ADVANCES IN IT FOR BUILDING DESIGN

摘要

Computers have been used building design since the 1950s. Their first use was in structural analysis and construction planning. The use of computers in building design analysis has included extensive developments in structural analysis as well as programs for the analysis of the HVAC and environmental performance of buildings. Recently, more sophisticated analyses of environmental behaviour and the behaviour of building users have been developed and implemented. Computer graphics was developed initially in the 1960s and formed the basis of computer-aided drafting systems - called CAD systems. These early CAD systems were used during the documentation phase of building design. These CAD systems developed beyond simply drafting to modelling the geometry of the building. Today's commercial CAD systems are used at various stages in the building design process and are integrated with analysis tools. This paper briefly traces these developments before introducing current research on IT for building design that has the potential to impact the way buildings will be designed in the future. Three strands of research are presented. The first strand deals with virtual environments for designing and designing virual environments. In virtual environments the focus moves away from documents to models and from a virtual building model on a designer's computer that is then sent to other members of the design team to a building model in a virtual environment that is accessible by any authorised member of the design team anywhere at any time. The issue of designing within virtual environments is raised. The second strand deals with new ways of carrying out simulations of the behaviour of the building users rather than the behaviour of the building. The third strand deals with novel computational agent technologies and examines the potential of their use in building design.