Incorporating Guidelines into A Case-Based Architectural Design Tool

Published in Reconnecting: ACADIA 94, edited by Anton Harfmann and Mike Fraser.This paper discusses an ongoing project called Archie, a collaboration between cognitive scientists and researchers in artificial intelligence and architecture, aimed at creating computer-based aids for conceptual design. Archie is a "case-based design aid" (CBDA): a tool that provides designers flexible access to evaluated examples of past experience that they can use in their own designs. Archie is a "clever" hypermedia database aimed at aiding conceptual design in architecture. It contains about 200 problems, responses, stories, and building descriptions derived from evaluations of six libraries and two courthouses. In this paper we provide a brief history and description of Archie and discuss some issues that have come into focus through developing and initially evaluating the system: how specific architectural case information can be organized; how users can be provided more general information about issues and building types; and how information can be indexed. In each of these we briefly discuss the current state of the system and propose some potential future directions