A new digital technology is set to revolutionise the face of the architectural and building design industry, according to Robert Fong, architect at Metro D Architects in Sydney and director research and development company, Morf Dynamics.
“The main technology developed out of research into basic computer scripting that would enhance the capabilities of 3D generating software - in this case we were using 3D Studio Macs - so the script was like an additional brain to the software that would enhance its capabilities of understanding text or words,” Fong says.
Realising it was possible to script an artificial intelligence that would allow the parent program to understand word structures, the company developed an engine that would understand nouns, adjective, prepositions and so on. A user could type in simple text, whether from a cultural perspective or if they were describing a particular building product or design, and the software would generate a 3D form based on the keywords. The user would have the option to manipulate the object as it would fit a given brief.
By then aligning the technology with radical rapid prototyping technology, Fong and his associates created something which works on a heuristic engine – an artificially intelligent engine that can learn as it goes along. “It now goes beyond understanding word structure, it understands words, so it understands language, grammar, context, nuance, double meanings and it gives the user the power to describe archetypes,” Fong says. “If I wanted to design a cup, I would describe it and the machine would understand it in a primitive form which then the user can enhance it x number of times.”
The software is also supported by OCR (optical character recognition) technology so users can sketch as well as key in words, and there’s also voice recognition.
In a building design context, the first thing the software does is ask what the user wants to design. “Once you give it a noun or subject - for example a room - the software recalls a nominal dimension,” Fong explains. “Say I’m an interior designer trying to do a fitout, I can either do a global picture where I want to talk about basic geometry and type out a brief for myself using simple keywords. Let’s say we have broad principles that range from cultural issues to physical aesthetics and the material, the software within that given dimension begins to erect these things and the stage is limitless so at any stage you can say ‘I like that, we’ll keep it’, or ‘I don’t like these, we’ll get rid of them’, but because it’s a heuristic archetype we’re no longer confronted with a singular solution, we’re confronted with a multiple number of solutions based on your given keywords initially – which you can refine and generate other factorial possibilities.
“It’s query based too, so if it doesn’t understand it will ask you - for example, if you key in the word ‘blue’, it might say ‘this is my understanding of blue, it has these cultural conditions’, which you can read, and these kind of materials conditions and you then select the words that fit the description you want and it gets rid of anything else.”
It’s this opening up of infinite design possibilities that Wong says will change the face of the building industry, although not replace traditional architecture methods entirely. “It’s enhancing the process of what architects can do by hand, not replacing it completely. For architects interested in digital architecture, it gives them an added area of exploration, and because the software is so user-friendly it means the role of the architect has changed in that he can interact with a client who may also be using the same software.
“The argument has been that traditional methods of design and digital design sit at opposite poles. I say the technology afforded to us today is basically trying to bring the design profession closer to a commercial position. Digital software is giving us clues to new forms and materials and that doesn’t necessarily impinge on traditional methods of design – I find myself going through very traditional methods of mapping design, physical model-making and so on but with technology, it enhances that position. It gives us immediate feedback about materiality, structure, cladding and so on. It’s heralding in a new way of looking at space – such as what happens if we get rid of the corner. The technology helps us visualise connections better.” By articulating a mass market position, such advances in technology mean also that for the first time consumers can actually begin to “describe” their own products textually, and to then be able to transform their descriptions into 3 dimensional form. For the first time, text-form transformations are possible and this will radically affect the nature of design - it’s all about enhancing an existing culture that is already communicating through text and language.
While it may not completely replace traditional methods of architecture, it is likely to initiate more untraditional forms, and will make some architects redundant, Wong says .“Autocad, which is already available, has made a lot of senior architects who don’t have that skill redundant.New technology unfortunately will make a lot of things redundant but it will also reshape other things.. It also has an educational perspective – imagine at an institutional level where architecture students have their creative brief-writing skills enhanced in sync with form generation – the lineage and the synergy is more sophisticated. This is the holy grail of design technology where grammar and geometry is fused.”
- Katrina Fox.n
Source: Building Products News.