A conceptual framework for the integration of computers in the early stages of the architectural design process

Abstract

The architectural design process faces increasing demands from growing social, economic and environmental needs that require complex building systems and inter-disciplinary design teams. In the last twenty years, architectural programming has gained importance as a means of identifying the needs that buildings must fulfil and structuring the information necessary to design buildings to meet those needs. The hypothesis of this research is that computers can be used to help identify the problems a building must address by structuring and communicating the information required throughout the architectural design process. Computers were introduced into an academic architectural design studio and were used by instructors to convey contextual information for design problems. Students used the computers, on a voluntary basis, to identify and refine problems to be dealt with in design and to perform visual analysis of context and schematic solutions. The usage of the computers was recorded by time and activity for each student. Observations, of the students' use of the computers, lead to a confirmation of the major hypothesis. The observations and student opinions were matched with the criteria of architectural programming to define a conceptual framework for the integration of computers in architectural programming and the transfer of information to later stages in the architectural design process.