performance oriented software
soft, software, softest
performance oriented software
benamy turkienicz / ami ran
The relation between form and content has always been central to the architectural discourse, with each receiving preferential emphasis according to approach and fashion. The modernists of the twentieth century coined the term 'Form Follows Function', fixating our previous generation with the nearly obsessive need to justify form as the realization of function. Lacking, however, quantitative tools, the question of form had remained a mere abstraction left to the architect's interpretation. Computer aided design, developed predominantly over the last two decades, granted architects new working tools that subsequently yielded mainly amorphous buildings. This re-raised the question of the relation between form and function.
Although the use of computers has become widespread in many architectural firms, it suffers from two main problems worth addressing: first - the building is no longer perceived as a holistic system but rather as a linear product where one or a few parameters predominate; secondly - the building is perceived as a quantitative system that supercedes the perceptive/cognitive mind of the architect - a multi-faceted high-quality intelligence that no artificial one has yet been able to replace.
The use of computer aided design to improve the building’s performances has been reinforced over the last few years by associated parametric software. Beyond the simplicity by which such tools grant the building form-oriented expression, these programs enable the manufacturing of virtual models that predict the building's future behavior (AI 69).
However, perception of the building as a holistic system is based on endless factors and forces which activate it, central to which are: the architecture - a multi-variable system conducted by the architect; the purpose - the reason for the erection of the building; the use - which changes according to typology, location and the varied nature of the users; the programme - a written document depicting the planning targets within the constraining systems, namely - building laws, local conditions, life-style, budget, fashion and climate; the design - the unique realization which interprets the accumulated information into a system of three-dimensional forms.
The definition of the architect as 'top builder' (archi=chief, tect=builder) determines him not only as an artisan, but also and especially, as an artist whose role is to define the building's purpose, visualize its form and functioning, to transform the ideas into plans, and to oversee their realization. This role carries with it extensive knowledge, life experience, spatial perception, creative imagination, talent, acquired skills and above all - a professional capability to connect all of these while distinguishing between essential and trivial according to circumstances, time and personal preferences.
As most attempts to replace the architect’s role with the computer have resulted mainly in form-oriented products, which usually hinder the building and its functioning, this has led to the development of paradigms whose declared intention is to improve building performance. Prominent among these are: Performative Architecture, which focuses on the building’s functioning, and Performalism - a hybrid of 'performance' and 'form' - intended to establish a tighter connection between the building’s content and its form. In fact, however, most of these merely deal with the causal connection between the building and a few chosen parameters, such as: climate, acoustics, construction, lighting, and earthquake-resistance.
Attempts to express a greater number of parameters in the building’s form focused primarily on the exterior, almost totally ignoring the inner organization of the building (syntax), and its performance-oriented relations with the surroundings - as for example: accessibility vs. safety; privacy vs. openness; perception, and relative orientation between the different users. All of these dwarf in view of the image perception of the building: “A computer code with no aim is like a meaningless collection of words or lines” (Grubman, Neuman, 2008).
Contrary to the misconception that the term ‘performance’ also implies “performing” (perhaps to justify the form-oriented buildings), the term ‘performance’ actually originated in the term ‘performance investigation’ - an interdisciplinary field which deals mainly with the application of scientific methods to maximally exploit limited resources on the cost-efficiency basis. Since its development in the Second World War, performance investigation has established a number of models: the mathematical model for quantifying certain aspects of the system’s behavior; the heuristic model based on intuitive assumptions; and the simulative model which predicts the system’s future behavior - in fact a central factor in performance architecture.
Although prediction models have contributed to a better understanding of the form and function relations of several parameters, they haven’t yet tapped the full potential of maneuvering complex (stochastic) systems, such as medical centers, university campuses, government buildings, and any municipal planning where prediction processes play a key role.
Lack of a multi-variable prediction program that would analyze the urban space led to the development of several programs, prominent among them being CityZoom, which enables updating on a great number of prevalent issues where human intuition usually fails, such as: transportation, orientation, accessibility, parking, privacy, sun rights, skyline, urban design, and other population-specific topics.
The problem is that as the program market develops, the bewilderment inherent in architectural offices only deepens. The cost of the programs skyrockets, and their marketing is motivated, as with any other products’, by commercial considerations which do not necessarily indicate quality. As these variables actually affect what happens in architecture offices - in turn affecting the built environment - it is important to probe the essential differences between various software programs prevailing in the work-market.
