Rongrong Yu

Empirical support for problem-solution coevolution in a parametric design environment

Abstract This paper describes the results of a protocol study exploring problem–solution coevolution in a parametric design environment (PDE). The study involved eight participants who completed a defined architectural design task using Rhino and Grasshopper software: a typical PDE. The method of protocol analysis was employed to study the cognitive behaviors that occurred while these designers were working in the PDE. By analyzing the way in which the designers shifted between “problem” and “solution” spaces in the PDE, characteristics of the coevolutionary design process are identified and discussed. Results of this research include two potentially significant observations. First, the coevolution process occurs frequently within the design knowledge level (i.e., when using Rhino) and within the rule algorithm level (i.e., when using Grasshopper) of the parametric design process. Second, the designers’ coevolution process was focused on the design knowledge level at the beginning of the design session, while they focused more on the rule algorithm level toward the end of the design session. These results support an improved understanding of the design process that occurs in PDEs.

Impact of Using Rule Algorithms on Designers’ Behavior in a Parametric Design Environment: Preliminary Result from a Pilot Study

This paper presents preliminary results from a pilot protocol study of the cognitive behavior differences of designers in a parametric design environment and a traditional geometry modeling environment. The aim is to explore the impact of the rule algorithm feature in parametric design by comparing designers’ behavior in these two design environments. Three architects participated in the experiment in which each of them was required to complete two design sessions, one in each environment. The protocols are coded using the function-behavior-structure (FBS) coding scheme. Preliminary results show that the overall behavior is not significantly affected by the environment; however, there are significant differences at different design stages in the two design environments.

Characterizing Tangible Interaction During a Creative Combination Task

Tangible user interfaces change the way we interact with digital information, with physical affordances that are distinctly different from pointing and keyboard/mouse interaction. As a precursor to studying the impact of tangible interfaces on design cognition, this paper presents a coding scheme for measuring the difference between two types of user interfaces: tangible and pointing. We perform a case study, using data collected from an experiment in which participants are asked to make word combinations from a set of six nouns and give them meaning. The task is presented as a design task with references to function, behavior, and structure of the word combination meanings. The case study shows large differences in gesture and action between the two conditions. We conclude with hypotheses on how interaction modalities that afford more body movement may have an impact on creativity and design cognition.

An empirical basis for the use of design patterns by architects in parametric design

This article presents the results from exploring the impact of using a parametric design tool on designers’ behavior in terms of using design patterns in the early conceptual development stage of designing. It is based on an empirical cognitive study in which eight architectural designers were asked to complete two architectural design tasks with similar complexity, respectively, in a parametric design environment and a geometric modeling environment. The protocol analysis method was employed to study the designers’ behavior. In order to explore the development of design patterns in the empirical data, Markov model analysis is utilized. Through Markov models analysis of the parametric design environment and geometric modeling environment results, it was found that there are some significantly different design patterns being used when designing in a parametric design environment compared to designing in a geometric modeling environment. The article articulates these differences and draws conclusions from these results.

Parametric Design: Theoretical Development and Algorithmic Foundation for Design Generation in Architecture

This chapter presents the theoretical foundation of parametric design for design generation in architecture. Parametric design has been increasingly applied to architectural design in recent years. It is essentially a digital design method, which can be characterized by rule-algorithmic design and multiple-solution generation. Parametric design originates from generative design, which is a typical computational design approach based on rules or algorithms (e.g., in generative grammars or evolutionary systems). This chapter starts with a critical review of generative design, followed by the background, history, and theory of parametric design, including various fundamental concepts and applications that underpin parametric design, and concludes with a discussion of the impact of parametric design on architecture.

Mathematically defining and parametrically generating Traditional Chinese Private Gardens of the Suzhou Region and Style

The Traditional Chinese Private Garden is a historically and socially significant landscape type that features multiple complex planning elements. Whereas there are many different examples of Traditional Chinese Private Gardens, the small gardens of Suzhou make up a distinct subset. This paper describes a method for mathematically capturing and then parametrically generating, new instances of what might be called the small ‘Suzhou type’, which features some of the same social and cognitive spatial properties as the historic cases. The research commences with a mathematical analysis of three historic Suzhou Traditional Chinese Private Gardens before using connectivity graphs to investigate their properties. Mathematical measurements derived from the Traditional Chinese Private Gardens are then used as rules for a parametric system to generate new instances of the Suzhou type. In the paper, three new Suzhou type connectivity and spatio-typological systems are generated and tested against the properties of the historic cases. Through this process, the paper demonstrates a method for capturing distinct social and cognitive properties in a parametric system and thereby derives possible new insights into these important heritage sites. This method may also be applied to the analysis and generation of different spatial types.

Evaluating creativity in parametric design environments and geometric modelling environments

ABSTRACT This paper presents a cognitive study that evaluates design creativity in parametric design environments, in relation to more conventional geometric modelling environments. The study correlates the results of design outcome evaluations and design process analysis. To achieve this comparison, a combined method of jury evaluation and protocol analysis is adopted. Firstly, eight professional architects were asked to complete two architectural design tasks with similar complexity, respectively in a parametric design environment and a geometric modelling environment. Following the design experiment, 19 experts were then invited to evaluate the design outcomes produced by designers using pre-defined criteria focusing on design creativity. The creativity evaluation criteria address concerns related to innovation, usefulness, and unexpectedness. Outcomes of the evaluation and comparison are correlated to findings of a series of protocol studies on related parametric design processes. Results of this study suggest that parametric design potentially enhances overall design creativity from various perspectives.

Evaluating the veridicality of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional architectural space through physiological response

This paper presents research on the perception of three-dimensional space in two-dimensional media, and the methodology and results of a pilot study comparing the eye movements of architecture students when looking at different modalities of spatial representation.The results of this study show that student designers’ physiological responses vary with different representation modalities.

Unpacking the Cultural DNA of Traditional Chinese Private Gardens Through Mathematical Measurement and Parametric Design

Traditional Chinese private gardens have unique cultural significance for the world’s architectural and landscape heritage. To compliment the existing qualitative understandings in the field, this chapter presents a computational approach to unpacking the DNA of this important cultural heritage—capturing and applying the essential spatial characteristics of traditional Chinese private gardens—through mathematical measurement and parametric design. The chapter demonstrates that the computational approach is applicable and effective, through the analysis and generation of two different categories of traditional Chinese private gardens—with Yuyuan Garden and Wangshiyuan Garden as the typical historical example for each category respectively.

Exploring Designers’ Cognitive Load When Viewing Different Digital Representations of Spaces: A Pilot Study

Do different representations of space evoke the same response in viewers? This paper reports on a pilot study exploring designers’ cognitive load as they view different digital representation of spaces to determine the effect of the representations. The results reported in this paper are from a group of year 3 and year 4 architecture students from Harbin Institute of Technology in China who participated in the experiment. The two representational modalities in this study that participants were asked to view were a computer-generated hidden-line perspective and a digital photograph of the same space. Their physiological data were recorded by eye-tracking equipment, including participants’ eye gaze trace location and pupil size. The same seven Area of Interests (AOI) were defined in each of the two representations. Results show statistically significant cognitive load change when the AOI focused on changes. The cognitive loads for the two representations were found not to be significantly different.