Digital Design Process - A Report

DIGITAL DESIGN PROCESS

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ABSTRACT In recent decades, new methodologies have emerged in architectural design that exploit the computer as a design tool.This has generated a varied set of digital skills and a new type of architectural knowledge.

The present paper offers an attempt towards such a theoretical grounding based on the concept of computable functions.This approach results in an abstract and formal perspective on digital design that enables a grouping of contemporary digital design methods and an understanding of their logical relationship.

On a theoretical level, it opens a path for the study of the mechanism that facilitates the transfer of concepts from various scientific disciplines into architecture.

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Introduction In 1963, Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad program demonstrated that computer could be used for drafting and modeling.

By the mid-1990s, architectural practice without graphics software became unimaginable. Digital technologies have enabled new methods of design, which have led to a re-examination of current design theories and educational concepts. This means that architecture is taking part in an intellectual revolution that is happening all around us.

Computational thinking is influencing research in nearly all disciplines. Since the 1950s, successive modifications of research have resulted. As a result, over the past decade, systemic notions and concepts from science have diffused into architecture discourse and are currently being explored for design purposes

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Levels Of Design Computability For Toni kotnic, during the design process it can distinguish three major levels of computational utilization that can be defined as levels of design computability: Representational, Parametric, and Algorithmic.

The representational level A representational level is characterized by the utilization of the computational mainly as an electronic drawing tool. An example of such an application is the design of the Kunsthaus Graz by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier in Austria 2003, NURBS have been used to digitally describe the shape of the outer skin of the museum based on an existing physical model.

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The representational level

The structure for the exhibition spaces is held within the steel frame in the skin. This allows the space to remain unobstructed by column.

Below the exhibition spaces, the free public space is enclosed by a thin curtain wall of glass, giving the space a feeling of transparency The computer enabled the activation of a geometric language that could not otherwise be controlled easily due to the confliction of the geometry with the standard projections used by convention in the architectural presentation.That means; on a representational level, there is no real perception of the computational nature that governs the digital environment. Rather, the design process is still in line with the visual reasoning of a conventional paper-based design approach.

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THE PARAMETRIC LEVEL In parametric design, relationships between objects are explicitly described, establishing interdependencies between the various objects. Variations, once generated, can be easily transformed and manipulated by activating these attributes.

A more complex parametric interplay between all of the various elements of the architecture was used in the design of the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart by UN Studio. The definition of the geometry of every single element of the building is dependent on the basic layout of the figure.

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THE PARAMETRIC LEVEL

Another example of this type of parametric variation is the design for the Waterloo train station in London by Nicholas Grimshaw. In this design the basic structure was a three-pin bowstring arch with an asymmetric placement of the centre pin due to the geometry of the platforms and its parametric propagation as a series of 36 identically configured trusses along the length of the train shed.Â

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THE ALGORITHMIC LEVEL

An algorithmic level opens up this relationship between input and output and is characterized by the utilization of the formal description of the computable function itself and its application as a design strategy.

On the algorithmic level, therefore, the focus is on the development of computational design logic that is a sequence of algebraic, analytic, and geometric operations for the manipulation of data and its translation into architectural properties.

It is the algorithmic description of the computable function itself and the possibility of an individualized overcoming of the limitations of the inbuilt functionality of the used software.

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THE ALGORITHMIC LEVEL

PAVILION FOR THE SERPENTINE GALLERY

One of the first built examples based on an algorithmic design approach was the pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery by Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond. The use of an iterative subdivision of adjacent sides resulted in a dense field of lines that defined the location of structural members as well as the distribution of openings for the enclosed cubic space

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NATIONAL SWIMMING CENTRE The design of the national swimming center in Beijing by PTW Architects (Peddle Thorp & Walker) is another example of design development based on an algorithmic construction of the underlying geometric structure.

The formal description of the space filling behavior of foam bubbles and its abstraction as Wearie-Phelan geometry enabled the use of complex polyhedral cells as a construction system, a rational and efficient solution that appears to be random.

Using the Weaire–Phelan geometry, the Water Cube's exterior cladding is made of 4,000 ETFE bubbles, some as large as 9.14 meters (30.0 ft) across, with seven different sizes for the roof and 15 for the walls

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THE ALGORITHMIC LEVEL

NATIONAL SWIMMING CENTRE Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE-clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness. The ETFE cladding, supplied and installed by the firm Vector Foiltec, allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.

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CONCLUSION The discussion on Oxman’s taxonomy of digital design methods demonstrates that all of the various contemporary methodologies can be subsumed and compared under the concept of computability and the related concept of levels of digital computability.

Furthermore, it demonstrates that the computer is not a neutral tool, but rather is actively shaping the way designers are approaching the question of design.

The abstract concept of a computational function has the potential to serve as a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of digital design and future surveys on the development of digital design methods thereby answering a call “to formulate a theoretical framework that is suitable to the conceptualization of the subject.

Such a framework must be capable of contributing a relevant theoretical structure to the field, whereas its own theoretical disciplinary contents must also illuminate seminal issues.�

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