Assessing Early Stage Design Sketches and Reflections on Prototyping

Designers routinely create informal “thinking” sketches to explore a design space, “talking” sketches to communicate design ideas during the early phases of the design process, and “learning” prototypes to test potential concepts. This study presents two new tools to assess novice designers' sketch attributes and prototyping reflections in the context of an introductory design course. First, it proposes a rubric for assessing the quality of early stage design sketches including line smoothness, proportion, and understandability. Of particular note is the contribution of assessing understandability as a metric for sketches as communication tools. This study also presents a tool to capture designer reflections after each iteration of a prototype. Not only does this record what is learned about a design, but also personal and emotional reactions to the process. Sketching-related results show a positive correlation between sketch quality and understandability, indicating the importance of sketch quality especially when designers use sketches to communicate. Results also indicate that early stage sketch quantity, but not quality, is linked with design outcomes. The study also finds a link between frequency of sketching and higher maximum sketch quality scores (i.e. at least one excellent sketch) as well as a correlation between individuals' maximum sketch quality scores and overall design outcomes. Preliminary results around prototyping indicate that reflection on both the technical and emotional aspects of prototyping may be a worthwhile area of further study. Finally, several results point to novice designers' lack of consistent focus on users in their prototyping reflections and presentations.

Creating space and time for innovation - a methodology for building adaptation design appraisal using physics-based simulation tools and interactive multi-objective optimization

PurposeIt is crucial to consider the multitude of possible building adaptation design strategies for improving the existing conditions of building stock as an alternative to demolition.Design/methodology/approachIntegration of physics-based simulation tools and decision-making tools such as Multi-Attribute Utility (MAU) and Interactive Multi-objective Optimization (IMO) in the design process enable optimized design decision-making for high-performing buildings. A methodology is presented for improving building adaptation design decision making, specifically in the early-stage design feasibility analysis. Ten residential building adaptation strategies are selected and applied to one primary building system for eight performance metrics using physics-based simulation tools. These measures include energy use, thermal comfort, daylighting, natural ventilation, systems performance, life cycle, cost-benefit and constructability. The results are processed using MAU and IMO analysis and are validated through sensitivity analysis by testing one design strategy on three building systems.FindingsQuantifiable comparison of building adaptation strategies based on multiple metrics derived from physics-based simulations can assist in the evaluation of overall environmental performance and economic feasibility for building adaptation projects.Research limitations/implicationsThe current methodology presented is limited to the analysis of one decision-maker at a time. It can be improved to include multiple decision-makers and capture varying perspectives to reflect common practices in the industry.Practical implicationsThe methodology presented supports affordable generation and analysis of a large number of design options for early-stage design optimization.Originality/valueGiven the practical implications, more space and time is created for exploration and innovation, resulting in potential for improved benefits.

Bits + Pieces : Investigating the Procedural Ideation of Architectural Massing for Early Stage Design

<p>The architectural discipline is constantly experiencing change to the way in which its practitioners operate. The continual evolution of computing hardware and the substantial development of Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) has seen Architecture shift from a discipline of predominantly analogue techniques to one that relies almost entirely on the digital medium. As a result, the role of the practicing architect has seen considerable change. Architecture, once a discipline of pencil and paper, now shares creative techniques and tools with Computer Science, Film, Visual Effects, Interactive Media, Robotics, and Computer programming. Such new partners are providing alternative views of what it is to be a creative practitioner, challenging the discipline of architecture to step beyond the preconceived boundaries and means of operating embodied within conventional practice. Architects now have the opportunity to adopt new methods for the production of the built environment. This research engages with developing computational techniques designed for film and interactive media and explores how they can be utilised to augment the way in which architecture may be produced. This body of researches adopts the technique procedural generation as a vehicle for this investigation; a technique used for content creation in interactive media and game design. This research also adopts the use of a computational design software called Houdini - an industry standard procedural software used widely within film and game. Through an architectural lens, it explores the re-purposing of this software and procedural design, developing an understanding for how they can both aid in the ideation of built form during the infancy of the design process. This research initially addressed the question: ‘how can conventional architectural practices be augmented by procedural computational design techniques, to further explore the impacts of opportunity and ideation on architectural design?’ As a result of refinement, it came around to focus on asking ‘how can the application of procedural generation design techniques augment the ideation of architectural massing for early stage design?’ It identifies how procedural techniques can be used in the process of ideating architecture and aims to investigate how procedural generation offers an alternative methodology to the production of architecture in early design stages. It explores, through computational design, the limitations and constraints that occur in the process of mastering design orientated procedural techniques. It subsequently develops, through computational design, an understanding of how procedural techniques can be applied to the early stage design of architecture. Finally, through architectural design, it examines how procedural design techniques can be partnered with specific architectural conditions such as site, function, and form, in order to augment the architectural ideation process.</p>

