Temy Tidafi

Interdisciplinary team learning in the context of integrated design studio

Scientific literature and practical experience point out fragmentation of the building design process as one of the reasons for ineffective design and construction processes. This paper proposes interdisciplinary team learning in the context of an integrated design studio as a successful approach for both: achieving sustainable design solutions and transforming disciplinary cultures into integrated practices. In a rather unique collaborative experience based on strategies from situated learning and activity theory, students with different design and construction backgrounds were placed in multidisciplinary (co-located) teams to work on a real architectural project with specific requirements for sustainability. This integrated design studio was timed in three intensive 2-day charrettes. A coherent digital environment for integrated design was proposed in order to meet the needs of the multidisciplinary teams. The results from this experience were very positive in respect to both individual and team learning.

Is a Digital Model Worth a Thousand Pictures

This communication addresses the use of a new type of referents database in the context of an architectural design studio. It discusses the results of design experiences held with the objective to study the cognitive effects of a teaching approach based on precedents and metaphors available as interactive and reusable digital models to students. The introduction of this referent-based approach is inspired by three major principles: the largely accepted fact that the creative work of architects is highly supported by referring to precedents and metaphors; the use of algorithmic digital methods to encapsulate architectural knowledge; and the constructivist approach to architectural design education. The study finds that the role of the modeled referents is helpful for the design studio learning, and that they are most creatively used when internalized by the student.

Architectural simulation by modeling procedures : The creation of the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris

This paper presents the hypotheses, methodology and results of a research project whose subject is the simulation of historic buildings using computer technology. In the context of this research and for the purposes of the paper, the word simulation is defined as the computational representation of visual aspects of any architectural fabric in such a way as to permit one to reason about the manner in which said fabric was conceived and constructed. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate a potentially revolutionary method of simulation able to integrate the intellectual and constructional procedures that actually informed the emotion of any given building. To illustrate and demonstrate these ideas and their results, the paper will concentrate on a single case study : the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris.

LibreArchi: library of interactive architectural models containing exploratory and didactic simulations

This paper presents a library of interactive architectural referents, LibreArchi, which can play a twofold role, exploratory and didactic, during the conceptual phases of an architectural project. The library is composed of interactive models of chunks of architectural know-how represented in a multimodal way: through an interactive model including simulations, pictures, text, video, etc. The concept of distributed intelligence provides a methodological basis for LibreArchi in two ways: a precedent or a new project can be informed by or include several different chunks of know-how, thus allowing for higher complexity and flexibility; and being open for qualified input of interactive models of know-how, it is constructed by the community. This paper is an invitation to reuse and share.

Using Historical Know-how to Model Design References

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that new computer and communication technology has the potential to change architectural education in a positive way, based on previous experiences and learning from the past. This research is based on two historical aspects that we bring together in order to propose a new didactic method and material for architectural education: the first one consists in finding obsolete architectural training practices and reconsidering them from a modern point of view; the second one proposes using precedents in a new constructive way in situation of teaching architectural conception in studio. This historical approach, combined with architectural design studio observations, has lead to an outline of a prototype of a digital assistant for teaching architectural design. Some aspects of its functioning are here discussed.