THREE APPROACHES OF THE USE OF IMAGE TO ASSIST<br />ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

International audienceThe image is the support of ideas search in the wholedesign phase. The definition of assistance tools, by using the image,seems to be applicable whatever the stage of the process ofarchitectural design is. This article presents three approaches, whichintend to study the contribution of the image inside of thearchitectural design process. The first approach rests on the idea thatarchitects use external references as generating elements of new projectideas and that it is possible to organize this referential knowledge bytaking the image as structuring entity of this knowledge. The twoother approaches intend to use image to support the formulation ofinformation designer's needs in more advanced phases of the designprocess. The identified needs are those of the architect who searches aparticular information in order to justify or to perform some choices,during the act of conception