Ömer Akin

Design protocol data and novel design decisions

Abstract This work is a part of The Delft Protocols Workshop which is an international gathering of experts on design research. The objective is to study the behaviours of designers using techniques of cognitive psychology in general and protocol analysis in particular. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between visual-graphic data processing and novel design ideas. Several analyses dealing with verbal-conceptual and visual-graphic data have been conducted, and the relationships between design activities and design decisions have been explored. The findings indicate that phases of the design process and the activities correlate with key design decisions.

Variants in Design Cognition

Publisher Summary This chapter is about cognitive models of designers and how these models depict different design professions. In different fields of design, cognitive processes have both similarities and differences. Some of the notable differences that distinguish architectural design from other design fields are rich representations, indiscriminate use of inventive strategies, nonstandard problem composition schema, and strategies of complexity management. In some respects the field of cognitive psychology and even the entire domain of empirical research is about recognizing predictability of measurable events. One way of achieving this is to find the conditional invariants among all of the variables that are of interest. The conditions of such an inquiry are represented by the independent variables. Studies of architectural cognition concern themselves with a few overarching issues: representation, strategic behavior, and innovation. Strategic behavior subsumes issues such as search, problem restructuring, and process management. The last category, innovation, can be seen as a subset of strategic behavior as well.

Necessary conditions for design expertise and creativity

Abstract Design creativity and expertise often exist simultaneously. Forms of expertise well documented in the literature include recognizing a creative solution: structuring and restructuring of the solution domain; and the transformation of declarative into procedural knowledge during expertise acquisition. To relate these arguments to creativity requires further research which is justifiable based on our current knowledge.

On the process of creativity in puzzles, inventions, and designs

The most common means of identifying creativity has been through its products. In architecture, music, writing, art, even puzzle solving and scientific discovery, the prerequisite for considering creativity has been the presence of a creative product. Alternatively, anecdotal descriptions have been used to identify processes that are considered creative. Many scientific discoveries have been linked to a sudden realization or unexplainable revelation punctuated with the AHA! response. Outside of the creative product itself and the AHA! response, the kinds of concrete evidence that point to the process of creativity are precious few. Our purpose here is to further examine these phenomena and develop hypotheses about the nature of the creative process. Our ultimate aim is to develop a general theory of creativity. We intend to base this theory on a set of conditions that are necessary for the creative process to take place in a number of domains: puzzles, scientific discoveries, and design, with special emphasis on architectural design.

Case Based Instruction Strategies in Architecture

Abstract This paper is about case-based instruction (CBI) and not about computer-implemented case-based reasoning systems, as some readers tend to assume. CBI is a very old method of teaching, particularly in the studio setting. Usually it takes the form of precedent analysis. An empirical study was conducted in order to better understand how experienced designers use cases in the course of a brief design session. Based on this experience a computer-based case tool, electronic design assistance tool (EDAT), was developed and used in studio instruction. Finally, our experience with case-based instruction in non-design courses is described.

Quantification of three-dimensional structures.

A mathematical model, based on additive subcomponents of grouping, subitizing and adding, was derived to account for quantification latencies of three-dimensional block arrangements. Subitizing is the process that people use to directly quantify a small number of objects without counting. It was found that most people consistently subitized up to four blocks. With more than four blocks, people resorted to grouping and adding, and the model was able to account for these data. The structural variables of compactness, symmetry, linearity, and planarity were shown to have small effects on quantification latencies relative to the large effect of number of blocks. Of these structural variables, compactness had the largest effect, and in terms of the model, it is suggested that visual structure had its effect on the perceptual grouping subcomponent.

An electronic design assistance tool for case-based representation of designs

In precedent based design, solutions to problems are developed by drawing from an understanding of landmark designs. Many of the key design operations in this mode are similar to the functionalities present in case-based reasoning systems: case matching, case adapting, and case representation. It is clear that a rich case-base, encoding all major product types in a design domain would be the centerpiece of such an approach. EDAT (Electronic Design Assistance Tool) is intended to assist in precedent based design in the studio with the potential of expansion into the office setting. EDAT has been designed using object oriented system development methods. EDAT was used in a design studio at Carnegie Mellon University, during Spring 1996.

Architects' Reasoning with Structures and Functions

Although there is a visible increase in the number of publications in the area of design thinking and signs that it is becoming a serious area of research, there is a lack of theoretical approaches that directly address its domain-specific characteristics. This study is an attempt to develop such a theory directed towards design reasoning based on a protocol study and formal notation, among other things. Three domains of reasoning are described: construction, object, and representation. Inference making within and between these domains is described in terms of operations called functions and states called structures in a state-space representation of design. Five types of mapping which are illustrated by the protocol study are described by means of structures and functions. Shortcomings and strengths of the proposed theoretical formalisms are both discussed. Future work is indicated.

Strategic use of representation in architectural massing

Abstract Architectural massing is the primary sub-set of the early stages of built form creation. In this empirical study, we seek a better understanding of the specific cognitive processes contributing to massing. We found that these processes help the designer improve the management of the overall design process through strategies that facilitate a discourse between designer and her graphic representations. These strategies, which rely on the use of regulating elements, include management of part–whole relationships, design hierarchy, topology–geometry relationships, scaffolding the design process, structuring ill-structured problems, and the restructuring of problem parameters.

A Formalism for Problem Restructuring and Resolution in Design

It is no longer unusual to find automated systems as partners in the architectural design process. Most, if not all, of these systems are limited to solving well-structured problems efficiently and accurately. The use of these systems relies on manual decomposition of complex problems into more limited, well-defined ones and the subsequent recomposition of the solutions into comprehensive ones. In this paper a formal representation is developed for the process of problem structuring to enable decomposition and recomposition of architectural problems. This consists of a heuristic method for manipulating the parameters of a general purpose generate-and-test mechanism which is capable of solving well-defined problems.