COA8680
Seminar in Design Computing
Professor Eastman
Spring, 2002
1. Introduction
What is design computing?
Design Computing is a generic term, addressing the range of digital information technologies (IT) that are applicable to design. It encompasses automated design, computer aids to support people who design, the concepts and technology supporting design augmentation and models of design that support or are derived from these analyses. Design is a process whose scope is very broad, encompassing aesthetics, various functionally responsive technologies, management, engineering and product fabrication. At some level, design issues are generic, such as high level issues of geometric modeling. But at the detail semantic level
¾ such as the issues of circulation in schools, it becomes specific to a particular design field. In this class, we are concerned with the span of knowledge and issues spanning both those involved in generic design and also the issues that are domain specific to architecture (or industrial design), to even particular building types (housing, hospitals).
What is the course about? How is it organized? Design computing is a field that is 35 years old.
It has seen many developments and conceptual breakthroughs. The issues of design computing are not thought about today as they were in 1980s.
The course is not a history of computer applications to architecture. And it is not a survey of all aspects of computing that impact architecture and design. Both have grown too large to cover in a single semester. This course focuses on certain precedences leading to the present technologies and conditions. It attempts to survey a set of research areas where new contributions are needed and hopefully are possible.
The course is a survey of the relevant current ideas and techniques in computing related to issues of design practice and research.
Implicit in the organization of the course are some philosophical premises. The course, like all aspects of IT, is based on the notions of scientific progress. That is, the increasing benefits of computing have been based on the development and integration of certain ideas that then form the basis for other ideas and systems. There is a post facto logical progression from what existed in CAAD ten years ago and what is available today. If we have time, we may trace some of these conceptual and technological chains of development. It is assumed that people in this course may themselves make contributions that will affect how computers are used (and not used) in the practice of design ten or 20 years from now, futher extending the progression.
The course involves a significant amount of reading in a range of areas, with extensive discussion and analysis of each. All students are expected to do all the reading. The reading will be discussed in class and each student will be expected to participate in those discussions. There will be occasional quizzes on the reading. Students also will be assigned four exercises, addressing research issues in different areas. A research proposal will be used as a final.
2. Areas
The course is organized into the study of a set of research areas. These areas are a way to classify previous work that has been done and to emphasize and focus on the issues associated with them. In general, each of these research areas has a terminology and vocabulary, a set of major questions and issues, a set of techniques thought to be useful in addressing the issues and a literature addressing the issues. These are outlined for each area.
2.4 Knowledge representation in design
2.5 Automated layout in design
2.7 Building Automation