Rethinking the architectural design process through its computable body of knowledge

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2008
Ergun, Eser
This thesis assumes the architectural design process as a systematic study, in which knowledge is stored, organized and operated on by computational methods. From this perspective, the study explores the efforts for systemizing the architectural design process. Firstly, the focus is on the early approaches of systemizing design in the Design Methods Movement. The thesis identifies and evaluates the use of a number of critical concepts in this movement and in recent architecture practice, in order to see the development and transformation of design methods in terms of computing knowledge in a systematic way. The thesis evaluates the features that make design systematic within the Design Methods Movement and inquires whether such features like complexity, hierarchy, feedback loops and selection are influential in recent computational design methods of architecture. The thesis looks into two generative design methods, namely evolutionary design and shape grammars, which have been studied by designers since the 1960s, the start of the Design Methods Movement. These two methods exemplify current systematic approaches to design and according to the thesis these are the instances of how recent architecture employs the features discussed as characteristic in the Design Methods Movement.

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Citation Formats
E. Ergun, “Rethinking the architectural design process through its computable body of knowledge,” M.Arch. - Master of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2008.