An Integrative Approach to Computer-Aided Design Education in Architecture

Abstract

With the advent of CAD, schools of architecture are now obliged to prepare their graduates for using the emerging new design tools and methods in architectural practices of the future. In addition to this educational obligation, schools of architecture (possibly in partnership with practicing firms) are also the most appropriate agents for pursuing research in CAD that will lead to the development of better CAD software for use by the profession as a whole. To meet these two rather different obligations, two kinds of CAD education curricula are required: one which prepares tool- users, and another that prepares tool-builders. The first educates students about the use of CAD tools for the design of buildings, whereas the second educates them about the design of CAD tools themselves. The School of Architecture and Planning in SUNY at Buffalo has recognized these two obligations, and in Fall 1982 began to meet them by planning and implementing an integrated CAD environment. This environment now consists of 3 components: a tool-building sequence of courses, an advanced research program, and a general tool-users architectural curriculum. Students in the tool-building course sequence learn the principles of CAD and may, upon graduation, become researchers and the managers of CAD systems in practicing offices. While in school they form a pool of research assistants who may be employed in the research component of the CAD environment, thereby facilitating the design and development of advanced CAD tools. The research component, through its various projects, develops and provides state of the art tools to be used by practitioners as well as by students in the school, in such courses as architectural studio, environmental controls, performance programming, and basic design courses. Students in these courses who use the tools developed by the research group constitute the tool-users component of the CAD environment. While they are being educated in the methods they will be using throughout their professional careers, they also act as a'real-world'laboratory for testing the software and thereby provide feedback to the research component. The School of Architecture and Planning in SUNY at Buffalo has been the first school to incorporate such a comprehensive CAD environment in its curriculum, thereby successfully fulfilling its obligation to train students in the innovative methods of design that will be used in architectural practices of the future, and at the same time making a significant contribution to the profession of architecture as a whole. This paper describes the methodology and illustrates the history of the CAD environment's implementation in the Schoo