stages. The programming work for the prototypes is done with Smalltalk on Macintosh computers. The tests of the prototype includes spatial co-ordination of the three systems

Challenges of the Future: 14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings

There are many of us trying to make place for CAAD in a natural way in the Curriculum of the Architect school. We would like to make CAAD useful to the students already during their studies. Even if we have the support of our collegues for running courses there is very often no space in the timetable. And even if we have all the entusiasm of our students it is hard to practice your CAAD knowledge on projects where it is not asked for. The education of architects in the use of computers has lead me to try to find “the roots of education of architects” in general. A collegue of mine in a bookshelf of course litterature in Informatics found and put into my hands “Educating the reflective practitioner” by Donald Schon. It lead to an interesting process of personal reflection and discussion within our CAAD team. We think by the way that the theme of the conference points to the heart of the message in Donald Schons book and we are inviting him as a key note speaker at the Conference

Communicating Concepts for Shared Understanding: a Multi-Agent Approach

Capturing and sharing design concepts is necessary if we want to support the design process by means of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). Standardized concepts are important for support at the end of the design process when designs need to conform to set standards and norms, and in order to enable communication, but are less useful in the early design stages. We propose an approach that takes into account a more developmental attitude that will be better suited for design support and the sharing of design concepts. In this approach, design concepts are formalised by means of a technology called concept modelling. Capturing and exchange of concepts are based on a multi-agent approach. The whole of concepts that are used in a domain or for a design task can be considered a design ontology. In this paper we outline the motivations for the research, outline the basic approach in the research work, and identify the major challenges and research problems that need to be tackled

Teaching Advanced Architectural Issues Through Principles of CAAD

The paper disrusses the differences between teaching CAAD by using standard sofware ("off-theshelf"-sofware) and teaching the principles of CAAD ("principles-teaching "). The paper distinguishes four kinds of application for design systems in education: social systems, professiond systems, educational systems, and innovative systems. The paper furthermore proposes to distinguish between computational issues and architectural issues relative to design systems. It appears that there is not a principled distinction between sofware-teaching and principles-teaching when it comes to computational issues of design systems. However, when the architectural content of CAAD systems is concerned, then principles of CAAD systems seem to be more appropriate for teaching. The paper presents work on generic representations as a specific case Generic representations can be used to teach one particular kind of architectural content of design systems. The paper ends with condusions

Women as visible and invisible workers in fisheries: a case study of Northern England

This paper is based on an externally-funded research project on women’s roles and contributions in fisheries conducted in Northern England in 2010. The research focuses on the key roles played by the women involved in fisheries in this region of the country, aiming to help promote the equality and participation of women in the industry by contributing to policy making with independent evidences. The paper analyses some of the major roles played by women and their contribution in four selected sectors: capture fishing, families and communities, trading, processing and management/administration. It identifies the main issues and barriers which prevent women from equal treatment and full participation in the industry and from a more effective involvement in policy making in the country. The paper also presents and analyses women’s strong wish for change with suggestions for policy reform