The Idea Space System - Words as Handles to a Comprehensive Data Structure

The Idea Space System is a CAAD system that supports an architect in the early phase of the design process, by reducing fixation in the process and enhancing the “flowi of work. Mostly in the field of CAAD research, the emphasis lies on sketching or modelling. However the architect uses multiple representations in developing the design. In this research the focus lies on the use of words. The Idea Space System captures all design data and then uses the words to provide the architect with new associations and relations between words (real time), which stimulate the generation of new ideas. Architecture students have used our first prototype of the Idea Space System in a small experiment. This gave us better insight in the ideas and relations made by the architect in the early phase of the design process and what kind of feedback preferred. Afterwards a study was done about the representation of the feedback. In this paper we focus on the textual input provided by the architecture students and the description of the Idea Space System, handling this textual input and providing the architecture students with the proper feedback