Visual Databases

As with briefs, one can also make databases that collect and organize information on designs – one’s own, precedents one studies, or types one explores. In addition to the general benefits for information and project management, such databases can help one with the development of a brief by providing precedents that can serve either as sources of new designs or as comparison material at all stages of briefing. In this chapter one sees how design databases can be structured and how they can be used in briefing, from the derivation of data for a new brief to the evaluation of designs with respect to the brief.

Briefing and Computerization

Briefing and the design brief seldom attract attention in architectural computerization. Nevertheless, the computer offers us substantial opportunities for the explicit, effective, and efficient treatment of information in both briefing and designing. The chapter introduces the approach underlying the use of computers in briefing, from the structure of a brief and the terminology used in the book to the range of relevant computer programs.

The Future of Computer-Mediated Briefing

The brief is often considered an outdated document that limits design creativity and freedom. However, in the framework of comprehensive computerization, the brief as an information system becomes an integral part of architectural decision taking. This agrees not only with possible emerging architectural roles and services but also with established trends in computerization and information processing. The chapter is a succinct look into the future development of the architectural brief within these trends and services.

Feedback

Comparing a brief to a design is the basis for analyses of conformance and performance which in turn lead to feedback to either the brief or, more often, the design, so that they can be improved on the basis of the insights produced by the comparison. In this chapter the same approach and mechanisms as with feedforward are used to make such comparisons a constant companion of designing, and guide feedback to the brief or design in a direct, dynamic, and unambiguous manner. As with feedforward, these issues are considered with respect to the various facilities on offer in CAD (AutoCAD) and BIM software (Revit and AutoCAD Architecture).

Graphs

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the mathematical foundations of graphs and explain their applicability to giving an abstract spatial expression to the brief. As one knows from different kinds of diagrams, visual displays are quite useful for recognizing relationships and summarizing complex information. Graphs allow overview of aspects such as grouping and circulation in a brief. Moreover, they provide connections to designs produced on the basis of the brief, as design representations like floor plans can be directly compared to a requirements graph. The graphs discussed in this chapter consist of spatial entities, for example, spaces in a design or activities in a brief, and relationships between pairs of entities, such as direct access, proximity, or belongingness to the same group. Of the various programs available for developing and working with graphs, one considers in detail Microsoft Visio, a widely available diagramming application.

Feedforward

Feedforward refers to the transition from briefing to designing in ways that enrich the design with information from the brief (one assumes that a better-informed designer can achieve higher performance than an uninformed one). The first possibility for feedforward that is discussed is the use of the requirements graph in designing, including the development of schematic designs in Visio. After that, another form of feedforward is examined: the connection of the brief database to design representations. This is considered with respect to the various facilities on offer in CAD (AutoCAD) and BIM software (Revit and AutoCAD Architecture).

Brief and Design

This chapter is a general introduction to the connections between brief and design. First, the two basic forms of this connection are considered, feedforward (the transfer of brief information to design representations) and feedback (where the connection is used to evaluate brief satisfaction in the design and subsequently to improve either the design or the brief). Then the attention turns to the prerequisites for design representations: the structures that allow direct recognition of relevant entities and the enrichment of these entities with external information, in this case, from the brief. Finally, these prerequisites are examined in more detail in CAD software (AutoCAD) and BIM editors (Revit and AutoCAD Architecture).

The Brief as Information System

In this chapter, the author focuses on how a brief can be stored and processed with a database management system. This is an important step in brief computerization that precedes designing and connection to CAD or BIM programs. The chapter starts with a general explanation of what a database is and then consider a simple, single-table database of activities specified in a brief. This table then forms the core module of a multitable database that can accommodate more aspects, from users and security levels to fixtures and facilities. One sees how the design of such databases can help organize brief information in a structured and transparent manner and how queries of various types facilitate presentation of the content of the brief as well as analyses of completeness, consistency, and coherence.

Analysis and Simulation

In the previous three chapters the author has considered direct connections between the brief and the design representation, between discrete items in the brief, such as requirements or constraints, and attributes of entities or relationships between entities in the design. Such connections cover the bulk of the brief but leave out important questions that concern overall performance and relate to general, frequently abstract goals in the brief like sustainability. To tackle such questions, one must often analyse the design as a whole: predict its behaviour and performance and compare it to what the brief and legal or professional requirements specify. Computerization offers a wide range of possibilities for performing such extensive and demanding tasks automatically. In this chapter a few examples of computerized design analysis both within the programs that have been used so far and in external software are discussed. These analyses are primarily performed through simulations that promise the accuracy, reliability, and transparency required to achieve and safeguard the brief goals.

Constraints

Constraints and parameterization are powerful design mechanisms but often poorly understood. The chapter starts with a succinct explanation of what they are and what they do in a design context. Then it moves on to the constraint-related facilities available in CAD (AutoCAD) and BIM software (Revit and AutoCAD Architecture), and considers their application with respect to brief constraints on the form, position, and relationships between design entities (spaces and building elements).