CGA shape, a novel shape grammar for the procedural modeling of CG architecture, produces building shells with high visual quality and geometric detail. It produces extensive architectural models for computer games and movies, at low cost. Context sensitive shape rules allow the user to specify interactions between the entities of the hierarchical shape descriptions. Selected examples demonstrate solutions to previously unsolved modeling problems, especially to consistent mass modeling with volumetric shapes of arbitrary orientation. CGA shape is shown to efficiently generate massive urban models with unprecedented level of detail, with the virtual rebuilding of the archaeological site of Pompeii as a case in point.

. This paper presents different methods of integrating solutions for Video Mediated Communication (VMC) into the home environment considering both architectural and technical aspects. The context is entitled comHOME, a concept dwelling of the future designed and built as a full-scale model in collaboration with a telecom operator. The principal problem investigated is the various aspects of private and public zones using VMC in a home environment. The solution contains the integration of different comZONES (communicative zones for VMC), where the resident can be seen and heard at different levels varying in time and space. The comZONES presented are for example a "videoTORSO" - a large vertically mounted flat screen for informal everyday communication and a "mediaSPACE" set-up consisting of a wall of screens permitting shared activities in both time and space. The comZONES are described both from an architectural and function form as well as technological hardware and soft...

Software design methods share many characteristics with design methods in other fields. All these methods are the progeny of philosophies of design that are in turn influenced by more general philosophic movements. This essay begins with the influence of philosophies of science on the study of design, highlighting the effects on design discourse of Cartesian rationality, the hypothetico-deductive account of scientific progress, and Kuhnian paradigms. Next, the influence of the constructivist and humanist movements on design thinking are considered, culminating in the introduction of a philosophy of design based on hermeneutics, or interpretation. The influence of design philosophy on software design methods begins a categorization of several software design methods according to the design theory framework, with some emphasis on design methods that support a hermeneutical style of design. Some justification for a pluralistic approach to software design methodology rounds out the essay. ...

Abstract. Research on human spatial memory and navigational ability has recently shown the strong influence of reference systems in spatial memory on the ways spatial information is accessed in navigation and other spatially oriented tasks. One of the main findings can be characterized as a large cognitive cost, both in terms of speed and accuracy that occurs whenever the reference system used to encode spatial information in memory is not aligned with the reference system required by a particular task. In this paper, the role of aligned and misaligned reference systems is discussed in the context of the built environment and modern architecture. The role of architectural design on the perception and mental representation of space by humans is investigated. The navigability and usability of built space is systematically analysed in the light of cognitive theories of spatial and navigational abilities of humans. It is concluded that a building’s navigability and related wayfinding issues can benefit from architectural design that takes into account basic results of spatial cognition research.

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