Thursday, November 1, 2001
DJC.COM: Design Machine shows off new tools, provided by Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Login Name:
Page: 1
Password:
Home | Search | Subscriptions | Site Map
myDJC
October 31, 2001
Breaking News
Design Machine shows off new tools
Traffic
Business
Construction
Real Estate
A&E
Promotions/Additions
AIA Calendar
CECW Calendar
Clive Shearer
Perspectives
Snapshots
Design Details
Firms
Marketing Matters
Project of the Month
Upcoming
Bidding/RFPs
Design Machine Group is pushing the boundaries of
computer-aided design, setting a new standard for collaboration in
the virtual reality environment.
By SAM BENNETT
Journal Staff Reporter
Working with the
Architecture
Machine Group at
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology in the
1970s, Mark
Gross watched
first-hand as
computer-aided
design (CAD)
programs took
shape.
Twenty-five years
later, Gross is
again working on
technology that he
said will change
the way architects
work. "To us,
CAD is just
scratching the
surface," he said.
"There is a whole
other generation
coming along."
Photos by Sam Bennett
Ellen Yi-Luen Do, assistant professor of
architecture at University of Washington,
demonstrates the Digital Sandbox program,
which sculpts landforms in 3-D. Also pictured
are UW Design Machine Group co-director
Brian Johnson and director Mark Gross.
Johnson and Yi-Luen Do are UW architecture
assistant professors, and Gross is an associate
professor.
That generation is incubating in the basement of the Department of
Architecture at University of Washington, promising architects a new set of
tools to collaborate and design in virtual worlds. "I think they're going to love
it," he said.
Gross, director of UW's Design Machine Group and an associate professor
of architecture at UW, will be joined by faculty and students for a
demonstration of computer design tools 6:30 p.m. Monday at Seattle Art
Museum. The event is co-sponsored by Space.City.
CBD
Design Machine Group is part of UW's Center for Digital Arts, an
http://faculty.washington.edu/ellendo/daily.html
Thursday, November 1, 2001
Environment
Machinery
Technology
DJC.COM: Design Machine shows off new tools, provided by Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
interdisciplinary effort to redefine art, music, theater, film and architecture.
The group is pushing the boundaries of computer-aided design.
By Machine Group standards, current CAD programs grab the low-hanging
fruit. "Until now, architects have used the computer to replace the pencil
and drawing board," said Gross, who is also an associate professor of
architecture. "But the computer is really a knowledge tool, an
information-processing tool. That's what we're trying to unleash."
Weekend
Special Issues
The group's three focus areas are design tools, collaboration and
communication, and computational environments -- or virtual worlds.
Following are a few examples of what the group will demonstrate Monday:
Public Notices
Space Pen
Credit
Collaborators can mark-up a three-dimensional model of a building over the
Internet. Users draw on model surfaces or leave more elaborate text
comments -- like Post-It notes, adjacent to areas of concern within the
model. The system recognizes simple shapes, such as circles, rectangles
and triangles, and "cleans" them up.
CBD
Classifieds
Auctions
Misc. Services
Advertising
Directories
Subscribe/Renew
Contact Us
As a visitor
browses the 3-D
model, the Space
Pen engine (using
a split screen)
generates a floor
plan showing the
visitor's changing
viewpoint. This
system allows
designers to go
beyond current
technology by
proposing design
changes in the
3-D model.
Sketch-Virtual
Reality
UW architecture graduate and research
assistant Thomas Jung works on the Space Pen
program, which allows users to mark-up a 3-D
model over the Internet, and to leave elaborate
text comments to share with other designers.
This tool creates
instant 3-D worlds
from 2-D
sketches. The program recognizes shapes drawn on a special pad in a 2-D
view and generates a 3-D model. To create an architectural space, the user
draws lines and circles in a simple "cocktail napkin" sketch of walls and
columns. To create a furniture layout, the user draws symbols to indicate a
couch, tables and chairs. For a 3-D curved surface, the user draws sections
at each edge of the surface.
http://faculty.washington.edu/ellendo/daily.html
Page: 2
Thursday, November 1, 2001
DJC.COM: Design Machine shows off new tools, provided by Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Digital Sandbox
Using a "wireless data glove," the user sculpts a
3-D landscape model with various gestures. A
mathematical model predicts stormwater flow
over the landscape, and displays the results
directly onto the landform.
The Sandbox provides landscape architects a
powerful way to study the implications of
landform design.
"... Architects
must be
inventors of the
tools and
techniques we
employ -- not
merely
consumers."
