Computer Aided Architectural Design 1

Code:

30306B3

Acronym:

30306B3

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Drawing

Instance: 2014/2015 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://web.ccre.arq.up.pt
Responsible unit:	Desenho (D)
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Degree in Architecture

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIARQ	79	MIARQ	3	-	3	-	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The aim of Computer Architectural Aided Design (CAAD I), which is a 3rd year discipline in the first-cycle, is to develop theoretical and practical bases for Computer Graphics with a special emphasis on the software used for rendering, communicating and designing architecture in an early stage of development (communication, concepts, schemes, site plans and volumes). The intent is to convey the knowledge necessary for computers to be used as design instruments, together with the analogue universe, in order to promote the interchange of ideas and structural aspects of the designs.

The course runs through two parallel vectors: a practical and a theoretical-practical one. The theoretical-practical classes aim to give students the knowledge necessary for them to be able to question and discuss critically the potential of computers for architectural design and its representation and communication to a set of diverse public. The strategy adopted in practical lessons guides the students to develop in parallel both individual and collective architectural design projects.

The architectural exercises that constitute the practical work of the course have as a program spaces for education and for the social and learning dynamics, which are intended to be translated into a collective multi-functional equipment ("Learning Centre") and individual Study Cells articulated with the former. The ability of the Faculty's internal network jointly with Internet to allow students to communicate and share information is an integral part of how CAAD is taught and how the design projects are developed. This is ensured by the active use throughout the course of several platforms such as Sigarra, Moodle, Facebook, Vimeo and Issuu.

Learning outcomes and competences

During CAAD I it is expected for students to:

– master and explore the potential of Autocad and Sketchup software for technical representations and conceptual design;

– explore in a coherent way the potential of diverse representation methods to analyze and explore space and to communicate the contents of each exercise;

– develop their communication design (the way how ideas and arguments about space are expressed through several communication mediums such as visual narratives, panels and animations) in a structured way;

– actively participate in practical and theoretical-practical classes.

Working method

Presencial

Program

CAAD I starts with an exploratory workshop that intends to introduce students to the drafting software Autocad, as a first articulation between the architectural 2D digital representation universe and the students traditional design skills gathered from the first two years of the course. After this workshop ends, there will be another one dedicated to the modeling software Sketchup, where students will learn to model and do quick tests of building volumes and 3D spaces, as if they were "digitally sketching".

Then students are proposed to start to work on a design exercise that consists of a Learning Centre program. During this first level design exercise they are guided to focus on the principles of geometric composition in both 2D and 3D space and to explore diverse architectural ideas using intuitive modeling software. The objective is to make students develop individually and in group an architectural design project integrating simultaneously CAAD technologies in conjunction with the traditional design methods for representing and communicating space. In this way, we want to achieve a balanced use of digital and analogue tools within the architectural design processes. This exercise will have two components: a group exercise that will have as program the design of a Learning Centre – a space with an innovative spatial configuration and integration of ICT that encourages several forms of group interactions, for both socializing and studying activities, promoting the interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and experience, a program that has as key ideas anticipation, imagination and versatility of functions, learning communities and other related concepts. In this program students will also integrate a Digital Artifact (a technological apparatus for promoting interaction between the Learning Centre user and between them and the ouside world). A second component – individual exercise to be developed by each member of the group and to be integrated in the later – will have as program an Individual Study Cell – a module for the users of the Learning Centre to be able to study in a more reserved way. It will be taken into consideration the correct articulation between the two components of the exercise, mainly the architectonic and communicative coherence of both individual and group proposals.

Both components will be developed as a visual narrative – a linear sequence of pages able to communicate (as in the way of storytelling) the development process of the exercise, from the initial ideas to its end results.

Mandatory literature

Bosselman, Peter; Representation of Places: Reality and Realism in City Design
Carneiro Alberto; Campo sujeito e representação no ensino e na prática de desenho-projecto. ISBN: 972-9483-12-4
Pérez-Gómez Alberto; Architectural representation and perpective hinge. ISBN: 0-262-66113-6
Kress, G.; Leeuwen, T; Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design
Maas, Winy. ; Five Minutes City: Architecture and [im]mobility
Neto Pedro Leão; Urban design representation an comunication
Bárbara, Maria; Good Looking: Essays on the virtue of Images
Vieira Joaquim Pereira Pinto; O Desenho e o projecto são o mesmo?. ISBN: 972-9483-13-2
Engeli, Maia. ; The Poetics of Communication
Holl Steven; Parallax. ISBN: 3-7643-6436-X
Nasar, Jack Ed.; Environment Aesthetics: Theory, Research and Applications
W. Preiser e J. Nasar, Ed.; Directions in Person – Environment Research
Lynch Kevin; The image of the city. ISBN: 262 12004 6
O´Donnell, Caroline.; Synaesthetic City in Manchester Architecture Papers Ed.
AAVV; "Real vs Virtual - Revista de comunicação e linguagens", Organização de José Bragança de Miranda.
Brawne, M.; From idea to Building: Issues in Architecture.
Cook, Peter.; Drawing, the motive force of architecture.
Frampton, Keneth.; Technology, Place and Architecture.
Leyton, Michael.; Shape as Memory: A Geometric Theory of Architecture (The Information Technology Revolution in Architecture).
Terceiro, José B.; Sociedade Digital - do homo sapiens ao homo digitalis
Turke, Sherry.; A vida no ecrã - a identidade na era da internet.

