A Study on Design Process Methods of Architecture Using Design Intelligence of Michael Speaks

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to study architectural design process methods and digital fabrications using Design Intelligence of Michael Speaks, focusing on digitally driven design process of architecture due to digital media and emerging technologies. The new digital techniques through architectural experiments suggest various modes of design process methods that would shape the territories of design and build in architecture. The specific design process methods of rapid prototyping and scenario planning are discovered and much more detailed using Design Intelligence. Collecting data, information, feedback and producing knowledge by thinking as doing are also very important factors to use best of the two digitally driven methods. The various forms of design knowledge such as Classification System, Design Models and Versioning are to be studied and discussed. Furthermore, the young architects who implement designs with the use of computers and Design Intelligence are to be discussed to find out what opportunities and limits to a certain extent Design Intelligence has. A significant design paradigm shift for architecture has been recognized because of the fundamenal nature of the challenges confronting architectural study and practice in a world increasingly dominated by technological change and marketization. If we see the fast growing number of digital media and newly emerging technologies as well as their impact on design research, analysis and production in architecture, the challenges are quite convincing. The use of computers has brought new possibilities for architectural design and construction that digital media and newly emerging technologies are rapidly expanding what we conceive to be formally, spatially, and materially possible. In result, the shapes, forms and structures have become much more complex and dynamic that they are neither predictable nor reached with the conventional design methods. As for the complexity of architectural designs increases, research on new materials are more than critical to realize them. Today, they are easily manipulated, tested and fabricated both virtually and physically that it is inconceivable to imagine designing buildings without the use of computers. The computers are now used at every step of the architectural design process from idea making to building construction. Accepting the significance of digital technologies and techniques, architects are much more focusing on exploiting digital tooling to expand design and construction possibilities in their architectural study and practice. Their attitude towards a new design paradigm shift may be no longer one of those options that they can take, but rather more likely a responsibility that they need to take in tune with uncertainty. Although the architects have done an adequate job exploring new digital tools and brining new designs, they have failed to develop an intellectual culture that would enable them make the best use of digital tooling. Thus, it is a must-do task to research on a new intellectual framework which would maximize the potentials of digital tooling.