Design aided software programs are based on two principal systems: the CAD (Computer Aided Design), intended primarily to visualize the virtual rendering of the building in the real environment; and the GIS (Geographic Information Systems), intended to locate, analyze and maneuver information derived from the real environment.
Introduced by Autodesk, Autocad - the first CAD program - reached the architecture offices in 1982. Basically, the CAD programs were used as a two-dimensional draughtmanship tool, rather than for imaging. Although clumsy relative to more user-friendly programs (especially the Mac-interfacing ones), it was, and still is, the most widely used program in the world with 65% use. This is due to its consecutive updating in three-dimensional applications - recently followed by the associated parametric design applications of Revit, an Autodesk flagship product.
Noteworthy is that other programs, developed parallel to Autocad, have been no less efficient, with some still existing on the market, such as Datacad, Drawbase, and Archicad. Like Autocad, these programs have been updated in three-dimensional interfacing, parallel to three-dimensional purpose-oriented programs such as 3DMAX, developed for animation; and, later on - Google’s Sketchup - a freebie super-user-friendly program.
The combination of the CAD imaging abilities and the GIS analysis features made it possible to advance the development of several associative design programs based on a particularly wide data-base, enabling the combination of abstract informative parameters (like master-plans) and components of the surroundings. This has contributed to a simpler understanding of the environment’s course of development, especially for decision-makers who are not architects.
One of the pioneers in this field is the ArcGIS program developed by the ESRI Company - a freebie program installed on Autocad and enabling the production of predictive models of environment development. Devised by Avideh Zakhor of Berkley University, a faster and more efficient method for virtual description of the surrounding is based on scanning the environment with laser beams and digital cameras placed on a truck or plane.
The weak point in exploiting the advantages of computer aided design lies in the shift from the planned product to the built one. The rule is that the smarter the design, the slimmer are the chances that the executive operation will be able to cope with it. But computers comme computers, any problem entails a complex solution, and within this framework, the Cad integrated Cam (Computer Aided Manufacturing) and Cae (Computer Aided Engineering) systems were invented.
The veteran of these was Catia (Computer Aided Three Dimensional Application) developed at the end of the 70s by the Mirage plane producer Dassault. Marketed by IBM, the program underwent various phases of development, the latest in 2008 labeled Catia V6.
As mentioned, another widely used program in architecture offices is Revit - an associated parametric design software program combining modeling technologies (Revit BIM). While extremely high in cost, its advantage lies in the Cad inventor Autodesk’s ongoing maintenance and updating. Another program combining advanced Cad/Cam/Cae, and relatively cheap, is TopSolid of Missler Software Company. Its advantage is in its having been planned specifically for production; its disadvantage lies in its treating architecture as any other design product. Parallel to such multi-parametric design programs, there are several linear ones, classified according to their specific purpose: NASTRAN and OASYS for construction related handling, CATT for acoustic performance, and WASP - for wind flow prediction.
Given all the advantages the modeling programs have to offer - whether multi-parametric or purpose-oriented - it is important to remember that a selective virtual reality is assigned to overview changes that might develop from the seemingly negligible parameters.
In this context, a number of programs are now being developed (among them CityZoom) which may combine a generic database - as say a master plan or relevant parts of the Law of Planning and Building - with an open database that will take into account unforeseeable developments. This will hopefully enable dynamic cross-referencing of random variables with constant constraints, together with the architect’s intuitive preferences - without which there is no difference between architecture and any other industrial product, as attractive as it may be.
In the introduction to the exhibition 'Performalizm' that took place at the Tel Aviv Museum in 2008, it said (freely translated): 'Performance-based design relates to three dimensions: the empirical, which focuses on the measurable functioning; the cognitive - focusing on the translation of the human cognition into space; and the perceptual which focuses on the translation of the subjective point of view into a building (…). However, it has not yet been proven that planning based on performance achieves better end results than any other planning method'.
Special thanks to Benamy Turkienicz, Bárbara Bellaver Gonçalves, and Pablo Grazziotin from Brazil - developers of CityZoom; and Dr. Yasha Grubman from Israel, for their professional contribution to the article.
