SCHEMING AND PLOTTING YOUR WAY INTO ARCHITECTURAL COMPLEXITY

Proceedings of the XVII Conference of the Iberoamerican Society of Digital Graphics - SIGraDi: Knowledge-based Design, 2013

The paper discusses rule-based design strategies that allow for the generation of spatial complexity based on simple principles and taking as well the parameters of construction into account. The presented case studies as part of the academic project "Simple Complexities" focused on the early integration of optimization parameters, regarding structural performance, physical properties and material specification as well as aspects of fabrication to inform the architectural design. The clear conception of a computation-process whose rules lead to certain formal and structural consequences is the necessary first step towards an architecture that is both structurally interesting and systematically coherent.

Supporting architectural design by means of computers requires the development of formal representations of design information. The paper reviews the way information is dealt with in design and describes this as the dynamic nature of design. This leads to the notion that an information model should evolve along with the development of a design. Keywords in this evolution are extensibility and flexibility of information models. The approach developed to fulfil these requirements is based on the techniques of Feature-Based Modelling of which the concepts and potentials are discussed with respect to their relevance for the area of architectural design. Subsequently, a framework is presented for the development of architectural Feature-based modelling systems. This framework includes a layered schema for information definition that provides basic classes of Feature types and the conditions for extension and flexible manipulation of both conceptual and actual information models. Relationships between the entities in these models are discussed in more detail and an approach is introduced for supporting the modelling of relationships that are not defined at the conceptual, or typological, level.

The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice, 2015

From the ubiquitous hand sketch to high fidelity prototypes, designers employ design representation as a means to externalise, reflect upon, develop and communicate design intentions. As a result of their importance, efforts have been made to identify and classify the different attributes of the various representations used during design practice. In this study an existing quantitative approach to the identification and classification of complexity within design representation is used as a coding frame in a content analysis of design representation present within 50 industrial design case-studies. Results indicate the complexity scale's limitations as a means of analysis due to the subjective interpretation required in its application. Conceptual and developmental design representation is particularly resistant to the objective measurement of complexity. Results indicate the limitations of research which attempts to objectively quantify and classify design representation. Instead we provide further evidence to indicate understanding of conceptual representation is best achieved through the framing of design as a subjective construction, sensitive to personal interpretation and deployed as part of a reflective conversation with the situation.

2014

The aim of this issue is to contribute to the integration and communication between space syntax specifically, and architectural theory and practice in general. This aim comes both from a desire from our side, and a perceived potential for inspiring and rewarding contributions and developments from and to all sides in such an integration. This is neither a necessary nor obvious aim for space syntax research, but a potential that we would like to explore and a path we would like to see taken. However, we do think this aim comes with a range of consequences and questions to address, and the purpose of this issue is to contribute to addressing some of these consequences and questions through its focus on diagrams and models, which forms only one, albeit arguably a crucial, part of such an endeavour. In stating it in this way, we do not mean to say that other steps have not been taken; it is a way to frame the topic of the issue that explains its intents in a clear manner. One central question in this aim of integrating space syntax and architectural theory and practice, is that of the always-elusive term ‘design’. Looking at design work in architecture in a wide sense, allowing ourselves to make some simplifications and caricatures in order to bring up some points we believe crucial to discuss, raises a pair of issues that are somewhat problematic from the common ways in which space syntax operates – arguably problematic from the very point of view of some of the clear strengths of the field. One such issue, as discussed for example by Nelson and Stolterman (2012) in The Design Way, is the different trajectories of research and design, where the former tends to strive from the particular towards the general and at times even universal, also taking into account that the degree and kind of generality aimed for varies (Haraway, 1988), and the latter is a process that moves from the general to the specific and particular, or even, in Nelson and Stolterman’s words, the ‘ultimate particular’. While these should be considered rather as general tendencies than absolute facts of such wide and complex beasts as ‘research’ and ‘design’, it points to some intrinsic problems in reconciling the activities of one with the that of the other, and that in order to take knowledge from research into design work, significant translation and adaption is needed to the specific questions and particular situations of each other. This points to a second issue, albeit indirectly, namely the mode of operation of design work, and how knowledge is incorporated into the various phases of a design process. While consisting of a range of activities with different characters drawing from different sets of knowledge, a central portion of this process remains an activity that is quite elusive, where concepts, ideas, references or principles are synthesised into prototypical proposals. Hillier calls this a ‘generative’ phase, and traditionally in the ASED (Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation, Decision) model it was called ‘synthesis’ (c.f. Cross, 1977) – which in many cases means black-boxing this particular phase, sometimes under the heading of creativity, whereas phases of analysis and evaluation tend to get worked out to a more significant extent (c.f. Lundequist, 1995). This black box, largely constituting of rapidly producing and testing ideas and proposals, be they externalised into drawings or models or not, is one where often the concepts and overall solutions are established, and where propositions are made (c.f. Peponis, 2005), and has a character of often making use of material (tangible or intangible) for its own purposes to advance the work.

