Computer Aided Architectural Design 2

Code:

30307B3

Acronym:

30307B3

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Drawing

Instance: 2014/2015 - 2S

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	91	MIARQ	3	-	3	-	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The aim of Computer Architectural Aided Design (CAAD II), which is a 3rd year discipline in the first-cycle, is to keep developing theoretical and practical bases for Computer Graphics already started in CAAD I, with a special emphasis on the software used for rendering, communicating and designing architecture in an more advanced stage of development (richer 2D and 3D representations, interior spaces modeling, interior and exterior renderings, graphic composition of communication panels) while introducing a photography component, linked with rendering techniques through the use of photomontages . The intent is still 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 and/or detailed 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 both for learning and social activities, fostering the dynamics and synergies between the two, which are intended to be translated into a collective multi-functional equipment ("Learning Centre") and individual Study Cells articulated with the former, being expected that students further develop the work initiated in CAAD I. 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 II it is expected for students to:

– master and explore the potential of using diverse types of representation operators for technical and conceptual design with the use of Autocad, Sketchup, Photoshop, Artlantis, Windows Movie Maker and iMovie softwares;

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

– develop in a structured and effective way  the design communication project (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;

– actively participate in practical and theoretical-practical classes.

Working method

Presencial

Program

CAAD II maintains the program structure of CAAD I. It will be initiated by an exploratory workshop dedicated to Photoshop and to photography, where students will learn the basic operation of the digital image editing software and of a digital camera, which will be followed by a workshop dedicated to the rendering software Artlantis.

Learning the basic operation of these applications will allow students to further develop the group and individual exercise that has begun in CAAD I: students will be asked to introduce color, light, texture, three-dimension and animation in a way to explore and develop the exercise of the Learning Centre and the individual Study Cell in more depth, investigating properties and spatial attributes linked to how their projects can be perceived, such as exposure and visual access or physical elements such as corners, surfaces, horizontal and vertical elements and aspects such as borders, proximity and interaction with objects, all subject to search and manipulation. Students will be encouraged to express, through the language of computer graphics, ideas and problems linked to the perception of idealized spaces. It's with the introduction of color, texture and digital light, in conjunction with photography, that students will have the opportunity to discuss significant issues that relate to the architectural design of these programs.

Indeed, digital technologies related to CAAD articulated with other media such as photography and video are of increasing importance in the processes of creating representations for communication and perception of architecture spaces and designs. This diversity and richness of strategies – digitization, network communication mediated by computers, and the relationship between text representation and digital images, from CAAD, photography, video and sound means an increasing presence in the production process of architectural design and its teaching.

In this context, photography is assumed as a tool to support the project: 1) at the level of the documentary and artistic record of the places, allowing us to understand and communicate the identity of those places, which influence the development of the project; 2) at the level of the production of synthetic images that combine photography with 3D modeling, using photomontage techniques, allowing to predict the impact of interventions in the places; 3) at the level of free exploration of spaces and forms, using techniques of image editing in digital darkrooms.

Thus, in the second semester, in addition to the refinement and deepening of the communication projects developed in CAAD I, there is a focus on the world of Photography of Architecture, which allows students a first learning about photography as an art technique able to analyze and communicate the intervening space and architectural design. The Architecture Photography module in CAAD II includes a component in which theoretical and operational exercises are proposed as practical exercises with theoretical support. It is intended, therefore, that students will be able to integrate the documentary and artistic recording potential of photography to develop, in greater depth, the design exercise of the Learning Center, making use of techniques for perspective correction and panoramic photomontage to enrich the communication strategy of their design.

We also seek to make students aware of the potential in using photography and Internet (interactivity and communication power) as medium capable of representing and questioning the urban reality. These capabilities will be translated into various visual narratives - interactive presentations, video, panels and artist books in analog and digital portfolios in the network.

Students will continue the development of the exercise they started in CAAD I in its two components (individual and group), fixing less positive aspects in their first semester work and developing the work in the way mentioned above.

The visual narrative delivered in the first semester will be revised and completed, and their contents will be subject to a reorganization and synthesis on a panel and on an audiovisual animation.

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, as happens with CAAD I, 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 Photoshop and Artlantis, 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. In this first block it will also be integrated an introduction to photography, which in the context of the design exercise will be intimately related with the previously mentioned software applications. 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

Artlantis
Autocad
Windows Movie Maker
Sketchup
iMovie
Photoshop

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 II is a discipline where the method of evaluation is obtained through a balance between various parameters, 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 II exercise (TG) consists of three sub-components related to the design exercise of the Learning Centre:

a) enhancement of the visual narrative produced in CAAD I (TGa) by means of improving some of its elements and including others related to photography and rendering, to be submitted in both digital format (PDF) and printed;

b) reorganization of the visual narrative elements already produced in a new medium – a poster (TGb) to be submitted in both digital format (PDF) and printed;

c) reorganization of the visual narrative elements already produced in a new medium – a multimedia animation (TGc) to be submitted in digital format (AVI, MOV, MP4 or other).

Each of these sub-components will be assessed using 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 II exercise (TI) consists of two sub-components related to the design exercise of the individual Study Cell, and will be assessed using the same parameter as stated above. The sub-components are:

a) enhancement of the visual narrative produced in CAAD I (TIa) by means of improving some of its elements and including others related to photography and rendering, to be submitted in both digital format (PDF) and printed;

b) reorganization of the visual narrative elements already produced in a new medium – a poster (TIb) to be submitted in both digital format (PDF) and printed.

 

METHOD FOR CALCULATION CAAD II FINAL RESULTS:

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

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

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

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

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

TG = [0,40TGa + 0,40TGb + 0,20TGc]

TI = [0,50TIa + 0,50TIb]

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

TG = group exercise (group component of CAAD II design exercise: Learning Centre: weighted mean between visual narrative (TGa), panel (TGb) and multimedia animation (TGc));

TI = individual exercise (individual component of CAAD I design exercise: individual Study Cell: weighted mean between visual narrative (Tia) and panel (Tib)).

CF = CAAD II final result.

 

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

Observations

Optional discipline with precedence from CAAD I.