A Case Study of a Prototype Computer-Aided Architectural Design System

In the past decade, software packages intended to help architects create concept designs have had limited success, primarily because there is no standard method for the design process. In this investigation an attempt was made to identify the elements and procedures in the design process that occur most frequently among the varying design methods and that can be defined well enough to be implemented on a computer-aided design system. A prototype system was developed which addressed the preliminary design stages of adjacency diagrams, bubble diagrams, and block layout diagrams. In this prototype system, the user interactively creates a concept design using one or more acceptable design methodologies. The system records the activities of the user as the design is created. A case study was done to compare the traditional and computer-aided design processes. As a control, the subjects of the study were asked to create designs by traditional methods, without computer assistance. Then the subjects created designs using the prototype system, which recorded the time spent in each step of the design.