Computational aspects of a design process: Mario Botta's single-family house in Breganzona

Abstract

The present study aims to foreground and investigate computational aspects of the design process of Mario Botta's single-family house in Breganzona. Through the selected case, it mainly addresses the research question, "what are the computational aspects of the examined design process and what is the nature of such aspects?" or, otherwise formulated, "what aspects of such a design process could be formalised, and thus, represented or explained in computational terms?" The study primarily involves analysis and investigation of the "material"; the sketches and the drawings produced during the design process and through this material, reinterpretation, and hypothetical reconstruction of the process. The material is taken as the container of design ideas / concepts and operations, and a formal / conceptual analysis is employed to foreground and extract this content. ©2010, Association for Research in Computer-Aided Architectural Research in Asia (CAADRIA).