This special issue of International Journal of Architecture Computing (IJAC)is entitled Formative Pathways and explores the changing face of the profession and the academy as a means to capture the influence of computational methods on architecture and design.The selected papers describe the integration of those approaches into pedagogies and practices and demonstrate their transformative and disruptive effect on the norms and traditions of design, discourse, design education, and practices, and how this knowledge exchange continues to shape today’s theory and practice of architecture.The ideas discussed by the authors are characterized by procedures that expand beyond the techniques of crafting things to include broader design knowledge of heuristics, applications, pedagogies, and their often simultaneous influence on design processes and practices in the academic and professional realms

Clayton, Mark

Daas, Mahesh

Jabi, Wassim

Luhan, Gregory

English

KU ScholarWorks

iiiEditorialFormative Pathways | Changing Systems ofDesign – From Heuristics to Applications,Pedagogies, and Processes“Architecture is not about the conditions of design, but about the design ofconditions.”Bernhard Tschumi, (Tschumi, 1994)This special issue of  International Journal of Architecture Computing (IJAC)is entitled  Formative Pathways and explores the changing face of theprofession and the academy as a means to capture the influence ofcomputational methods on architecture and design.The selected papersdescribe the integration of those approaches into pedagogies and practicesand demonstrate their transformative and disruptive effect on the normsand traditions of design, discourse, design education, and practices, and howthis knowledge exchange continues to shape today’s theory and practice ofarchitecture.The ideas discussed by the authors are characterized byprocedures that expand beyond the techniques of crafting things to includebroader design knowledge of heuristics, applications, pedagogies, and theiroften simultaneous influence on design processes and practices in theacademic and professional realms.The increasing relevance of design computation is demonstrated by thesocietal impact that we are witnessing in individually customized innovativeproducts and in performance-optimized buildings.With the widespreadadoption of parametric modeling (including Building Information Modeling),performative modeling, digital fabrication, robotics and other computationalmethods, discourses of practices and education are shifting beyond a focuson tools and products and expanding to include the processes andpedagogy of design. However, as noted in the Formative Pathways call forparticipation, the scholarship of the processes, pedagogies, and practices lagsbehind the scholarship of tools, techniques, and products.This is to beexpected; as understanding of an innovation is cultivated and disseminated,the first step is likely to be an examination of the artifacts rather than thetheory or consequences.Computational invention and innovation are not so much a discipline-specific means to an end, but have become a part of an integrated andproductive feedback loop that constantly resituates design as a creative act.While it may already be generally accepted that the products of design canbe understood from multiple vantage points ranging from object-orientedontology (Harman, 2010) to systems thinking, we may also need tounderstand the tools, design organizations, and processes of design as aissue 4, volume 11international journal of architectural computinglarger system of design that is necessary for the production of products andspaces. Because of this new system of design, processes of practice arechanging, morphing, and mutating.As a consequence, transformativepedagogies are emerging.The philosophical underpinnings of designeducation are shifting a fortiori, as a logical result of research-driven facultiesthat are constantly questioning the a priori conditions of the tools whilesearching for critical gaps in their usage.The selected papers suggest thatthis process of discovery is not as a means to an end, but rather is an“emergent possibility” where “the priority of the representation is replacedby the priority of performance” – as articulated by Juhani Pallasmaa(Pallasmaa, 1993) – could narrow the seams between meaning, making,analysis, and imagination.The selected texts also explore how the recursionof abductive reasoning processes synergistically informs the act of design – acreative enterprise aligned with an enhanced learning context capable offostering integrative approaches.The papers further position collaborativedesign processes vis-à-vis decision-making optimization and by rethinkingpedagogy.From HeuristicsIn their essay,“Multi-Objective Heuristic Computation Applied toArchitectural and Structural Design:A Review,” Leonardo Moreno De Lucaand Oscar Javier Begambre Carrillo situate the field of multi-objectiveoptimization through a comprehensive literature review with detailed andexhaustive references of various types of evolutionary and heuristicmethods related to the work of researchers in this domain. De Luca andCarrillo’s essay could serve as an excellent compendium that cites the mostrelevant work done by others in this field.While the authors do not directlyexperiment with heuristic methods, their paper catalogues previouslypublished research, clearly presenting the state-of-the-art in multi-objectiveevolutionary and heuristic algorithmic methods.The authors present a well-structured examination of