Shape Exploration in Design: Formalising and Supporting a Transformational Process

Abstract

The process of sketching can support the sort of transformational thinking that is seen as essential for the interpretation and reinterpretation of ideas in innovative design. Such transformational thinking, however, is not yet well supported by computer-aided design systems. In this paper, outcomes of experimental investigations into the mechanics of sketching are described, in particular those employed by practicing architects and industrial designers as they responded to a series of conceptual design tasks. Analyses of the experimental data suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules. A set of shape rules, formalising the reinterpretation and transformations of shapes, e.g. through deformation or restructuring, is presented. These rules are suggestive of the manipulations that need to be afforded in computational tools intended to support designers in design exploration. Accordingly, the results of the experimental investigations informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system, and a discussion is presented in which the future requirements of such systems are explored.

Categorisation of Designs According to Preference Values for Shape Rules

“…According to our experimental data [8], designers respond positively to specific rules which can affect the types of design outcomes. In this paper, design outcomes are categorised based on the preference value of shape rules because a preference value offers one way of representing a personal design intention.…”

“…As a part of the DSSG project, a sketch observation experiment [8] to identify shape rules in shape transformation was undertaken. Six architects and eight product designers with various ranges of professional experience were involved in the experiment.…”

“…The selected design outcomes used in this paper were created as a part of our experiment [8]. From the initial shape (a candle holder) we generated 115 outcomes that have a maximum of 10 rule sequences (Table 4 and Figure 4); 95 of the outcomes are derived from the subsequences of the final 20 outcomes (S01 -S20) while omitting duplicated designs.…”

“…Here, the categorisation of design outcomes is not intended to reflect a measure of similarity or style but instead is intended to reflect the likelihood that designs would be produced by a designer. This likelihood is based on experimental data concerned with analysing how designers specify and manipulate shapes when exploring designs [8]. This analysis led to the definition of shape rules believed to capture the manipulations typically used by designers, and to data related to the frequency that such rules were used to explore designs.…”

The Process and Operations of Shape Generation and Manipulation during the Architectural Designing Activity

“…Architectural design is now a privileged research subject, as shown by the number and the diversity of publications on this topic (Terzidis, 1989;Göel, 1995;Rodgers et al, 2000;De Biasi, 2000;Wetzel et al, 2006;Suwa et al, 2006;Arrouf, 2006;Lim et al, 2008;Prats et al, 2008;2009). These works show that architectural design is a multi-phase process.…”