Redirecting design generation in architecture

Alexander Koutamanis

Abstract

Design generation has been the traditional culmination of computational
design theory in architecture. Motivated either by programmatic and
functional complexity (as in space allocation) or by the elegance and power
of representational analyses (shape grammars, rectangular arrangements),
research has produced generative systems capable of producing new designs
that satisfied certain conditions or of reproducing exhaustively entire
classes (such as all possible Palladian villas), comprising known and
plausible new designs. Most generative systems aimed at a complete spatial
design (detailing being an unpopular subject), with minimal if any
intervention by the human user / designer. The reason for doing so was
either to give a demonstration of the elegance, power and completeness of a
system or simply that the replacement of the designer with the computer was
the fundamental purpose of the system. In other words, the problem was
deemed either already resolved by the generative system or too complex for
the human designer.

The ongoing democratization of the computer stimulates reconsideration of
the principles underlying existing design generation in architecture. While
the domain analysis upon which most systems are based is insightful and
interesting, jumping to a generative conclusion was almost always based on a
very sketchy understanding of human creativity and of the computer's role in
designing and creativity. Our current perception of such matters suggests a
different approach, based on the augmentation of intuitive creative
capabilities with computational extensions. The paper proposes that
architectural generative design systems can be redirected towards design
exploration, including the development of alternatives and variations. Human
designers are known to follow inconsistent strategies when confronted with
conflicts in their designs. These strategies are not made more consistent by
the emerging forms of design analysis. The use of analytical means such as
simulation, couple to the necessity of considering a rapidly growing number
of aspects, means that the designer is confronted with huge amounts of
information that have to be processed and integrated in the design.
Generative design exploration that can combine the analysis results in
directed and responsive redesigning seems an effective method for the early
stages of the design process, as well as for partial (local) problems in
later stages.

The transformation of generative systems into feedback support and
background assistance for the human designer presupposes re-orientation of
design generation with respect to the issues of local intelligence and
autonomy. Design generation has made extensive use of local intelligence but
has always kept it subservient to global schemes that tended to be holistic,
rigid or deterministic. The acceptance of local conditions as largely
independent structures (local coordinating devices) affords a more flexible
attitude that permits not only the emergence of internal conflicts but also
the resolution of such conflicts in a transparent manner. The resulting
autonomy of local coordinating devices can be expanded to practically all
aspects and abstraction levels. The ability to have intelligent behaviour
built in components of the design representation, as well as in the spatial
and building elements they signify, means that we can create the new,
sharper tools required by the complexity resulting from the interpretation
of the built environment as a dynamic configuration of co-operating yet
autonomous parts that have to be considered independently and in conjunction
with each other.
 

P.S. The content of the paper will be illustrated by a couple of computer
programs that demonstrate the princples of local intelligence and autonomy
in redesigning. It is possible that these programs could be presented as
independent interactive exhibits but it all depends upon the time we can
make free for the development of self-sufficient, self-running
demonstrations until December.