basic algorithmic concepts and further elucidatethe topic through specific references to topological applications inarchitecture, such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA)-based optimizations, as aviable decision-making methodology for approaching complexity.Within thiscontext, the tool becomes a heuristic mechanism for informing a holisticdesign solution. In this sense, the heuristic models serve as design tools thatare useful not only in the conceptual design phases of a project but also inthe application of computational strategies that ultimately bridge creativityand performance and lead to optimized design solutions rooted ininnovation. By interrogating the relevant tools for developing optimalalternatives that assist the designer throughout the decision-making process,the authors present these evolutionary algorithms through a range ofiterations or “differentiated approaches” that further define the “fitness” ofa proposed solution.iv EditorialTo Applications“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear,simple, and wrong.” H.L. MenckenIn developing the Formative Pathways issue, the editors explored theinterstices of a current trend that often references the work of Horst Rittelon wicked problems (Rittel and Webber, 1973) as a way to better connect thefundamental nature of architectural design problems to multi-objectiveoptimization and challenges the foundational grounding of an architect asbeing a sole author. Rather, designers now operate in a realm of strategiesand tactics that have moved towards a more collaborative context thatreframes the designer as an interdisciplinary auteur who guides theconceptual direction of a project. In “Comparing Designer’s Behavior inResponding to Unexpected Discoveries in Parametric Design Environmentsand Geometry Modeling Environments,” Rongrong Yu, Ning Gu, and JuhyunLee compare and contrast parametric and geometric modes of examiningserendipitous discovery in the design process.This investigation examinesthe cognitive understanding of design processes as a shared technicalplatform for design creation.Through protocol analysis the authorsreconstruct design-situatedness as a flexible and dynamic method of findingform given a series of possibilities. Collectively, these tools present thecreation of meaningful architecture and the process of its discovery as adynamic act that is rooted in a cross-fertilization of approaches more akinto synaptic thinking than intuition.This direction aligns with RichardGarber’s 2009 ascertain that future projects will be informed in a mannerthat translates essential concepts, ideas, forces, and components to be inputto more verifiable tools that influence the means of production, systematicoptimization, and performance validation (Garber, 2009).To Pedagogies“Collaboration is a constellation of interconnected mindsets,”(Luhan, 2013)In his essay,“Making Ripples: Rethinking Pedagogy in the Digital Age,”Murali Paranandi presents a project that informs pedagogical approachesand describes the potential intellectual significance of thegraphic/studio/shop approach to project delivery by highlighting links tosubsequent levels of product design.Within this context Paranandidemonstrates how the project complements, challenges, and expands uponrelevant studies in the field. Paranandi presents a design-thinkingresearch/fabrication project aimed at introducing digital fabrication methodsand techniques that in turn develop an enhanced framework for integratedlearning.The intended translational framework expands to include thecritical relationships between the projects “Shape Grammars” (form andpattern) and “Motion Grammars” (rotation and translation) as being inter-vEditorialrelated, process-derived vocabularies that focus more on the adaptivenature of the structures than on the static form-generating methodologiesthat the author, along with architects such as Rem Koolhaas, rejects.Paranandi presents a digital pedagogy that enables a rethinking and retoolingof teaching practices that aim specifically at developing the students’ criticalthinking skills to enable a formative way of accessing and evaluating complexdata sets. Paranandi successfully presents the context of the design studio asan operative “big room” that weaves specialized knowledge from a varietyof disciplines into an enhanced and integrative learning experience. Further,the author expresses how through both subtle and significant changes todesign pedagogy, one could amplify the collaborative nature of the project’splug-and-play diagrid and its subsequent “Lighting across the DesignCurriculum” to be equally as dynamic as the product itself. Drawinginspiration from David Bailey’s grid-filling “World of Escher-likeTessellations,” the author’s link to connectivism and constructivistapproaches to design pedagogy is particularly noteworthy. It frames theiterative experiments as “strategies for action” that could situate thevarious forms of optimizations in light of their research trajectories aseither additional work examples and/or as subsequent lessons learned.Asan educator and researcher, Paranandi goes another step further bydescribing a process that suggests that the feedback loop is actually acontext for engaging a different type of “social network” that could providefurther intellectual justification for this type of project. In doing so,Paranandi addresses four key areas that are particularly relevant to theacademy today, most notably: research and contribution; methods and workplan; competencies, skills, and access to