Computational Design Thinking

The current transition from Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Computational Design in architecture represents a profound shift in design thinking and methods. Representation is being replaced by simulation, and the crafting of objects is moving towards the generation of integrated systems through designer-authored computational processes. While there is a particular history of such an approach in architecture, its relative newness requires the continued progression of novel modes of design thinking for the architect of the 21st century. This AD Reader establishes a foundation for such thinking. It includes multifaceted reflections and speculations on the profound influence of computational paradigms on architecture. It presents relevant principles from the domains of mathematics and computer science, developmental and evolutionary biology, system science and philosophy, establishing a discourse for computational design thinking in architecture. Rather than a merely technical approach, the book will discuss essential intellectual concepts that are fundamental not only for a discourse on computational design but also for its practice. This anthology provides a unique collection of seminal texts by authors, who have either provided a significant starting point through which a computational approach to design has been pursued or have played a considerable role in shaping the field. An important aspect of this book is the manner in which adjacent fields and historical texts are connected. Both the source of original inspiration and scientific thought are presented alongside contemporary writings on the continually evolving computational design discourse. Emerging from the field of science, principally the subjects of morphogenesis, evolution and mathematics, selected texts provide a historical basis for a reconfigured mindset of processes that generate, arrange and describe form. Juxtaposed against more contemporary statements regarding the influence of computation on design thinking, the book offers advancements of fundamental texts to the particular purpose of establishing novel thought processes for architecture, theoretically and practically. The first reader to provide an effective framework for computational thinking in design. Includes classic texts by Johan W. von Goethe, D’Arcy Thompson, Ernst Mayr, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Gordan Pask, Christopher Alexander, John H. Holland, Nicholas Negroponte, William Mitchell, Peter J. Bentley & David W. Corne, Sanford Kwinter, John Frazer, Kostis Terzidis, Michael Weinstock and Achim Menges Features new writing by: Mark Burry, Jane Burry, Manuel DeLanda and Peter Trummer.

New computational design tools have evolved rapidly and been increasingly applied in the field of design in recent years, complimenting and even replacing the traditional design media and approaches. Design as both the process and product are changing due to the emergence and adoption of these new technologies. Understanding and assessing the impact of these new computational design environments on design and designers is important for advancing design in the contemporary context. Do these new computational environments support or hinder design creativity? How do those tools facilitate designers’ thinking? Such knowledge is also important for the future development of design technologies. Research shows that design is never a mysterious non-understandable process, for example, one general view is that design process shares a common analysis-synthesis-evaluation model, during which designers interact between design problem and solution spaces. Understanding designers’ thinking in different environments is the key to design research, education and practice. This book focuses on emerging computational design environments, whose impact on design and designers have not been comprehensively and systematically studied. It comprises three parts. The history and recent developments of computational design technologies are introduced in Part I. The main categories of technologies cover from computer-aided drafting and modelling tools, to visual programming and scripting tools for algorithmic design, to advanced interfaces and platforms for interactions between designers, between designers and computers, and between the virtual environment and the physical reality. To critically explore design thinking, especially in these new computational design environments, formal approaches to studying design thinking and design cognition are introduced and compared in Part II, drawing on literature and studies from the 70s to the current era. Part III concludes the book by exploring the impact of different computational design technologies on design and designers, using a series of case studies conducted by the author team building on their close collaboration over the past five years. The book offers new insights into designers’ thinking in the rapidly evolving computational design environments, which have not been critically and systematically studied and reported in the current literature. The book is meant for design researchers, educators and students, professional practitioners and consultants, as well as people who are interested in computational design in general.

