Altered images : the relations between design representations and design practice

As information systems move out of the office into the wider world and are merged with mobile appliances, buildings and even clothing, the representations traditionally used in any one discipline may not be adequate for understanding these new domains. Design representations are ‘ways of seeing and not seeing’. Despite the central role representations play in design, the information systems design community has little understanding of the relation, ideal or actual, between design practice and design representation. This paper reports on an extensive design case study that aims at increasing understanding of the nature and affordances of representations in the design process and argues for the need for information systems as a discipline to open up discussion of the design representations that may be required to effectively design systems that mix traditional IS with disciplines such as industrial design, architecture and fashion design.

Towards the development of a conceptual design management model for remote sites

Remote and environmentally sensitive sites present unique challenges for participants involved in the design and construction process. Worldwide advances in information technology coupled with improved site accessibility and manageability has enabled the construction industry to undertake such projects with greater ease. Furthermore, research on information technology in construction has begun to focus our attentions on our increased ability to work virtually in distributed teams. These remote sites have a range of development potential as clients have varied interests including; tourism, scientific investigation and resource exploration and processing which impact upon the management of the design process. These sites pose unique challenges to the project teams and in particular for the management of project design. The conceptual design phase is often marked by an iterative and creative process, which tends to be a sociologically oriented world where designers respond to a range of functional, aesthetic, environmental and even spiritual concerns. Strategic decisions made during the briefing and conceptual design stage may impact upon construction logistics and sustainability. Detailed design for construction tends to be a production oriented world. There is a significant body of literature that addresses the application of lean thinking to improving the interface between detailed design and construction production. There is little literature that takes a holistic view of design management for remote sites. The lean design management field of research has much to contribute to the design management of these projects. The review of the literature indicated that much of the lean thinking has been primarily concerned with sequential production. However, lean thinking is based upon principles of flow and value, which is also conducive to the complex process involved in design management for remote sites. A conceptual model is developed that considers both the production and sociological approaches to design management, in response to the peculiar demands of the site and their project teams.

Evaluation of an environmental rating tool for commercial building design

This research examined the inclusion of environmental rating tools in the design of commercial buildings. Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important for designers and the results of the study suggest that rating tools can be an asset to design teams, provided they are integrated and reinforced throughout the design process.

Beyond Simon’s means-ends analysis : natural creativity and the unanswered ‘why’ in the design of intelligent systems for problem-solving

Goal-directed problem solving as originally advocated by Herbert Simon’s means-ends analysis model has primarily shaped the course of design research on artificially intelligent systems for problem-solving. We contend that there is a definite disregard of a key phase within the overall design process that in fact logically precedes the actual problem solving phase. While systems designers have traditionally been obsessed with goal-directed problem solving, the basic determinants of the ultimate desired goal state still remain to be fully understood or categorically defined. We propose a rational framework built on a set of logically interconnected conjectures to specifically recognize this neglected phase in the overall design process of intelligent systems for practical problem-solving applications.

On representation and construction in a tectonic design studio

This study investigates the roles of representationand construction in enhancing students' learning in a tectonic design studio.  Students of architecture use 3D CAD, physical models and drawings, either alone or in hybrid combinations in the the design, development and communication of their design process.  Each of these media has intrinsic attributes that limit or enhance students' ability to engage in issues of architecture.  This can have a significant influence on students' learning of conceptual and tectonic design, in particularly in their early years of study.  Tectonic design, as an element of the architectural design process that involves the designerly consideration of issues of construction, is an important skill that is integral to architectural practice.  The unique problem based learning environment of the design studio offers opportunities for the development of deep learning approaches to tectonic design, however these are limited by the way students engage in representational media.  This research is based on an ethnographis case study of a cohort of second year architecture students at Deakin University, Geelong, in 2002.

