By design is meant a discipline which Herbert Simon described, thirty years ago, in his MIT Compton Lectures The Sciences of the Artificial as "a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process". Such a process is social and takes place within the context of technological possibilities, market realities and cultural values. While design can apply to many things, here it is specifically concerned with material objects which have shape. The design process, as traditionally conceived, includes:
recognition of needs and opportunities for design innovation
formulation of a design response
representation of design options
evaluation of design options
selection of a preferred design
specification for manufacture, or construction
implementation as a product
marketing of the product
maintenance, removal, destruction, or recycling.
Overarching this process, from the strategic to the tactical, are design policy, design planning and design management. In the past this process has been seen as largely sequential and discrete. Today, with computing and automation, there is a move to make much of the process concurrent and continuing over the life of a product. Designs as products include a multitude of diverse and connected parts. Design as process seeks to develop parts and connections, forming them into a complete product.
By computation is meant those intellectual developments which have been signposted by the achievements of Boole, Stone, Turing, Post, Markov, Church, among many others. Computation is understood as a theoretical enterprise, in contradistinction to computing which is its practical embodiment. While the two are inexorably related, the theoretical foundations of computing are often overlooked in the study of the design process. The result in some fields is that pre-computational methods of design are being computerized, even automated, without gaining the full benefits of a reassessment of the process as a whole in terms of advances in computational theory. Computing as a supporting technology is succeeded by computation which pulls together themes of design as product and design as process. All indications suggest that the traditional parsing of the design process is about to undergo a paradigmatic transformation.
Shape is characteristic of all physical, material design. The single, most significant development in computational theory in regard to shape, took place 25 years ago at UCLA with the introduction of shape grammars by George Stiny in the System Science Department in part collaboration with James Gips at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Stiny is now at MIT, Gips at Boston College. In Pictorial and Formal Aspects of Shape, Shape Grammars and Aesthetic Systems, Stiny proved that a shape grammar was a Turing machine. UCLA psychologist, Ed Carterette, described the thesis as "a bold anfractuous rock". Stiny and Gips' prize-winning book Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts was published by the University of California Press in 1978. In his review, UCR philosopher, David Harrah, suggested that the Stiny-Gips model of aesthetics "is probably best construed as an analog of Church's Thesis". In her UCLA doctoral thesis of 1986, Terry Knight, uses the recursive structure of shape grammars to examine stylist transformations in the visual arts with examples drawn from art, design and architecture. Her studies are beautifully brought together in her 1994 book Transformations in Design: a Formal Approach to Stylistic Change and Innovation in the Visual Arts. Knight is now at MIT.
In their 1980 paper, Gips and Stiny showed how shape grammars related to, but differed from, other production systems. In particular, most systems deal with strings, lists or arrays of discrete symbols; but a shape grammar deals with geometrical entities which are continuous. A consequence, which was not originally appreciated, is that shape grammars have no fixed vocabulary. They are non-atomistic. March and Stiny summarized the new design and computation paradigm in their 1981 paper 'Design machines'. Here the steps of the design process become generic and are recursively defined. In 1985, the relationship of this new approach to traditional design methods was sketched in March and Stiny 'Spatial systems in architecture and design: some history and logic'.
Historically, several separate strands of research converged on the field of Design and Computation as it became defined by those associated with the group at UCLA:
the shape grammar approach and its algebras is undoubtedly the most original and the most fundamental
spatial transformations - the architectonics of design - underlie the key subshape recognition problem
closely related is the study of spatial configurations with an emphasis on population characteristics rather than individual description
in turn the study of populations of designs leads to evaluative procedures, multiple descriptions and partial orderings; and to network representations which carry non-spatial information about shapes
finally, there are grammatical methods of handling non-spatial attributes associated with shapes.
