Design Course Does Digital Presented By : Yasmine Mohammed Ali Selim By : John Marx Web Address : Topic Number: 180 Date : 23 August 2000

The goals and aspirations of teaching a digital design process vary widely between different educational institutions, as well as between academia and the profession. We believe that teaching an explicitly digital design process will substantially improve the students' design abilities. Clients and competitive demands for efficiency and presentation graphics have pressured many architecture firms to create a skill base more dependent upon young designers than at any time in history. This is primarily because older designers are reluctant to learn new computer skills. Sport City is a stage for the extreme sport players, signifying a new age of dynamic movements, designed by Elisa Lui, an architecture student at the University of California at Berkeley. Image: Elisa Lui

The Course At the University of California at Berkeley, we have developed a course that teaches the process of digital design as an endeavor independent of the design studio. "Process and Methods of Modeling and Presentation" has six basic educational goals: 1)To teach students to design "on screen," as an alternative. 2) To encourage students to design more three dimensionally, using a variety of complex, organic, and/or compound curve based shapes Sport City. Image: Elisa Lui Computer-aided design provides architects with a highly effective simulated 3D design environment. This is a significant shift from the two-dimensional process architects have practiced for centuries. The 3D nature of these tools invites the designer to think and act in the third dimension to a greater degree than previously imagined

3) To encourage students to use digital design in their studio courses. 4) To teach students a comprehensive digital design process, beginning with initial massing studies and ending with high-resolution presentation drawings. 5) To expose students to the image-making opportunities of realistic rendering techniques and their role throughout design. 6) To expose students to the opportunities of graphic design via the computer and to explore presentation methodologies beyond the painterly approaches of architectural tradition. The first half of the class introduces the process of digital design, wherein students learn to design exclusively using the computer, Design decisions are made on screen, using form-Z and Photoshop. Sport City. Image: Elisa Lui In a student design for Swatch Headquarters, Wilson Au-Yeung used a series of overlapping planes to represent time. Image: Wilson Au- Yeung

Course Projects The goal is to explore digital presentation as a creator of meaning that goes beyond the traditional use of plan, elevation, or perspective. The 3D design model serves as the foundation. Ray-traced rendering techniques are used to translate the design into a 2D format. Ray tracing allows the designer to produce images that range from the photorealistic to the poetic. Image editing software is used to study the relationships between images created from the 3D model and images that are relevant to the design but created independently of the 3D model. The final project is a 600-square-inch (4000-square-centimeter) high-resolution collage based on the 3D model produced in the first half of the class. Swatch Headquarters. Image: Wilson Au- Yeung

The Outcome This technique has produced significant results at many levels. Foremost has been an explosion of creative energy in the three-dimensional quality of the forms the students have studied and in the quality of their results. The majority of students in the course report that they were able to study architectural forms which they would never have attempted without the computer as the primary design tool. In particular students explored designs which range from the "fluidity of form" found in the work of Elise Lui, to the more conceptual "supplanted topography" of Martin Schaedler. In general, all of the students are creating designs with increasing levels of detail and use of texture maps Many of the students used form-Z to study materiality and light in ways deeper than a traditional design method would allow. Inspired by Michael Jordan, Han Chung focuses the Monument of the 20th Century Sports on professional athletes' road to success. Image: Han Chung

Sport City Project by Elisa Lui Signifying a new age of dynamic movements, exciting advantages, and ultimate fun, the Sport City is a stage for the extreme sport players. It is the essential stop for the death-drive seeker. The form of this new stage is derived from the shape of the human heart. Twisting, bending, and overlapping, the two organic-shaped glass tubes in the center of the stage move like the rushing red blood cells in our arterioles. It is the source of vibrant energy for the structure and the players. These seemingly light and free-flowing arterioles are in contrast with the solid, stable, ridge-shaped structures on their sides. Deriving their shapes according to the arterioles, the two structures on the sides act like the two sides of the human heart. They function not only as protector for the arterioles but are the place for performance. Here the players will execute their ultimate act and generate a new source of energy back to the arterioles, creating an endless revitalizing cycle. Like the human body, both parts of the building are essential for the function of the whole.

Monument of the 20th Century Sports Project by Han Chung This project was inspired by Michael Jordan's retirement. The building features one athlete at a time, exhibiting footage of his or her career, awards, behind-the-scene training, etc. The glass elevator represents the "road to the top." It takes visitors to each floor of the exhibition tower, featuring different stages of the athlete's career. The destination of the tower is the sky garden, which represents the career high point. Being on top of the building and seeing the surroundings through glass evokes a feeling of accomplishment and success. A more interactive part of the building, where the featured athlete can meet the fans and answer questions, takes place in the ground glass atrium. The idea is to make visitors personally experience the athlete's hard work and determination. A more philosophical reading of the project is to encourage people to seize the moment, carpe diem. Monument of the 20th Century Sports. Image: Han Chung

A campus center designed by UC Berkeley student Martin Schaedler. Image: Martin Schaedler Campus Center. Image: Martin Schaedler