Teaching methods and learning activities

The methodological principles that drive this discipline have as fundamental pillars: (1) to encourage and facilitate communication and exchange of ideas between students and teachers and (2) make it possible for students to have an active role in their own learning process in order to awake their interest in the program, to encourage cooperation and teamwork and to promote greater self-responsibility regarding the development and achievement of the work involved. We intend to adopt a strategy that makes students develop both projects of individual and collective authorship, and to adopt a process of brainstorming and self-assessment of the work done during the semester without prejudice to traditional assessment methods.

Thus, it is expected that the quality of the working methods of teaching and the learning effectiveness that guides this course are implemented with a minimal customization. The discipline is developed in two parallel vectors, one theoretical and the other theoretical+practical. The theoretical+practical classes are broken down into two thematic blocks. One of the blocks is the study of interaction options and features of Autocad and SketchUp, with particular emphasis on understanding the structure and syntax of commands. This block has a strong education component in interactive digital media, with highest expression at the beginning of the semester. A second block, which develops throughout the semester, aims to provide theoretical foundations required for the development of design exercises and their representation and communication. This means giving students the knowledge necessary for them to be able, firstly, to explore certain key ideas for the design and development of architectural design, namely: anticipation, imagination, versatility of uses, technology applied to space and other related ideas. On the other hand, being able to question and discuss the potential of programs and design representations, and secondly, on the potential of accessibility and interactivity on the Internet for the communication of a design, which in the particular case of CAAD I will be a Learning Centre and an individual Study Cell. The practical classes are held in the computer graphics lab. These classes aim to provide a rapid assimilation and application of the contents of practical classes and the exchange of ideas between students and teachers on the development of the project as well as to answer any questions that might arise from the students. It is through the exercise of design, representation and communication developed throughout the semester that we will assess the performance and adaptability of each student and each group to the proposed exercises. The technical knowledge acquired by students will provide an operational base that is necessary for them to develop these representation and communication exercises. The ability to monitor the development of students work will allow us to discuss the better use of photography and computer programs and so to ensure the necessary technical aspects in order to use them as vehicles for research and discovery and not fall into the paradox of mere "operators". The capabilities offered by the internal networks of the University of Porto and the worldwide network (WWW) for teachers and students to communicate and share information is an integral part of the discipline that reflects the way communication architectural designs and the use of digital technology and other programs are taught and how the practical works are developed and disseminated to other institutions and individuals.

Software

Sketchup
Autocad

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	25,00
Trabalho laboratorial	75,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

To be approved student must by present in at least 75% of the classes and have a minimum of 9,5 points in the final classification, as a result of their participation in classes and the quality of their individual and group exercises.

Calculation formula of final grade

CAAD I is a discipline where the method of evaluation is obtained through the weight of various parameters used in a balanced way, without a final exam. There is no test or final exam because it's the whole process of development and communication of the exercise that is evaluated according to the criteria and parameters that are indicated below.

The submission of the group component of CAAD I exercise (TG) consists of a visual narrative (a linear sequence of pages able to communicate, as if it was a story, the development process of the exercise of the Learning Centre, from the initial idea to the end result) submitted in both digital format (PDF) and printed, which will be assessed based on the following parameters:

PA1: mastery and exploration of the technical design and representation potential of Autocad and Sketchup softwares;

PA2: exploration in a coherent way of the representation methods to analyze and explore space and to communicate the contents of each exercise;

PA3: development of a communication design (the way how ideas and arguments on space are expressed through several communication mediums such as visual narratives, panels and animations) in a structured way;

PA4: an active participation in practical and theoretical-practical classes.

The submission of the individual component of CAAD I exercise (TI) consists of a visual narrative, in the same aspects of the group component, but related to the development process of the individual Study Cell. It will be assessed using the same parameter from above, with particular attention to the need of a coherent integration between both components.

 

METHOD FOR CALCULATION CAAD I FINAL RESULTS:

TG = [0,25PA1 + 0,25PA2 + 0,25PA3 + 0,25PA4]

TI = [0,25PA1 + 0,25PA2 + 0,25PA3 + 0,25PA4]

CF = [0,6TG + 0,4TI]

TG = group exercise (group component of CAAD I design exercise: Learning Centre visual narrative);

TI = individual exercise (individual component of CAAD I design exercise: individual Study Cell visual narrative);

CF = CAAD I final result.

Both final result and individual/group exercises will be rated with a maximum of 20 points.

Observations

Optional discipline, without precedence.