Participation-Based Parametric Design in Early Stages
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Participation-based Parametric Design in Early Stages A participative design process for spatial planning in office building Elie Daher1, Sylvain Kubicki2, Burak Pak3 1,2Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology 3KU Leuven Department of Architecture Campus Sint-Lucas Brussels 1,2{elie.daher|Sylvain.kubicki}@list.lu [email protected] The term participation has been used to define different activities, such as civil debate, communication, consultation, delegation, self-help construction, political decisions. However, participation in design started from the idea that individuals whom being affected by a design project must contribute to the design process. Recently, designers have been moving closer to the future users and developing new ways to empower them to get involved in the design process. In this paper we rethink the way the early design process is developed in a participatory approach thanks to parametric methods. A use case is proposed showing the potential of parametric design methods to empower the participation of users in the design of their facilities. The use case is dealing in particular with the spatial planning of an office building where the users together with the spatial planning team are able to design the layout spatial configuration by 1) fixing the objectives, 2) manipulating the model, 3)modifying some parameters, 4) visualizing the iterations and evaluating in a real-time each solution in an interactive 3D environment and together with facility managers 5) choosing the configuration of the spatial layout. Keywords: Computational design, Participatory design, Optimization , Parametric design PARTICIPATORY DESIGN of what they design and developing new ways to The term participation has been used to define dif- empower them to get involved in the design pro- ferent activities, such as civil debate, communication, cess (Sanders and P.J. Stappers 2008). The partici- consultation, delegation, self-help construction, po- patory approach (i.e. ‘user as partner’) has been led litical decisions (Davidson et al., 2006). However, par- by Northern Europeans in the early 1970s. Several ticipation in design started from the idea that individ- projects in Scandinavia set out to find the most effec- uals whom being affected by a design project must tive ways for computer-system designers to collab- have a position in the design process. Recently, de- orate with worker organizations to develop systems signers have been moving closer to the future users that most effectively promoted the quality of work COLLABORATIVE & PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 429 life (Sanoff, 2000). The participation is not a matter ipation is needed in different situation (building par- of fact, but a distributed, heterogeneous and rela- ticipatory residential...). tional process (Andersen et al., 2015). This consists into making a move from user-centered design to a User participation in architectural and ur- participatory design with important impacts on the ban design traditional roles of players and stakeholders in the de- Community design is an umbrella term that em- sign process (Sanders and P.J. Stappers 2008). In the braces community planning, community architec- classical way of the design process, the user is pas- ture, social architecture, community development sive, the designer brings the knowledge from theo- and community participation, this approach has ries, observation and interviews. Different levels of emerged from the fact that the mismanagement of participation have been identified in the past, rang- the physical environment is a major factor contribut- ing from manipulation to citizen control (Arnstein, ing to the social ills (Sanoff, 2000). On the other 1969). hand, computer application experiences and the de- In the participatory design, the roles and tasks velopment of the technologies, demonstrate that the will be different since the user (eventually with a pas- use of computers with specific methodologies can sive role in the traditional way of design process) help the participation and facilitate the integration is given the position to express his experience and of the user into the decision-making process. BIM plays an important role in transmitting the knowl- can be perceived as a process that facilitates the par- edge into ideas and concept development (Sanders ticipation of users in the design process. Today, the and P.J. Stappers, 2008). Even with this capability complexity of designing and constructing buildings added in the participative design, this remains a re- is more and more increasing. Engaging the user sponsive system, where the designers are looking for in the design-related process issues will ensure the comments about their design and the public is not realisation of the users’ requirements in the design truly empowered to design (Cimerman, 2000). The since housing and building design emerges as a close concepts around the participatory design and in par- cooperation between architect (designer) and the ticular about who should be involved in the collec- client (user) (Kwieciński and Słyk, 2014). Various re- tive acts of creativity, design or creation, when, and searches and practices explored the methods and in which role vary between different studies in so- techniques in order to engage the participation of cial science. In order to support participatory de- the users in the design of their living environments. sign, a wide variety of methods and techniques have The user participation in the design has emerged as been developed to enhance the involvement of both a key to a gap between the requirements and the users and stakeholders in the same design processes solutions proposed by the designers (Sanoff, 2000). (Abras, et al., 2004). More cost-efficient and effec- The traditional participatory models have been heav- tive practices are needed for gathering users‘ needs ily criticized because they require meetings that are and requirements in real contexts in order to reflect often ineffective and inefficient, held at a fixed time these needs into the final design. The highest level and place; severely limiting the number of actors tak- of empowerment of the users through direct partici- ing part (Healey, 1998; Kingston, 2007). In such meet- pation is characterized by the direct engagement of ings, it is almost impossible to establish communica- the user in the design process. In this case, the user is tion that is equal. It is also hard to engage a high considered as the decision-maker. This type of par- number of citizens and to take their experiences into ticipation gets more complex when it is concerned account in early stages of the planning process (Nuo- with the community participation. In a variety de- jua and Kutti, 2008). Too often the involvement of sign instances, the community or individuals’ partic- users is superficial and simply used to bring credi- 430 | eCAADe 36 - COLLABORATIVE & PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN - Volume 1 bility to the planning and decision-making process scape plans. By using serious games, the participants without really transforming it (Sennett, 2012). Conse- are given the possibility to interact with the design quently, the removal of the public from the decision submitted, to vote for the preferred option or even making process leads to a sense of alienation of the chat with other participants (Poplin, 2014). Recent users from their environment (Jones et al., 2009). The trends in video games industry focus on improving benefits of community participation in urban plan- graphic quality and easy to use attractive interface, ning are: enhancing the capacity of the population to this fact led to using video games in urban studies, cultivate a ”stronger sense of commitment”, increas- teaching and research (Rufat et al., 2009). One of the ing user satisfaction and creating realistic expecta- most common game to be used is the SimCity, which tions of outcomes (Al-kodmany, 1999). is developed by William Wrigh. SimCity is used also in universities laboratories for urban simulation re- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE search as a tool for participatory design in urban con- BENEFIT OF THE PARTICIPATION IN ARCHI- text (Hanzl, 2007). TECTURAL AND URBAN DESIGN Recent developments in ICTs, such as 3D modelling EARLY DESIGN software, communication platforms and computer Architectural design process in its general terms, is serious games as tools for urban planning, are offer- a procedure intended to the improvement of the ing new potentials of citizen participation in urban project through socially situated reflection-in-action planning design (Hanzl, 2007). In general, these soft- (Schon, 1983). In the early phases of the architec- ware systems enable displaying data in forms that tural design process the level of detail is typically can be easily understood by the participants. The low: requirements, constraints, larger scale problems informatics applications allow the simulation of fu- and priorities are exposed and restructured before ture urban plans by implementing the parameters getting into details and smaller issues.This under- essential to the planning development. A key fea- standing of the design process as a progression of ture of most participative design activities is the use ideas and inputs can be confronted with different fac- of physical artefacts such as sketches, games, or lay- tors (Cross, 2011). In the early design phase, eval- outs on which participants can place objects to repre- uating the performance of the concepts on larger sent houses, gardens, roads..