--Mark Gross,
UW Design
Machine Group
Smart Objects
Since each new architectural problem presents
new requirements, the Smart Objects program
presents a design in a medium that describes
problem requirements and allows the exploration
of form. A user who wishes to stretch the width of a ceiling, for example,
may also need to compensate for this by using wider beams -- a process
completed automatically on-screen by Smart Objects. As a designer meets
or violates constraints, objects behave according to problem requirements
and stated intentions.
Navigational Blocks
Using physical blocks, Navigational Blocks allows visitors of a "virtual
gallery" to browse exhibits using the movement of the blocks over sensors
connected to a computer. The project explores the boundary between
physical environment and virtual information space. A visitor to a tourist
kiosk in Pioneer Square, for example, would find a set of blocks that can be
positioned to display information on a screen about women pioneers or the
Gold Rush.
http://faculty.washington.edu/ellendo/daily.html
Page: 3
Thursday, November 1, 2001
DJC.COM: Design Machine shows off new tools, provided by Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Navigational
Blocks could be
used in a home or
office as a
replacement for
panel-operated
controls of interior
environments.
Compadres
An Internet
system designed
to keep track of
project progress,
Compadres
includes links for
e-mail, chat and
file transfer. Work
groups separated
by hundreds or
thousands of miles
can keep track of
progress through
current status or
extended radar
view, creating
what designers
call a "group
presence
awareness."
Controlled by a wireless data glove, Digital
Sandbox offers landscape architects an
intuitive way to understand the effects of water
flow on land forms.
Mouse Haus
Based on observations of actual pedestrian activity in an urban space,
Mouse Haus provides a simulated world in which pseudo pedestrians move
about. This could help an architect design better urban spaces.
Gross admits that some of the concepts, such as the virtual sandbox -which uses a simple wool glove and a tripod-mounted $79 Web camera -are in the formative stages of development. But, already, he said local firms
are responding with interest. Firms who believe that CAD pushes the
envelope for computer design will be pleasantly surprised at Design
Machine Group's work, he said. The group has also taken its ideas
overseas, presenting seven papers at the Computer Aided Architectural
Design Futures Conference in the Netherlands last summer.
"Our contributions made it clear that the UW is rapidly emerging as an
international center for design computing in architecture," said Ellen
Yi-Luen Do, assistant UW architecture professor and group co-director.
Gross envisions a day when a program such as Sandbox will allow
designers to create 3-D modeling of cities with their hands, or use
Sketch-VR to move an idea from the "cocktail napkin" stage to finished
product. He also predicts designers will incorporate microprocessors that
"talk" to each other into the built environment, allowing architects to consult
on designs online.
http://faculty.washington.edu/ellendo/daily.html
Page: 4
Thursday, November 1, 2001
DJC.COM: Design Machine shows off new tools, provided by Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
"Most schools of architecture teach
students how to use the tools of the
trade," Gross said. "But architects
must also be inventors of the tools and
techniques we employ -- not merely
consumers. We're one of a very small
handful of architecture schools with
research groups that actively focus on
these questions."
New world of CAD on display
at SAM
Members of the Design
Machine Group from the
University of Washington will
demonstrate new tools for
computer-aided design at
He stressed that the group's ideas will 6:30 p.m. Monday, at the
Seattle Art Museum.
not likely make it to desktops next
year, but predicts they will be seen in
five to 10 years -- depending on
whether the group can find partners in
the business community or whether
group members form spin-off
companies to develop the ideas into
products.
"We're a lab, so we don't make
products," he said.
Gross and Yi-Luen Do agreed that
new technology could re-shape the
organizational structures of
architecture firms -- by allowing
greater collaboration and
communication. But the programs
would not radically reform building
designs.
The group is exploring new
forms of communication,
collaboration and
coordination among
designers made possible by
computers. The 90-minute
free presentation will include
the group's Space Pen,
Sketch-Virtual Reality and
Digital Sandbox programs.
Mark Gross, associate
professor of architecture at
University of Washington, and
Ellen Yi-Luen Do, assistant
professor, will lead the
demonstration and
discussion.
"New design tools enable new forms,
and create better, intuitive buildings," he said. "But the way buildings look is
still up to the architects."
Sam Bennett can be reached at (206) 622-8272 or by e-mail at sam@djc.com .
Search Stories
Search
Find:
In:
All news
Depth:
Sort by:
Help
Copyright ©2001 Seattle Daily Journal and djc.com.
Comments? Questions? Contact us.
http://faculty.washington.edu/ellendo/daily.html
Page: 5