The effect of planning design on thermal comfort in outdoor spaces

Urban outdoor spaces are considered essential elements of cities, where the greatest amount of human contact and interaction takes place. That is the reason why there is increasing public interest in the quality of open urban spaces as they can contribute to the quality of life within cities, or contrarily increase isolation and social exclusion. There are a lot of factors influencing the success of the outdoor spaces; one of the principal factors is the microclimatic comfort. In the hot areas, the outdoor thermal comfort conditions during the daytime are often far above acceptable comfort standards due to intense solar radiation and high solar elevations. The variation of the urban spaces' configuration can generate significant modifications of the microclimatic parameters. Design decisions such as street and sidewalk widths, shading structures, materials, landscaping, building heights, and inducing air flow have a significant impact on the pedestrian thermal comfort and subsequently on the use of the urban environment. Although it has been established that the vegetation elements should be considered as one of the main tools that can be used in improving the thermal comfort in outdoor spaces, the integration of the climate dimension in the planting design process in urban spaces is lacking because of insufficient interdisciplinary work between urban climatology, urban design and landscape architecture. The primary aim of this research is to study the influence of some of the design decision for the plantation elements in outdoor spaces on the thermal comfort of its users. This will provide landscape designers and decision makers with the appropriate tools for effectively assessing the development of urban environment while considering the microclimate of outdoor spaces. A special emphasis is put on summertime conditions in Egypt. Findings of this research will contribute to sustainable urban design of outdoor spaces.

CONBPS : an expert system to improve the efficiency of the construction process

The aim of the research outlined in this paper is to develop a best practice process model for building projects based on the use of an expert system. The CONstruction Best Practice System (CONBPS) focusses on projects which are based on the traditional procurement strategy, using the JCT 80 standard form of contract. The model clearly identifies the sequence of construction activities. It also identifies the roles and responsibilities of the major parties on the building team and the issues within the project cycle, which can prove critical to project success. The system incorporates many user-friendly functions, including the provision of multi-choice icons and the provision of an on-line help function. Besides, it also provides interim and final reports which are used to advise the participants on the success factors that they have ignored and to which aspects they should pay more attention. A framework was initially developed focussing on the whole design process with a full knowledge-based system developed for the Inception Stage. CONBPS can be used as a teaching/learning tool to assist teachers and students to better understand the construction process. Also, it could prove useful to project managers and all the participants in the construction process.

Kids in design : designing creative schools with children

There is a consensus that children should be involved in the planning and design process of their schools, and attempts have been made throughout the world. This paper introduces a ‘Kids in Design’ project, through which primary school children worked with university architecture students to design a school playground. The aim of the project was to encourage the full potential of children’s creativity and generate creative school design outcomes. From October to December 2011, the ‘Kids in Design’ project was conducted in Roslyn Road Primary School (Geelong, Australia). Through eight weeks of workshops, children in Year 5 & 6 worked with architecture students from Deakin University (Geelong, Australia) to design a school playground. Assessing the design outcomes of this project, assertions are made that creative design outcomes have been achieved. Deakin University is currently working with another primary school to replicate the ‘Kids in Design’ project in 2012.

Occupant behaviour simulation for cellular offices in early design stages - Architectural and modelling considerations

Building simulation is most useful and most difficult in early design stages. Most useful since the optimisation potential is large and most difficult because input data are often not available at the level of resolution required for simulation software. The aim of this paper is to addresses this difficulty, by analysing the predominantly qualitative information in early stages of an architectural design process in search for indicators towards quantitative simulation input. The discussion in this paper is focused on cellular offices. Parameters related to occupancy, the use of office equipment, night ventilation, the use of lights and blinds are reviewed based on simulation input requirements, architectural considerations in early design stages and occupant behaviour considerations in operational stages. A worst and ideal case scenario is suggested as a generic approach to model occupant behaviour in early design stages when more detailed information is not available. Without actually predicting specific occupant behaviour, this approach highlights the magnitude of impact that occupants can have on comfort and building energy performance and it matches the level of resolution of available architectural information in early design stages. This can be sufficient for building designers to compare the magnitude of impact of occupants with other parameters in order to inform design decisions. Potential indicators in early design stages towards the ideal or worst case scenario are discussed.

'Kids in design': designing creative schools with children

There is a consensus that children should be involved in the planning and design process of their schools, and attempts have been made throughout the world. This paper introduces a 'Kids in Design' project, through which primary school children worked with university architecture students to design a school playground. The aim of the project was to encourage the full potential of children's creativity and generate creative school design outcomes. From October to December 2011, the 'Kids in Design' project was conducted in Roslyn Road Primary School (Geelong, Australia). Through eight weeks of workshops, children in Year 5 & 6 worked with architecture students from Deakin University (Geelong, Australia) to design a school playground. Assessing the design outcomes of this project, assertions are made that creative design outcomes have been achieved. Deakin University is currently working with another primary school to replicate the 'Kids in Design' project in 2012.

Business process affordances

 The bypassing of established business processes is a significant problem in organisations. This research proposes a novel framework for incorporating psychological and social factors into the business process design. The framework promises to increase system adoption and decrease process bypassing, ultimately making an organisation's work more effective and efficient.

