Integrated Adaptive and Tangible Architecture Design Tool Qinying Li1, Teng Teng2 1University of Michigan 2Cornell University [email protected] [email protected] In this paper, we identified two majority issues of current CAAD development situating from the standpoint of CAAD history and the nature of design. On one hand, current CAAD tools are not adaptive enough for early design stage, since most of CAAD tools are designed to be mathematical correct. as we conducted a detailed survey of CAAD development history, we find out that most of the techniques of Computer-Aided Design applied into architecture are always adopted from engineering track. On other hand, the interaction between Architects/Designer and CAAD tools needs to be enhanced. Design objects are operated by 2d based tools such as keyboard, mouse as well as monitors which are less capable of comprehensively representing physical 3D building objects. In addition, we proposed a working in progress potential solution with HCI approaches to fix these issues. We summarize that , the prototype proved that architects and designers could benefit from utilizing adaptive and tangible design tools, especially during massing studies in the early phases of architectural design. Keywords: CAAD development,, Human Computer Interaction, Tangible User Interfaces, Design Tool development, Design Process INTRODUCTION nologies are changing the people’s cognition of de- As an ever evolving discipline, during the past few sign activity. In this paper, we identified two majority decades, the WIMP based CAAD tools have been issues of current CAAD development situating from redefining the foundation of architectural design the standpoint of CAAD history and the nature of de- and made extraordinary contribution to architectural sign. practice. Meanwhile, it is also reshaping the typ- According to the recent cognitive neuroscience ical workflow of architects and designers. Nowa- study, there are likely two ways that design idea usu- days, with the further development of computer sys- ally occurs, one view is the instant inspiration like tem and CAAD techniques, the expansion of building a lightning strikes, and another view is that the de- scale, the increasing complexity of architectural prac- sign idea is generated through continuing firmly at- tice and collaboration, the existing CAAD exhibits a tempts. It seems to be two opposite ways but both series of drawbacks while the new emerging tech- these two views are describing the same aspect of DESIGN TOOLS - PROGRAMS - Volume 1 - eCAADe 35 | 619 one process but on different levels. If considering The emergence of computer and computer graphic design as an instant inspiration, it is actually the cul- system laid the foundation of computer-aided ar- mination of a series of intelligent process. As Pablo chitecture design which has become the new tool Picasso’s quote “Inspiration exists, but it has to find and took over the dominant role in the architec- you working” indicated that great ideas and eureka tural industry. Since the 1960s the first CAAD pro- moments arise from everyday work. A designer have gram which was liberated architects from blueprints to at least be thinking about a topic or problem be- by hand, architects have been employing the power fore he or she can find a creative solution. In addi- of computer, more specifically, architecture-specific tion, the goal of continuing attempts is for getting software into architectural design and practice. How- the best ideas which come out of the procedure it- ever, many of this software root in other industries, self. Design, as a continuous creative process, one for example, Maya and 3Studio Max for computer an- of its main task is to capture and organize these in- imation industry and CATIA for aircraft manufactur- sights and inspirations which accumulated through ing; while some are developed for the use across a continuing attempts then expand the design idea to wide range of industries, such as AutoCAD for me- a larger scale and more practical level. chanical engineering and architecture. In the follow- One challenge for architects and designers is ing decades, CAAD has greatly changed the workflow that, architecture as the final result of design process in architectural industry and architects are benefited is a complex and systematic product, and it requires with higher drafting efficiency. long-term memory and significant information input. Problem A. Through the investigation of current But human are more suited to short-term memory CAAD tools we conducted, we found most of the work and relatively less information input. Long-term CAAD tools are designed to be numerical driven and memory work is not easy to carry out for human and mathematical correct. It is not flexible enough for it is not capable of being used for a dynamic process early design stage. The learning and memory costs, such as design. This is why nowadays architectural non-intuitive input method and unfriendly interface, design process has always been break down into all of them are responsible for architect’s heavy work- multiple steps such as concept design, schematic de- load and unnecessary repetitive work. They seem in- sign, etc. In addition to the workload subdivision, evitable because of their industrial root. No existing people started using different kinds of external rep- approach can penetrate the core of designing, which resentation to divide problems into smaller concep- is how designers work through creative processes to tual element and different aspect of design, such as generate design solutions. It is awkward that almost different levels of 2d drawings and 3d models which all popular concepts about design tools have been can be easily manipulated within the limits of short- established by people who do not personally design term memory. At early design stage such as concept architecture but by software engineers. design, designer needs to offer an initial design con- The concept of CAD appeared the 1960s, but the cept to address the design problem. The concept is definition of CAD keeps changing. During the earlier usually formed by establishing relationship between phase of CAD development, when Ivan Sutherland certain numbers of design elements. That requires invented his Sketchpad at 1963 which integrated that, while helping to record and organize design- evolving design and analysis programs, CAD stood ers’ inspirations, the design tools to be used in the for Computer-aided Drawing (Drafting) instead of early design stage need to assist locating design el- Computer-aided Design which were usually known ements and establishing relationship between these by us. At that time the goal of CAD is drawing 2D elements. 620 | eCAADe 35 - DESIGN TOOLS - PROGRAMS - Volume 1 document which continued until 1970s. Aleksander nology used in engineering industry in early 1970s. (1999) and Kalay (2004) illustrated that three genera- They all focused on 2D and 3D geometry such as tions of CAD tools have been invented in the history. line, polyline, surface and simple geometric relation- The first generation CAD systems were designed to ships. Even though some companies started to de- be intuitive and architectural. But the shortcom- velop rendering and modeling software for archi- ing of 1st generation CAD is that the system con- tects, it still just followed the action engineering in- tains excess elements of architectural design proce- dustry. At the same time, engineering industry had dural and lack of graphic interface, so that the so- already start their new experiment. Although the lution is quite hard to popularize. It is worth men- previous CAD technology of engineering has had the tioning that the geometric modeling route CAD sys- description for 2D and 3D geometry, but still hadn’t tem which was another first generation CAD route find a way to present geometry’s physical properties based on 2D wire frame model led by an industry gi- such as quality, the center of gravity, moment of in- ant had already been applied in engineering practic- ertia. Engineering researchers successfully achieved ing while the architectural specific route CAD was still the solid modeling technology which can illustrate in pilot phase.With the growing demand of automo- the topological relationships as well as the geomet- tive and aerospace industry in 1970s, engineers de- ric properties. The first commercial solid modeling sired to find new solution for defining complex ge- application was released at 1979, which was called ometry. The earlier CAD approach of geometric mod- I-DEAS. The solid modeling technology was based eling system was a quite simple wire-frame system. on unconstrained free-form model, users can directly It can only present basic geometry information, yet modify geometry model, but the disadvantage is that cannot effectively represent the topological relation- cannot provide non-geometric information such as ships between geometric data. In 1962, a French en- material, processing, etc. gineer Pierre Bezier formed new surface and curve But architectural design is a complex activity. designing method, which let the problem of com- The third generation of CAD system had become far puter drawing curve became operable. Meanwhile, more complex than the previous generations, archi- French aircraft manufacturer found a way to build tectural elements are interdependent, and the num- free form surface in computer based on CADAM sys- ber of these elements is uncountable, if any of the tem. It is first time to completely describe the main data in the system goes wrong, it will have seri- information of 3D product’s element. Thus, CAD ous negative impact on entire project. Then, how technology has been broken through from 2D wire- should architects deal with the situation which has frame modeling to surface 3D modeling expression. large number of associated data. Just like we’ve In 1980s, the demand of architectural company mentioned previously, engineering design tools are had changed. Not only drafting, architects started always adopted by architectural industry.