Gradual Introduction of CAAD to Develop and Support Students Ability in Design Studio

How to integrate CAAD into design education, and how to teach CAAD as a tool of design thinking has been a difficult issue left unresolved for architecture schools. This paper discusses the possible approach to these issues which were experienced in a Japanese university. In the first section, it will summarize the present situation of CAAD education in Japan. The second section reports the framework of design education and roles of CAAD programmed in a department. The third section introduces an example of course programs and studentsi work. The fourth section observes a recent outcome of experimented program, such as, studentsi work, scores and some results of a student questionnaire. In the final section, it will discuss the approach that introduce different levels of CAAD usage to design studios as the level of design education advances, was successful to integrate CAAD into design education