The future of CAAD: From computer-aided design to Computer-aided collaboration

Abstract

The primary uses of computers in the construction industry have been shifting, over the past four decades, from the evaluation of pro- posed design solutions, to their graphical (and other) representation, and more recently to facilitating collaboration among the various pro- fessionals who are involved in the design process. This paper argues that what may appear to be shifts in emphasis actually represents con- vergence on a single, original goal: the use of computers to help de- signers (and others who are involved in the design decision making process) to assess the quality, desirability, and the implications of their creations. Such assistance requires representation, communication, and analysis. The paper goes on to show how these individual parts can be joined into an integrated collaborative design environment, where they build upon and strengthen each other. Moreover, the paper argues that this convergence represents the future of CAAD research and develop- ment. This argument is derived from the paradoxical state of the profes- sion of engineering in general, and the construction industry in particu- lar, where the design, construction and management of highly integrated facilities is undertaken by severely fragmented and temporarily as- sembled teams, comprising experts who represent a wide range of dif- fering, sometimes conflicting agendas, worldviews, professional jar- gons, and methods of practice. They must collaborate, because the artifacts being designed have become too complex and must abide by too many requirements (technical, social, regulatory, financial, etc.) for any one professional to be able to handle them all by himself. But their collaboration is fraught with misunderstandings and attempts to im- prove individual parts at the expense of others, causing an overall di- minished performance of both the design process and its products. This paper argues that improving the overall quality of the prod- ucts, and the process of their design, can only be accomplished when the heretofore separate solutions are considered together, as integral parts of an overall solution. The paper describes the efforts that have been made by the CAD Research Group in Berkeley over the past six years in developing an integrated collaborative design environment that can facilitate multidisciplinary, a-synchronous design of buildings. The environment includes several semantically-rich, shared product repre- sentations, a network of distributed evaluators, and graphically-enhanced collaboration and negotiation tools.