Building Form Modelling in Architectural Design Education

Abstract

The paper describes an approach to architectural design education within the tradition of grammatical studies. It exploits certain attributes of computer modelling and computer graphics programs as an environment to convey architectural knowledge. The formal representation of designs and the manipulation of these representations are proposed as architectural knowledge and one of the foundations of design. Computer-based three-dimensional formal analysis of designs is employed as a technique for the acquisition of knowledge of classes of designs. Through formal analysis certain general models of building form are postulated. The classes of building form models in architecture are elaborated, and their relation to the concept of architectural syntax is discussed. The computational significance of building form modelling is considered, and the relevance of formal modelling in design education is discussed. Architectural Knowledge as a Foundation of Design and Design Education At the workshop meeting of ECAADE '87 in Zurich (Kramel, 1987) a significant topic of discussion was the emerging role of the computer in design education within the architectural curriculum. At this meeting, as well as at subsequent meetings of ECAADE and ACADIA, it had become apparent that a new role was emerging for the computer in architectural schools as an environment for the study of design. What was crystalizing in the late Eighties was the intensive development of computer-based architectural formal studies related to the teaching of design per se. From its research-oriented origins in universities such as UCLA and Carnegie Mellon, the use of the computer as a vehicle for the teaching of architectural design principles has now become well-established as a significant part of the curriculum in many architectural schools (McCullough, Mitchell, Purcell, 1990). Most of this work has retained its design research orientation. It is generally based upon grammars and formal languages, and deals with studies in areas such as composition and transformational operations (Schmitt, 1988; Radford and Stevens, 1987). Recently the work has been collectively referred to as 'grammatical approaches in design education' (Woodbury,1991). Because of the analytical and rigorous orientation to design research which is characteristic of the approach, the dual functions of design education, and the generation of knowledge through design research are both satisfied. Certain of the teacher/researchers in the field have recently begun to change emphasis from ad hoc studies of specific works to the formalization of general formal knowledge in design (Flemming, 1990; Madrazo, 1990; Oxman and Oxman, 1991). In this paper we present an approach to the formalization of general models of building form in architecture. The formulation of the knowledge of building form models is the result of student research within a course which employed computer-based three-dimensional formal analysis in the study of architectural form. The explicit goal was to analyze a range of classes of building form according to instances of these classes in the work of specific architects. Through the analysis of a range of specific instances, we have attempted to define the design principles of the class. The concept of models of architectural representations is itself a research subject of significance in CAAD (Eastman, 1990). In the current research we present a preliminary proposal for classes of general building form models. The particular emphasis has been to establish models which may be useful in design computation.