Ami Ran
performance oriented software
benamy turkienicz / ami ran
The relation between form and content has always been central to the architectural discourse, with each receiving preferential emphasis according to approach and fashion. The modernists of the twentieth century coined the term 'Form Follows Function', fixating our previous generation with the nearly obsessive need to justify form as the realization of function. Lacking, however, quantitative tools, the question of form had remained a mere abstraction left to the architect's interpretation. Computer aided design, developed predominantly over the last two decades, granted architects new working tools that subsequently yielded mainly amorphous buildings. This re-raised the question of the relation between form and function.
Although the use of computers has become widespread in many architectural firms, it suffers from two main problems worth addressing: first - the building is no longer perceived as a holistic system but rather as a linear product where one or a few parameters predominate; secondly - the building is perceived as a quantitative system that supercedes the perceptive/cognitive mind of the architect - a multi-faceted high-quality intelligence that no artificial one has yet been able to replace.
The use of computer aided design to improve the building’s performances has been reinforced over the last few years by associated parametric software. Beyond the simplicity by which such tools grant the building form-oriented expression, these programs enable the manufacturing of virtual models that predict the building's future behavior (AI 69).
However, perception of the building as a holistic system is based on endless factors and forces which activate it, central to which are: the architecture - a multi-variable system conducted by the architect; the purpose - the reason for the erection of the building; the use - which changes according to typology, location and the varied nature of the users; the programme - a written document depicting the planning targets within the constraining systems, namely - building laws, local conditions, life-style, budget, fashion and climate; the design - the unique realization which interprets the accumulated information into a system of three-dimensional forms.
The definition of the architect as 'top builder' (archi=chief, tect=builder) determines him not only as an artisan, but also and especially, as an artist whose role is to define the building's purpose, visualize its form and functioning, to transform the ideas into plans, and to oversee their realization. This role carries with it extensive knowledge, life experience, spatial perception, creative imagination, talent, acquired skills and above all - a professional capability to connect all of these while distinguishing between essential and trivial according to circumstances, time and personal preferences.
As most attempts to replace the architect’s role with the computer have resulted mainly in form-oriented products, which usually hinder the building and its functioning, this has led to the development of paradigms whose declared intention is to improve building performance. Prominent among these are: Performative Architecture, which focuses on the building’s functioning, and Performalism - a hybrid of 'performance' and 'form' - intended to establish a tighter connection between the building’s content and its form. In fact, however, most of these merely deal with the causal connection between the building and a few chosen parameters, such as: climate, acoustics, construction, lighting, and earthquake-resistance.
Attempts to express a greater number of parameters in the building’s form focused primarily on the exterior, almost totally ignoring the inner organization of the building (syntax), and its performance-oriented relations with the surroundings - as for example: accessibility vs. safety; privacy vs. openness; perception, and relative orientation between the different users. All of these dwarf in view of the image perception of the building: “A computer code with no aim is like a meaningless collection of words or lines” (Grubman, Neuman, 2008).
Contrary to the misconception that the term ‘performance’ also implies “performing” (perhaps to justify the form-oriented buildings), the term ‘performance’ actually originated in the term ‘performance investigation’ - an interdisciplinary field which deals mainly with the application of scientific methods to maximally exploit limited resources on the cost-efficiency basis. Since its development in the Second World War, performance investigation has established a number of models: the mathematical model for quantifying certain aspects of the system’s behavior; the heuristic model based on intuitive assumptions; and the simulative model which predicts the system’s future behavior - in fact a central factor in performance architecture.
Although prediction models have contributed to a better understanding of the form and function relations of several parameters, they haven’t yet tapped the full potential of maneuvering complex (stochastic) systems, such as medical centers, university campuses, government buildings, and any municipal planning where prediction processes play a key role.
Lack of a multi-variable prediction program that would analyze the urban space led to the development of several programs, prominent among them being CityZoom, which enables updating on a great number of prevalent issues where human intuition usually fails, such as: transportation, orientation, accessibility, parking, privacy, sun rights, skyline, urban design, and other population-specific topics.
The problem is that as the program market develops, the bewilderment inherent in architectural offices only deepens. The cost of the programs skyrockets, and their marketing is motivated, as with any other products’, by commercial considerations which do not necessarily indicate quality. As these variables actually affect what happens in architecture offices - in turn affecting the built environment - it is important to probe the essential differences between various software programs prevailing in the work-market.