2015

From the ubiquitous hand-sketch to high fidelity prototypes, designers employ design representation as a means to externalise, reflect upon, communicate and develop design intentions. As a result of their importance, efforts have been made to identify and classify the different attributes of various representations used during design practice. An existing quantitative approach to the identification and classification of complexity within design representation is used as a coding frame in a content analysis of design representations identified within 50 design case-studies. Results indicate the complexity scale’s limitations as a means of analysis due to the subjectivity and interpretation required in its application. Conceptual and developmental design representation was particularly resistant to the objective measurement of complexity, indicating the role subjectivity and interpretation play in design representation, particularly during conceptual design. Results provide further evidence to suggest the limitations of research methods based upon the paradigm of design as a rational problem solving process, with its emphasis on objective observation. Instead we provide evidence to support a constructed account of design practice as a reflective conversation with the situation, influenced by and dependent upon representation, subjective judgment and interpretation.

Space & Form, 2017

The paper focuses on research of the background and basic elements of complexity issue in architectural design, and in the context of design practice. It also brings forth the question of introduction of complexity in didactics and education programs implemented in universities in architecture as a field of study. Paper contains critical analysis of limitations of traditional approach to architectural practice based mainly on intuition and confronts it with integrated design ideas. These ideas contribute to the development of wider application of the theory of complexity.

Design tasks, in particular architectural design tasks, have been found hard to support by means of computers. The main reason for this is that design is a problem solving process, which requires a dynamic way of handling information involved in the design process. The research presented in this paper focuses on this aspect of CAAD: the support of design tasks with dynamic, flexible information modelling techniques. The basic concepts for the developed approach is taken from the field of Feature-based modelling. We briefly review these concepts and then interpret and transport them to the context of architectural design. In defining types of Features, a distinction is made between domain-specific Features and generic Features for which we propose a classification. A framework for the definition and modelling of Features is discussed as well as a prototype Feature-based Modelling Shell based on this framework. in design processes. It addresses problems such as the distinct views of participants on the product of design and the definition and structure of data involved in these views. This results in the definition of data models that represent the information in various domains of design and engineering. Much of the research in the field of PM focuses on the standardisation of these information models in processes of communication , also in the Building & Construction (B&C) industry . However, information models do not merely serve the communication at certain stages in the design and building process. The representation of information during tasks of design, e.g. for support of the analysis, generation, and evaluation of information, is an equally important role for information models. Yet this role of information models imposes fundamentally more complex requirements on the definition and structure of models, mainly due to the dynamic nature of the process of design. Successful research in relation to this subject is found in the work of Eastman et al.

2020

Building Information Modeling (BIM) includes tools, processes and technologies based on the digital documentation of a building, its efficiency, its planning, its construction and later on, its operation. Bim enables to access a wealth of information that would remain hidden in traditional processes, by generating a model in which it is reproduced as a future reality, which contains all the information regarding the project and the processes. However, composing a model from such information, following the traditional methods, leads to incompatibilities or undesired simplifications. Such incompatibilities are a result of the lack of a systemic view in the project and in its development process. Traditional science (positivist paradigm), is based on the assumptions of simplicity, stability and objectivity. In contrast the new paradigm of science (the paradigm of complexity), recognizes and accepts the complexity, instability and subjectivity in science. This study aims at identifying ...

The Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Jassy, Construction. Architecture Section, 2012

In comparison with the limits of the traditional representation tools, the development of the computer graphics constitutes an opportunity to assert architectural values. The differences between communication codes of the architects and public are diminished; the architectural ideas can be represented in a coherent, intelligible and attractive way, so that they get more chances to be materialized according to the thinking of the creator. Concurrently, the graphic software have been improving the quality of design activity, transforming it into an intensive design and management process correlated with the others building design disciplines involved. The computer modeling is today a refined and sophisticated artistic discipline that successfully reinterprets, communicates and promotes architectural concepts in the new virtual world. It also constitutes a creative process that helps optimizing and refining design concepts. It also makes possible the invention of new types of spaces an...

Architectural Science Review, 2019

The wide application of digital design, the advances of digital fabrication and robotic processes have facilitated the materialization of bespoke geometries. In turn it has raised the issue of how architects can reduce design complexity using computational techniques. This paper presents a survey on complexity theory inclusive of work from the disciplines which range from cybernetics to systems and information theory. We synthesize a taxonomy of different definitions of complexity and ways of managing design complexity by decomposing its different levels as they relate to the fields of architecture, engineering and construction. Our hypothesis is that by reviewing the literature on complexity theory which appears to be highly fragmented, we can aid designers build a better understanding of the underlying principles. Thus designers can develop a more system approach towards the use of digital design tools and make use of concepts coming from the field of complexity theory such as abstraction, adaptation and self-organization in order to come up with novel computational design methods. Such methods can enable designers to deal with design problems holistically and manage design complexity in the contemporary digital design context.