The complexity of design possibilities compounded with the plurality of descriptions by agents in the process makes these 'structural' representations key components in a computational view of design. The 'design machine' requires the parallel computation of multiple descriptions (equivalent to communication between different agents in the design process, with distinct viewpoints, and peculiar dialects, or professional languages). This leads to problems in large-scale, multi-user data management. Perhaps the difference here is that while most data management systems work extensionally, the shape grammar approach works intentionally and offers the possibility of significant data reduction through its algorithmic derivations (that is, the rules required to generate a design may well be computationally more economical than any specific, individual description). Most significantly, the approach does not restructure information, but allows for structuring to occur contingent on current interest as an outcome of the computational process. While conserving computational continuity, this permits the emergence of unforeseen relationships and correspondences. Even the simplest of shape grammars may exhibit 'miraculous' behavior.
Over the past twenty-five years, some aspects of the Design and Computation approach have found applications in art, design, architecture, archaeology, urban planning, geography, engineering. Studies have ranged from the historical to innovative, from critical to constructive.
This initiative proposes the creation of a new unit, similar to an Interdepartmental Program, focused on doctoral studies and research in Design and Computation. In this way, UCLA's quarter-century investment in these studies will continue to be realized here, along with preserving and enhancing the substantial reputation that UCLA already has in this field. In order to promote this initiative, the Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, is sponsoring a Symposium in the Spring Quarter 1997 to include internationally recognized scholars from outside UCLA, and faculty from cognate fields within the University of California.
The purpose of the Symposium is to
review the current standing of the field of Design and Computation
examine the appropriateness of the Interdepartmental Program formula
explore likely interdepartmental interests
discuss potential core faculty, researchers and affiliates
evaluate the institutional options to locate such a program
consider funding support and industrial sponsorship
draw up plans for a Summer Institute in Design and Computation and to finalize
a draft report to the Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, establishing a new initiative in Design and Computation at UCLA
The Symposium will be held at the Mandalay Beach Resort, 2101 Mandalay Beach Road. Oxnard, CA 93035, Telephone 805 984 2500. Participants will meet on the evening of Thursday May 22 for dinner. The symposium will last for two days, from Friday thru Saturday afternoon.
Invited participants will receive a READER which will include the following papers, chapters and reviews upon which the Symposium prospectus above has been based. This will be mailed with details of ground transportation arrangements in April.
Carterette E 'Review of George Stiny Pictorial and Formal Aspects of Shape and Shape Grammars Birkhauser Verlag, Basel and Stuttgart 1975' in Computers and the Humanities 1977 11 168-172
Earl C F 'Creating design worlds' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1986 13 177-188
Earl C F The representation of kinematic chains' Environment and Planning B l979 6 455-468
Earl C F. Johnson J H 'Graph theory and analysis' Environment and Planning B 1981 8 367-391
Earl C F. March L 'Architectural applications of graph theory in R J Wilson, L W Beineke (eds.)Applications of Graph Theory Academic Press 1979, 327-355
Gips I, Stiny C 'Production systems and grammars: a uniform characterization' Environment and Planning B 1980 7 399-408
Harrah D 'Review of George Stiny and James Gips Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts University of California Press, Berkeley 1978' in Environment and Planning B 1979 6 471-472
Knight T 'Shape grammars and color grammars in design' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1994 21 705-735
Knight T 'Languages and transformations: a new approach' in Transformations in Design: a Formal Approach to Stylistic Change and Innovation in the Visual Arts Cambridge University Press 1994
Krishnamurti R. Earl C F 'Shape recognition in three dimensions' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1992 19 585-603
March L 'Babbage's miraculous computation revisited' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1996 23 369-376