information; the final product; and itsultimate dissemination.To ProcessesAs noted in Paranandi’s essay, there is an emerging framework that startswith interdisciplinary modalities of education – workshops, peer-to-peerlearning, and short courses that deepen lessons learned, enhance proceduralskills, and develop competencies. By activating students’ awareness of thesecomplex “pools of knowledge,” the role of failure is introduced as a meansto lead the designer through a project’s evolution.These collaborativeexchanges link tools and techniques to the pedagogy’s philosophicalunderpinnings – experimentation in a research-based inquiry. Daekwon Parkand Martin Bechthold present education and pedagogy as a system in thesame manner that a building might be considered a system. In their essay,“Designing Biologically-Inspired Smart Building Systems: Processes andGuidelines,” the authors draw inspiration from natural systems tointerrogate the systemic complexity, materiality, and performance ofresponsive systems.The authors present a mode of inquiry that involvemultidisciplinary fields of study using kinematic and scalar iterations as avi Editorialmeans for validating and optimizing responsive architecture.Their modularprototypes are creative deployments – a lens through which to embracescientific modes of discovery that in turn result in Biologically-InspiredSmart Building Systems (BISBS).CONCLUSIONSCollectively, the papers selected for the Formative Pathways Special Issueoffer a glimpse into the systemic contexts of digital design today and howproblems could be addressed from a systems perspective and thus, be usedas an inclusive educational model that includes design thinking (Luhan,2013). Collectively, the authors articulate a process-driven feedback loop forresearch that seamlessly moves among discovery, heuristics, and algorithms.Discovery develops from precise concepts based upon research such asdesign using specific algorithms; heuristics emerge as simplistic general rulesof thumb to “stand on the shoulders of others” that may lead to newalgorithms. Potential design schemes are informed by algorithmicpossibilities that are then further informed by the process and the methodsof fabrication.This evolutionary process continues to move towards anorganized exploration of possibilities that create value from a designerlyway of understanding the world.These possibilities enable a multi-dimensional and convergent frameworkthat leads to “just-in-time” decision making – a flexible means of movingknowledge forward, ultimately enabling translation into a lived experience. Inthis context, the classroom context is a 4-dimensional textbook thatrequires collaboration for problem solving.This collaborative context isrooted in innovation methods that include abductive reasoning, designthinking, systems thinking, grounded theory, facet theory, emergent theory,and integral theory.These methods in turn inform material selection,fabrication, and formation; building sustainability and product performance;force modeling and scripting; physical testing and virtual simulation. Bydeploying a comprehensive approach that includes as many perspectives,systems, and methodologies as possible while retaining coherency; suchintegrated approaches are “meta-paradigms” that draw together mutuallyenriching domains.The new system of design simultaneously demonstratesand questions the roles of architects and engineers and their collectiveinfluence on the design processes.Working together, these papers andprojects validate emerging synergistic design processes and serve asdeparture points for future design processes and educational inquiry.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe would like to thank the many paper reviewers for their tireless effortsin their critique and advice for developing the research papers.We wouldalso like to acknowledge Andy Payne a doctoral student at HarvardUniversity, Stephen Caffey at Texas A&M University and Michael Fox at theviiEditorialUniversity of California-Pomona for their topical discussions in developingthe introduction to the Formative Pathways Special Issue.REFERENCESGarber, R. (2009).“Closing the gap: information models in contemporary designpractice,” Architectural Design,Vol. 79, No. 2, March/April 2009.Harman, G. (2010).Towards Speculative Realism: Essays and Lectures, Ripley: ZeroBooks.Luhan, G. and Gregory, R. (2013).Across disciplines: triggering frame awareness indesign education. In M. Bernal, P. Gomez (Eds.), XVII Congreso de la SociedadIberoamericana de Grafica Digital: Knowledge-based Design, pp. 619-623.Pallasmaa, J., “From Metaphorical to Ecological,” The Architectural Review, June 1993,pp. 74-79.Rittel, H. and Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. PolicySciences 4, pp.155-169.Tschumi, B. (1994).Architecture and disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Senior EditorsMark Clayton1, Mahesh Daas2,Wassim Jabi3 and Gregory Luhan41Texas A&M Universitymark-clayton@tamu.edu2Ball State Universitymahesh@mahesh.org3Cardiff Universityjabiw@cardiff.ac.uk4University of Kentuckygregory.luhan@uky.eduviii Editorial

Formative Pathways: Changing Systems of Design - From Heuristics to Applications, Pedagogies, and Processes

Online Research @ Cardiff

Editorial

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/1808/21799/1/DaasM_2013.pdf

Formative Pathways: Changing Systems of Design - From Heuristics to Applications, Pedagogies, and Processes

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

KU ScholarWorks

Online Research @ Cardiff