Architecture and Engineering

The use of computer technology to simulate architectural designs is well established in the profession and education. However most software interfaces in this field are intricate and require substantial time input, while the hardware requirements to produce quality animations are continually expanding. This software / hardware 'squeeze' can have a detrimental impact in the educational context of the architectural design studios. Students start with high expectations and rapidly become disillusioned at the time it takes to transfer ideas to digital reality. Those who persist often produce seductive computer graphics at the expense of design quality. This paper describes an innovative architectural design course at the University of Auckland in which computer game software was utilised as the design medium. The preliminary outcomes indicate that this relatively inexpensive software may address the above problems and in addition offer other learning opportunities.

This paper reviews current approaches to design visualization in the built environment and establishes a gap in theory and practice. While it has been acknowledged for some time that the temporal component is an important aspect of visualisation there has been minimal attempts to integrate this approach into design practice. We articulate an approach to visualization which we term 'temporal context'. This approach has two aspects: (1) the evaluation of designs in terms of spatial sequence and multiple viewpoints over time;

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has the potential to improve visualisation at the early stages of architectural design. The advantages of screen based AR systems over existing head mounted display AR, animation and virtual reality is discussed in terms of (1) improved contextual evaluation (2) social interaction and the integration of analogue media during design review. We describe two complimentary AR systems that explore these advantages: strollAR, a mobile set up for use on site; and video-datAR, a video database linked to a non-mobile three screen projection system. Outcomes from a prototype implementation are reported.

We discuss the use of multiple design representations to enhance decision making at the early stages of design. Our interest is how the context in which design decisions are made can be extended by two interrelated approaches: (1) the incorporation of the temporal; (2) through the concurrent evaluation of qualitative representations and quantitative information. Outcomes from a practice survey and observations from design studios are used to inform the development of mixed reality (MixR) technology, to enable the applications to reflect architecture specific modes of design praxis.We propose two approaches -studio MixR and site MixR -reflecting the distinction between typical studio based design process and the requirements of a formal design review by the design team and stakeholders. Prototype applications have been implemented and a number of projects have been undertaken to illustrate some of the potential of mixed reality for architecture and urban design.These focus on the early stages of design, from the abstraction of parametric design to on site design reviews undertaken with augmented reality visualization.

The aesthetics of form in motion has been a central preoccupation for the visual arts of the twentieth century, culminating in the establishment of kinetic art as a distinct area of activity in the 1950's. Architecture has traditionally resisted 'building kinetics', but has embraced the body in motion, usually on foot negotiating in (subtle) interaction with static form. However, one aspect in which kinetics would appear to be acceptable is at the building periphery, where intelligent facades track sun angles, or moderate air movement in response to internal temperature sensors. On another track is the proliferation of media facades in various guises that transform facades into urban information interfaces or media art works. This paper suggests that both intelligent and media facades set a different agenda for designers who have traditionally worked towards finding the best static mix of performance and elegance. Arguably, intelligent and media facades raises the question of ontology from a designer perspective -what are the design parameters when the outcome is a kinetic system, rather than the traditional static artifact? In order to approach the issue, this paper examines some precedent from kinetic art of the 1960's and contemporary generative arts, for the insight they may provide. These sources then inform a preliminary outline of the range of parameters that may be considered by designers.

Kinetic facades offer new compositional opportunities based on the design of patterns of movement. There is the capacity for novel form, but minimal knowledge in the design of kinetics. As a way forward, this research addresses two questions -what is the range of kinetic patterns, and what nomenclature may robustly describe pattern range? Results from a series of scripted animations utilizing a range of techniques are analyzed, and from this a set of terms for describing the morphology of kinetic pattern is developed. Kinetics is conceived as state change: the terms used to describe states are wave, fold, and field; a full range of patterns can be described as variants of these three simple states; or as intermediate or compound state transitions.

Introductory Chapter
Perspectives on Architectural Design Research is a collection of short essays, projects and edited transcripts that offers current perspectives on design research in architecture and aligned disciplines. Contributors include international figures Donald L. Bates, Richard Blythe, Nat Chard, Murray Fraser, Dorita Hannah, Jonathan Hill and Vivian Mitsogianni. What emerges from the multiple perspectives is that contemporary design research – transdisciplinary, multi-scalar and concerning place, people, space and time – provides a collective and subtle mechanism that is propositional and transformative. The shared optimism of the contributors is that this propositional mode of research can be of catalytic value for contemporary culture and society.

Further information available at:
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The author and associated researchers have in previous projects adapted videogame technology for design in the context of architectural design education. This paper reflects on this body of research: the original motivations and aspirations; what threads may be productively revisited; how contemporary shifts to parametric design and  building information modelling may be incorporated; and considers how some aspects of game play, in particular competition, may seed Interdisciplinary Design environments for Engineering and Architecture (IDeEA).

Note: I had thought this paper was lost - thanks to ANZASCA to retrieving from the archives!

An innovative architectural design studio at the University of Auckland in which virtual reality software developed for commercial computer games was utilised as the design medium is described. The studio was proposed as a consequence of problems that students were experiencing with standard modelling and animation software – steep learning curve and lack of immediacy. The preliminary outcomes indicate that this relatively inexpensive software may address the above problems and in addition offer advantages in relation to the critique process and design emphasis. Further work is outlined for a follow up design studio in which it is intended to use a new game engine to develop additional functionality to facilitate advanced virtual studio capabilities.

My first published paper which I thought lost, but resurrected on the ANZASCA site (thanks!).

I had recently returned from London , where I was very much influenced by Robin Evans. He tragically passed away and his seminal book THE PROJECTIVE CAST was published posthumously. The central proposition of that book was that the historical development of architecture has been limited by the ability to describe form on paper, and hence related to the tools and techniques at any given period. Evans did not consider the rise of computing, which was curious as London had some researchers at the forefront in the early 1990's ( in particular John Frazer at the AA and Paul Coates at the University of East London).

This rather cryptic paper articulates the idea of DIGITAL CRAFT, which has been developed in much more sophisticated terms by subsequent authors. Written in 1998, it has in retrospect, informed most of my work since. Recorded here for posterity.

Our research revolves around developing applications of augmented reality technologies to support changing temporal contexts in architectural design. In order to ground this research in contemporary professional culture, we first undertook a structured data gathering exercise, analysis of which will inform development of new AR technologies and tools to support temporal visualisation of architectural designs. This paper reports on the first phase of this project in which we undertook extended conversations and documentation of 22 design offices that represent practices of varying sizes and competencies. The intention of this data collection exercise was to map out spectrum of design issues and representations that specifically revolve around changing temporal or spatial contexts in design. This paper reports collection and preliminary analysis of data intended for developing specifications of future AR applications.

The use of digital technologies in design continues the trajectory of 20th century modernism where architecture is conceived as an object devoid of context - physical and cultural. Moreover, there are minimal examples where context is considered over time. We outline the potential of mixed reality to enhance decision making at the early stages of design, grounded in two principles: temporal context (the point of view of a moving surveyor within a dynamic environment); concurrent evaluation (the simultaneous presentation of qualitative evaluation and functional performance). The discussion is structured around the rhetoric - who cares about temporal context, why bother with mixed reality?