Bits + Pieces : Investigating the Procedural Ideation of Architectural Massing for Early Stage Design

<p>The architectural discipline is constantly experiencing change to the way in which its practitioners operate. The continual evolution of computing hardware and the substantial development of Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) has seen Architecture shift from a discipline of predominantly analogue techniques to one that relies almost entirely on the digital medium. As a result, the role of the practicing architect has seen considerable change. Architecture, once a discipline of pencil and paper, now shares creative techniques and tools with Computer Science, Film, Visual Effects, Interactive Media, Robotics, and Computer programming. Such new partners are providing alternative views of what it is to be a creative practitioner, challenging the discipline of architecture to step beyond the preconceived boundaries and means of operating embodied within conventional practice. Architects now have the opportunity to adopt new methods for the production of the built environment. This research engages with developing computational techniques designed for film and interactive media and explores how they can be utilised to augment the way in which architecture may be produced. This body of researches adopts the technique procedural generation as a vehicle for this investigation; a technique used for content creation in interactive media and game design. This research also adopts the use of a computational design software called Houdini - an industry standard procedural software used widely within film and game. Through an architectural lens, it explores the re-purposing of this software and procedural design, developing an understanding for how they can both aid in the ideation of built form during the infancy of the design process. This research initially addressed the question: ‘how can conventional architectural practices be augmented by procedural computational design techniques, to further explore the impacts of opportunity and ideation on architectural design?’ As a result of refinement, it came around to focus on asking ‘how can the application of procedural generation design techniques augment the ideation of architectural massing for early stage design?’ It identifies how procedural techniques can be used in the process of ideating architecture and aims to investigate how procedural generation offers an alternative methodology to the production of architecture in early design stages. It explores, through computational design, the limitations and constraints that occur in the process of mastering design orientated procedural techniques. It subsequently develops, through computational design, an understanding of how procedural techniques can be applied to the early stage design of architecture. Finally, through architectural design, it examines how procedural design techniques can be partnered with specific architectural conditions such as site, function, and form, in order to augment the architectural ideation process.</p>

Informed Forms and Matters

After sufficient consideration for the proper balance between material and formal constraints, this chapter describes a pedagogical approach that transforms the education of future architects through a 'form-finding' method, allowing the material to accommodate itself to form and celebrate its own nature. To enhance pedagogical improvement of foundational studies in architecture and further explore this pedagogy based on form-finding in early design education, this chapter also presents the challenges to integrating materiality within the design process, as derived from the incorporation of experimental form-finding methods into early-stage design.

Greenway Network: A Participatory Planning Approach for Municipalities of the South Region of Brazil

Development of greenways represent a planning strategy that seeks to reconcile both nature conservation and human uses. It is crucial for maintaining landscape connectivity in an increasingly anthropized world. Such strategy encompasses complex socio-ecological variables and its success greatly depends on the integration of different types of knowledge and active support from the local communities and stakeholders. This demands participatory planning processes within multidisciplinary platforms that promote a close collaboration between experts and lay people. The goal of this paper is to describe and analyse a participatory planning approach for the early-stage design of a greenway network for municipalities in South Brazil. The majority of southern Brazilian municipalities contain a very high rate of small farms which are under intensive agricultural production, and consequently, harming the natural landscapes. Actions to effectively tackle this problem are scarcely observed. The procedures encompassed by the approach were determined by the context constraints and potentials that make it applicable in the reality at stake. The approach is focusing on the early-stage design of a greenway network plan and comprises two phases with each a multi-stakeholder workshop for the local landscape analysis and the plan co-design by experts and local actors. The application of the approach in a municipality in southern Brazil has enabled local actors to use key concepts of connectivity planning and foster a critical reflection on local issues, and allowed the incorporation of local knowledge into the solution developed by participants. This resulted in a plan tailored to the local reality.