March L 'The smallest interesting world' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1996 23 133-142
March L, Stiny G 'Spatial systems in architecture and design: some history and logic' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1985 12 31-53
Stiny G. 'What is a design?' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1990 17 97-103
Stiny G 'A note on the description of designs' Environment and Planning 1981 8 257-267
Stiny G 'Boolean algebras for shapes and individuals' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1993 20 359-362
Stiny G 'Formal devices for design' in Sandra L Newsome, W R Spillers, Susan Finger ((eds.).) Design Theory '88 Springer- Verlag, New York 1988
Stiny G 'Shape rules, closure, continuity, and emergence' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1994 21 s49-s78
Stiny G 'Spatial relations and grammars' Environment and Planning B 1982 9 113-114
Stiny G 'The algebras of design' Research in Engineering Design 1991 2 171-181
Stiny G 'Weights' Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 1992 19 413-430
Stiny G. March L 'Design machines' Environment and Planning B 1981 8 245-255
Erik Antonsson, Cal Tech erik@design.caltech.edu
Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Engineering Design Research Laboratory Organizer NSF Sponsored Workshop on Structured Design Methods for MEMS, 1996
Michael Batty, University College London, UK mbatty@geography.ucl.ac.uk
Professor of Spatial Analysis and Planning and Director, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. Associate Director, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, 1990-95. Journal Editor Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design
Christopher Chippendale, Cambridge University, UK cc43@cus.cam.ac.uk
Senior Curator, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Journal Editor Antiquity
Mark Cutowsky, Stanford University cutkosky@cdr.stanford.edu
Charles M. Piggott Professor, Associate Chair for Design and Manufacturing, Design Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Clive Dym, Harvey Mudd, Claremont College clive_dym@ghmc.edu
Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design, Director, Engineering Design Center, Department of Engineering. Founding Editor Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
Christopher Earl, Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK C.F. Earl@newcastle.ac.uk
Lecturer in Design and Manufacture, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
Chuck Eastman (UCLA leave of absence), GeorgiaTech
chuck.eastman@arch.gatech.edu
Professor, Doctoral Program, College of Architecture
Susan Finger, Carnegie Mellon University sfinger@wyvern.edrc.cmu edu
Adjunct Associate Professor, Robotics Institute NSF Program Director, Design Theory and Methodology, 1986 Organizer NSF Grantee Workshop on Design Theory and Methodology, 1988. Journal Editor, Research in Engineering Design: Theory, Applications, and Concurrent Engineering
Ulrich Flemming, Carnegie Mellon University ujf@edrc.cmu.edu
Professor, Architecture, and Engineering Design Research Center
James Gips, Boston College gips@cs.bc.edu
Professor, Department of Computer Science, Carroll School of Management
Russell Kirsch, Emeritus, National Institute of Science and Technology kirsch@nist.gov
Terry Knight, MIT tknight@mit.edu
Associate Professor (latterly UCLA), Institute for Advanced Visual Studies
Theme Issue Editor Planning and Design: Design and Computation, the Los Angeles School, 1972- 1997
Ramesh Krishnamurti, Carnegie-Mellon ramesh@arc.crnu.edu
Professor, Director of CADLAB, Department of Architecture
Alan de Pennington, OBE, Leeds University, UK adep@leva.leeds.ac.uk
Professor of Computer Aided Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Director, The Keyworth Institute of Manufacturing and Information Systems Engineering. NSF Program Director for Computer Integrated Engineering (1986)
George Stiny, MIT stiny@mit.edu
Professor (latterly UCLA), Design Theory, Department of Architecture
William Spillers, New Jersey Institute of Technology spillers@admin.njit.edu
Distinguished Professor, Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Organizer of NSF Symposium on Basic Questions of Design Theory, 1974
NSF Grantee Workshop on Design Theory and Methodology, 1988
Alice Agogino, Engineering, UCB, Associate Dean
Ed Carterette, Psychology UCLA, Emeritus
Helen Couclelis, Geography UCSB, Associate Director NCGIA
David Harrah, Philosophy UCR, Emeritus
Michael Jura, Physics, UCLA
David Levine, Economics, UCLA
Robin Liggett, Architecture and Urban Design/ Urban Planning, UCLA
Ajit Mal, MANE, UCLA
Richard Nelson, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCLA
Stott Parker, Computer Science, UCLA
Dwight Read, Anthropology, UCLA
Paul Schachter, Linguistics, Emeritus, UCLA