Design aided software programs are based on two principal systems: the CAD (Computer Aided Design), intended primarily to visualize the virtual rendering of the building in the real environment; and the GIS (Geographic Information Systems), intended to locate, analyze and maneuver information derived from the real environment.
Introduced by Autodesk, Autocad - the first CAD program - reached the architecture offices in 1982. Basically, the CAD programs were used as a two-dimensional draughtmanship tool, rather than for imaging. Although clumsy relative to more user-friendly programs (especially the Mac-interfacing ones), it was, and still is, the most widely used program in the world with 65% use. This is due to its consecutive updating in three-dimensional applications - recently followed by the associated parametric design applications of Revit, an Autodesk flagship product.
Noteworthy is that other programs, developed parallel to Autocad, have been no less efficient, with some still existing on the market, such as Datacad, Drawbase, and Archicad. Like Autocad, these programs have been updated in three-dimensional interfacing, parallel to three-dimensional purpose-oriented programs such as 3DMAX, developed for animation; and, later on - Google’s Sketchup - a freebie super-user-friendly program.
The combination of the CAD imaging abilities and the GIS analysis features made it possible to advance the development of several associative design programs based on a particularly wide data-base, enabling the combination of abstract informative parameters (like master-plans) and components of the surroundings. This has contributed to a simpler understanding of the environment’s course of development, especially for decision-makers who are not architects.
One of the pioneers in this field is the ArcGIS program developed by the ESRI Company - a freebie program installed on Autocad and enabling the production of predictive models of environment development. Devised by Avideh Zakhor of Berkley University, a faster and more efficient method for virtual description of the surrounding is based on scanning the environment with laser beams and digital cameras placed on a truck or plane.
The weak point in exploiting the advantages of computer aided design lies in the shift from the planned product to the built one. The rule is that the smarter the design, the slimmer are the chances that the executive operation will be able to cope with it. But computers comme computers, any problem entails a complex solution, and within this framework, the Cad integrated Cam (Computer Aided Manufacturing) and Cae (Computer Aided Engineering) systems were invented.
The veteran of these was Catia (Computer Aided Three Dimensional Application) developed at the end of the 70s by the Mirage plane producer Dassault. Marketed by IBM, the program underwent various phases of development, the latest in 2008 labeled Catia V6.
As mentioned, another widely used program in architecture offices is Revit - an associated parametric design software program combining modeling technologies (Revit BIM). While extremely high in cost, its advantage lies in the Cad inventor Autodesk’s ongoing maintenance and updating. Another program combining advanced Cad/Cam/Cae, and relatively cheap, is TopSolid of Missler Software Company. Its advantage is in its having been planned specifically for production; its disadvantage lies in its treating architecture as any other design product. Parallel to such multi-parametric design programs, there are several linear ones, classified according to their specific purpose: NASTRAN and OASYS for construction related handling, CATT for acoustic performance, and WASP - for wind flow prediction.
Given all the advantages the modeling programs have to offer - whether multi-parametric or purpose-oriented - it is important to remember that a selective virtual reality is assigned to overview changes that might develop from the seemingly negligible parameters.
In this context, a number of programs are now being developed (among them CityZoom) which may combine a generic database - as say a master plan or relevant parts of the Law of Planning and Building - with an open database that will take into account unforeseeable developments. This will hopefully enable dynamic cross-referencing of random variables with constant constraints, together with the architect’s intuitive preferences - without which there is no difference between architecture and any other industrial product, as attractive as it may be.
In the introduction to the exhibition 'Performalizm' that took place at the Tel Aviv Museum in 2008, it said (freely translated): 'Performance-based design relates to three dimensions: the empirical, which focuses on the measurable functioning; the cognitive - focusing on the translation of the human cognition into space; and the perceptual which focuses on the translation of the subjective point of view into a building (…). However, it has not yet been proven that planning based on performance achieves better end results than any other planning method'.
Special thanks to Benamy Turkienicz, Bárbara Bellaver Gonçalves, and Pablo Grazziotin from Brazil - developers of CityZoom; and Dr. Yasha Grubman from Israel, for their professional contribution to the article.
Ami Ran
בניית אתרי אינטרנט