Integrated Adaptive and Tangible Architecture Design Tool

Abstract

In this paper, we identified two majority issues of current CAAD development situating from the standpoint of CAAD history and the nature of design. On one hand, current CAAD tools are not adaptive enough for early design stage, since most of CAAD tools are designed to be mathematical correct. as we conducted a detailed survey of CAAD development history, we find out that most of the techniques of Computer-Aided Design applied into architecture are always adopted from engineering track. On other hand, the interaction between Architects/Designer and CAAD tools needs to be enhanced. Design objects are operated by 2d based tools such as keyboard, mouse as well as monitors which are less capable of comprehensively representing physical 3D building objects. In addition, we proposed a working in progress potential solution with HCI approaches to fix these issues. We summarize that, the prototype proved that architects and designers could benefit from utilizing adaptive and tangible design tools, especially during massing studies in the early phases of architectural design.