Representations and Communication channels in collaborative architectural design

Collaborative design requires participation of individuals and coordination of design information and tasks. This paper focuses on the representations and communication channels in collaboration design. On the basis of a design communication model and findings of four collaborative design case studies, the phenomena of design communication are presented. The study also examines when the conditions of collaboration are achieved and what kinds of interfaces in computer-mediated collaborative work are needed, and propose a theme-oriented interface for computer-mediated collaborative design.