Visionary designer and technologist John Maeda defines the fundamental laws of how computers think, and why you should care even if you aren't a programmer. "Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance." --Wired John Maeda is one of the world's preeminent interdisciplinary thinkers on technology and design. In How to Speak Machine, he offers a set of simple laws that govern not only the computers of today, but the unimaginable machines of the future. Technology is already more powerful than we can comprehend, and getting more powerful at an exponential pace. Once set in motion, algorithms never tire. And when a program's size, speed, and tirelessness combine with its ability to learn and transform itself, the outcome can be unpredictable and dangerous. Take the seemingly instant transformation of Microsoft's chatbot Tay into a hate-spewing racist, or how crime-predicting algorithms reinforce racial bias. How to Speak Machine provides a coherent framework for today's product designers, business leaders, and policymakers to grasp this brave new world. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience from engineering to computer science to design, Maeda shows how businesses and individuals can identify opportunities afforded by technology to make world-changing and inclusive products--while avoiding the pitfalls inherent to the medium.

An introduction to computational thinking that traces a genealogy beginning centuries before the digital computer. A few decades into the digital era, scientists discovered that thinking in terms of computation made possible an entirely new way of organizing scientific investigation; eventually, every field had a computational branch: computational physics, computational biology, computational sociology. More recently, “computational thinking” has become part of the K–12 curriculum. But what is computational thinking? This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers an accessible overview, tracing a genealogy that begins centuries before digital computers and portraying computational thinking as pioneers of computing have described it. The authors explain that computational thinking (CT) is not a set of concepts for programming; it is a way of thinking that is honed through practice: the mental skills for designing computations to do jobs for us, and for explaining and interpreting the world as a complex of information processes. Mathematically trained experts (known as “computers”) who performed complex calculations as teams engaged in CT long before electronic computers. The authors identify six dimensions of today's highly developed CT—methods, machines, computing education, software engineering, computational science, and design—and cover each in a chapter. Along the way, they debunk inflated claims for CT and computation while making clear the power of CT in all its complexity and multiplicity.

Data, Matter, Design presents a comprehensive overview of current design processes that rely on the input of data and use of computational design strategies, and their relationship to an array of outputs. Technological changes, through the use of computational tools and processes, have radically altered and influenced our relationship to cities and the methods by which we design architecture, urban, and landscape systems. This book presents a wide range of curated projects and contributed texts by leading architects, urbanists, and designers that transform data as an abstraction, into spatial, experiential, and performative configurations within urban ecologies, emerging materials, robotic agents, adaptive fields, and virtual constructs. Richly illustrated with over 200 images, Data, Matter, Design is an essential read for students, academics, and professionals to evaluate and discuss how data in design methodologies and theoretical discourses have evolved in the last two decades and why processes of data collection, measurement, quantification, simulation, algorithmic control, and their integration into methods of reading and producing spatial conditions, are becoming vital in academic and industry practices.

Computational creativity is an emerging field of research within AI that focuses on the capacity of machines to both generate and evaluate novel outputs that would, if produced by a human, be considered creative. This book is intended to be a canonical text for this new discipline, through which researchers and students can absorb the philosophy of the field and learn its methods. After a comprehensive introduction to the idea of systematizing creativity the contributions address topics such as autonomous intentionality, conceptual blending, literature mining, computational design, models of novelty, evaluating progress in related research, computer-supported human creativity and human-supported computer creativity, common-sense knowledge, and models of social creativity. Products of this research will have real consequences for the worlds of entertainment, culture, science, education, design, and art, in addition to artificial intelligence, and the book will be of value to practitioners and students in all these domains.

Empower tomorrow’s tech innovators Our students are avid users and consumers of technology. Isn’t it time that they see themselves as the next technological innovators, too? Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student is the beginner’s guide for K-12 educators who want to learn to integrate the basics of computer science into their curriculum. Readers will find Strategies and activities for teaching computational thinking and coding inside and outside of school, at any grade level, across disciplines Instruction-ready lessons for every grade A discussion guide and companion website with videos, activities, and other resources

The emergence and adoption of computational technologies has significantly changed design and design education beyond the replacement of drawing boards with computers or pens and paper with computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications. Computational Design Methods and Technologies: Applications in CAD, CAM and CAE Education explores state-of-the-art developments in computational design methods and their impact on contemporary design education. Readers will find case studies, empirical research findings, pedagogical theories, and reflections. Researchers, educators, designers, and developers will better understand how applying pedagogical research and reflection has influenced and will continue to transform the field in the future.