all at the mere touch of a button.
The control programs provided with the display unit can be used by the operator to produce geometrically per- fect shapes from the sketched line or circle he has made with the light pen. All or part of the graphically displayed information can be erased, modified or extended at the operator's will. Such facilities are provided by the control- ling software or set of instructions which is within the computer.
When used by an architect, the gra- phical display system will make use of the computer's files of architectural information which have been stored within the machine.
Because of the practical limitations involved in storing in the computer all the design considerations required by an architect, design techniques so far have been applied principally to stan- dardised building components where rationalisation has been employed.
This concept of operation is not only within the capabilities of comput er graphics but it is also in sympathy with the trend towards system building from standard modules. The extensive use of standard prefabricated units in the building industry enables data on such items to be more conveniently stored in the computer.
The availability of such information will allow the architect to design freely and progressively, the computer pro- viding alternatives when standard units can be used and informing the architect where a design is impractical or not feasible.
Coupled with this, the presence of cost information associated with the standard units whose parameters are stored in the computer allows an ac- curate appraisal of costs to be main- tained, together with the cost implica- tions of design changes. Therefore an architect can quickly design a structure which is satisfactory in all respects, at the same time taking into account the technical and economic considerations of the design.
Because the process of putting ideas into visual form can be speeded up, a client can be offered a greater selection of sketch designs by the architect to get agreement on basic details,
The West Sussex County Council in Britain have been using graphical displays in this manner for the design of new houses. They have built up a graphical catalogue of standard parts, all of which are programmed into the computer together with a costing figure for each. The architect initially prepares design sketches on squared paper, and referring to his catalogue of standard
parts, builds up his design on the gra- phical display using reference numbers to denote the catalogued sections, such as staircases, kitchen modules, case- ments, etc.
Automatic costing
When he has completed the design he is presented with an automatic valuation of the building by the com- puter. All this can be achieved in about 20 minutes, so that in addition to satisfying himself with the aesthetic design of the building, he can justify its design economically.
Another possibility with this tech- nique is for the architect to have several catalogues for various building systems, enabling him to select, for a
given design, the cheapest method of construction. Although this technique appears to apply itself only to the modern methods of industrialised building, there is no reason why it should not be applied to traditional architectural designs. All it would re- quire is a catalogue of symbolic speci- fications based on the individual architect's traditional and personal ideas. More convenient means of library compilation are required be- fore this becomes feasible.
The integration of basic design programs with other applications pro- grams, all of which could be called as required from the computer's store, is an ideal for computer aided architec- tural design. It is a comparatively
Boyd Auger examining a computer-generated perspective of his Isola Dino development, being printed on an ICL 4120 graph plotter
14
Far East BUILDER, April 1969
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.