Design problems and evaluation procedures — explorations of technological issues in the design studio using CAAD

The way technology is introduced into the design studio both in the form of the application of computers and in the evaluation of architectural science issues is problematic. First, the computer is still a technology that is not widely accepted as being useful to the designer particularly in the early conceptual phase of the design process. Secondly, environmental issues are seen as only a sub-set of the larger issues to do with design. The research project described here examines these problems through exploration of a design exercise whichfocuses on these two areas and seeks to demonstrate how computers can be useful in design at this early stage and give meaningful scientific feedback relevant to the early stages in the design process It would seem that CAAD can be particularly useful in aiding the evaluative process of the designer. The paper describes a procedure for such an evaluation and discuses the relative merits of this approach