An early-stage design decision-support tool for selecting building assemblies to minimise a building's life cycle energy demand

The significant effects of the building industry on the natural environment are well documented and improving the environmental performance of buildings is an on-going challenge. This is particularly the case for projects with restrictive budgets and timelines and because many existing environmental assessment tools are designed to be used too late in the design process. The use of tools during the early design stages may assist in achieving greater improvements in a building’s environmental performance. However, user-friendly tools with the ability to comprehensively compare environmental information between various building assemblies and materials, which can be easily adopted during the early design stages of a project, are not readily available. This paper presents the progress to date in developing a tool which supports building designers in identifying and selecting preferred building assemblies with the aim of minimising a building’s life cycle energy demand. The tool is based on comprehensive energy performance data for a broad range of building assemblies across all Australian climate zones. Allowing for adjustments to a set of pre-defined and user-defined assemblies the designer is able to see how assemblies perform in relation to each other. This provides valuable information to support decision-making relating to minimising the life cycle energy demand of buildings.

How technology shapes assessment design: findings from a study of university teachers

A wide range of technologies has been developed to enhance assessment, but adoption has been inconsistent. This is despite assessment being critical to student learning and certification. To understand why this is the case and how it can be addressed, we need to explore the perspectives of academics responsible for designing and implementing technology-supported assessment strategies. This paper reports on the experience of designing technology-supported assessment based on interviews with 33 Australian university teachers. The findings reveal the desire to achieve greater efficiencies and to be contemporary and innovative as key drivers of technology adoption for assessment. Participants sought to shape student behaviors through their designs and made adaptations in response to positive feedback and undesirable outcomes. Many designs required modification because of a lack of appropriate support, leading to compromise and, in some cases, abandonment. These findings highlight the challenges to effective technology-supported assessment design and demonstrate the difficulties university teachers face when attempting to negotiate mixed messages within institutions and the demands of design work. We use these findings to suggest opportunities to improve support by offering pedagogical guidance and technical help at critical stages of the design process and encouraging an iterative approach to design.

Recognizing appropriate representation of Indigenous knowledge in professional design practice

This paper focuses on the need for designers to follow clear, concise, workable practises to engage appropriately and ethically with indigenous knowledge on projects involving the graphical depiction of indigenous culture. Incorporating indigenous symbols into visual communication design strategies impacts a wide range of stakeholders and therefore requires a sensitive approach with broad consultation in regard to permissions and intellectual property rights; issues can be worked through if respectful practice methods are applied. This paper acknowledges cultural appropriation is not new and that creative, cross cultural interpretation and expressions of hybridity should be encouraged. However respectful communication, consultation, and collaboration are required whenever commercial application of indigenous culture is attempted. To demonstrate the need for clarity, three case study examples will be presented, each with design solutions involving the use of graphical depictions of indigenous culture and each selected due to the varying degrees of stakeholder engagement undertaken in the design process. The introduction of the ladder of stakeholder engagement theory is a new concept introduced in this paper that can be employed to better consider the appropriate and ethical engagement of designers with indigenous knowledge.

Nonlinear adaptive backstepping controller design for controlling bidirectional power flow of BESSs in DC microgrids

In this paper, a nonlinear adaptive backstepping controlleris designed to control the bidirectional power flow (charging/discharging) of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in a DCmicrogrid under different operating conditions. The controller isdesigned in such a manner that the BESSs can store the excess energyfrom the renewable energy sources (RESs) in a DC microgrid aftersatisfying the load demand and also feeding back the stored energyto the load when RESs are not sufficient. The proposed controller isalso designed to maintain a constant voltage at the DC bus, whereall components of DC microgrids are connected, while controllingthe power flow of BESSs. This paper considers solar photovoltaic(PV) systems as the RES whereas a diesel generator equipped witha rectifier is used as a backup supply to maintain the continuity ofpower supply in the case of emergency situations. The controller isdesigned recursively based on the Lyapunov control theory whereall parameters within the model of BESSs are assumed to beunknown. These unknown parameters are then estimated throughthe adaptation laws and whose stability is ensured by formulatingsuitable control Lyapunov functions (CLFs) at different stages ofthe design process. Moreover, a scheme is also presented to monitorthe state of charge (SOC) of the BESS. Finally, the performanceof the proposed controller is verified on a test DC microgrid undervarious operating conditions. The proposed controller ensures the DCbus voltage regulation within the acceptable limits under differentoperating conditions.