The Digital Design Process: reflections on architectural design positions on complexity and CAAD (original) (raw)
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Complex Issues in Architectural Design
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.
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.
SCHEMING AND PLOTTING YOUR WAY INTO ARCHITECTURAL COMPLEXITY
The problem of complexity underlies all design problems. With the advent of CAD however, our ability to truly represent complexity has increased considerably. Following the four waves of design methodology as distinguished by , we see changing architectural design attitudes with respect to complexity. Rather than viewing it as problematic issue, architects such as Koolhaas, van Berkel, Lynn, and Franke embrace complexity and make it a focus in their design work. The computer is an indispensable instrument in this approach. The paper discusses the current state of the art in architectural design positions on complexity and CAAD, and reflects in particular on the role of design representations in this discussion. It is advanced that a number of recent developments are based on an intensified use of design representations such as schema's, diagrams, and interactive modelling techniques. Within the field of possibilities in this area, the authors discuss Feature-Based Modelling (FBM) as a formalism to represent knowledge of the design. It is demonstrated how the FBM approach can be used to describe graphic representations as used in design, and how other levels and kinds of design knowledge can be incorporated, in particular the less definite qualitative information in the early design phase. The discussion section concludes with an extrapolation of the current role of design representation in the design process, and advances a few positions on the advantage and disadvantage of this role in architectural design.
A note on the complexity of architectural design and its education
Research presented in this paper addresses the complexity of architectural design, especially in terms of its education. The paper gives a brief state of the art in the field of design process and its education, and it also describes methods which can affect this procedure. The extensive field of process of architectural design can be approached and examined in variety of ways. However, this study focuses on decisive factors which constitute design process in order to gain a better understanding of mutual relations between these notions and how they induce the compound activity of learning and creating architecture.
Can Architectural Design Be Research? Fabricating Complexity
Architectural Design, 2008
In the second part of this mini ‘Unit Factor’ series on design as research (see previous article in AD, Vol 78, No 3, 2008), Michael Weinstock turns his attention to fabrication. He explores this through the pioneering work of designtoproduction, a firm who have made it their business to realise complexity in architecture. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Generative Architectural Design and Complexity Theory
During the past decades, complexity theory has evolved as a new discipline that provides a broad scientific perspective towards dynamic real-life phenomena, challenging the classical linear worldview as well as simple cause-and-effect-style Newtonian physics. For architects, the advent of this new science offers the challenge as well as the chance to reconsider common design approaches and to invent new strategies based on the new paradigms. The actual application of complexity theory to architectural design, however, results in a fundamental dilemma: How can a reflective, ultimately retrospective body of thought (complexity theory) be applied to prospective design challenges (architecture)? Being part of a current MArch thesis project, the proposed paper focuses on this general dilemma between architectural design and complexity theory and discusses actual as well as potential future generative architectural design approaches involving complexity theory. Generative design strategie...
Proceedings of the 24th Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) [Volume 2]
This paper starts by introducing an expression proposed by William J. Mitchell measuring the "complexity" of a designed and constructed architectural project. After reviewing other interpretations of this term, as well as specific peculiarities from the building industry, the article expands this metric from an organisational and technological perspective. This is followed by the case studies of six non-standard façades whose process complexities are driven by their project-specific affordances. By comparing built projects of different architects and implementation environments, the paper suggests specific criteria for non-standard architectural designs. Application of acquired knowledge has the potential to help architects better control their project's design and construction solution space.
Architecture and the four encounters with complexity (2008)
In the surge of scientific revelations concerning chaos, cybernetics and systems theory since the Second World War, architecture has been drawn into several encounters with dynamic complexity. Architects have often danced with this complexity, but there has never been a full embrace – the encounters only amounting to skirmishes between two radically different perspectives. Increasingly however, these two histories of design and science are convergent, drawn together by forces of post-industrial knowledge, society, globalization, economic interdependence and ecological sustenance. Through past literature, that convergence can be framed by four modes of architectural complexity – wicked, messy, ordered and natural – but the history of these encounters has seldom been couched in terms of their teleological and dynamic influences, nor have their separate operations been characterized or connected in a way that adds coherence. This paper addresses this missing history by making explicit distinctions between each of the four modes of architectural complexity, tracing their early proponents and characterizing their operations.