SAGARIKA CHOWDHURY

3A
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ALGORITHMIC LIMITATIONS TO ARCHITECTURE - IS

HYBRID IDEATION SPACE AN AMALGAMTION OF NEW
AND OLD IDEATION TECHNIQUES
ABSTRACT

Digital architecture has taken this industry to new levels. Complex forms can be
made and calculations can be done with great ease, just by using computer
algorithms. Digital designing allows us to not only work on form, but also the
material of the build form. But every program has limitations. Every program has
scope of improvement. No program or software is fully developed and thus has
limitations to it. The advancement of technology has leas to a new cognitive
platform known as the Hybrid Ideation Space. Not a commonly known technology,
this could be the answer to merging imprecise sketches and limited digital
understanding.

METHODOLOGY

This paper will be a secondary research paper into the concept and workability of
the Hybrid Ideation Space. It will focus mainly on the evolution of HIS and its usage.
The study focuses on what has happened and how much of it has happened in the
world of HIS.

BACKGROUND

This paper is based on an experiment done by School of Industrial Design,

University of Montreal. The university decided to test the Hybrid Ideation Space
using a comparative method between HIS and hybrid modeling.

RESEARCH QUESTION

This paper delves into the question of whether Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) has
successfully been the cognitive platform that it was meant to be. Has it been
able to integrate both forms of ideation process; sketches and digital?

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This paper is based on an experiment conducted by the University of Montreal

using 20 student pairs as the subjects. Each pair was given two methods to design
an auto mobile. One was HIS and the other being Hybrid modeling. The experiment
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ended with a survey which brings us to our conclusion. This paper will analyze the
experiment and conclude the relativity of HIS in today's time. It terminates on the
answer to whether HIS is really the tool which could broaden the spectrum and be
the game-changing technology.

This paper holds the limitation of being a secondary research due to the
unavailability of this technology. Data received on this technology is only based on
the paper published by the University of Montreal.

INTRODUCTION

The use of digital design has succeeded in adding a new layer to designing. It has
successfully aided in putting across an idea that floated around in a designers
head. Architectural representation helps us put forward ideas that we cannot truly
express ourselves. A medium is required to put across our thoughts and ideas. But
the divide between the virtual and the real should always be maintained and the
main goal, of providing a livable space, shall not be compromised with while
working with technology.1

The methods through which we wish to represent our thoughts and designs greatly
affect the outcome of it. Hand rendered sketches as compared to 3D modeling has
a very different way of expressing the intended thought. An architect cannot
express their inner thoughts unless they have a proper medium that enables them to
do so. And this medium would have direct relation to the outcome of the
design. There are multiple advantages of using digital design to push forward our
design, but it also houses certain disadvantages. The main argument here is whether
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or do the disadvantages have an
upper hand.

There is a whole pool of advantages that aide digital design. Firstly, it is a real
time saver. It also helps in cutting down on modeling costs since 3D modeling has
achieved great heights these days. Remodeling using physical models can be tough
but remodeling 3D virtual models is easy, fast and effective. But, 3D modeling,
material placement is secondary. Which brings us to the main goal of the argument;
designing using your hand definitely gives you infinite possibilities of what you
could sketch out. But to even execute these designs, technical softwares are required
to churn out drawings of the same, which may not be completely accurate if done
manually.

Some may argue about the fact that softwares can only go up to a limit when it
comes to ideation due to a certain number of permutations possible within the
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systems functions. This being said, the software's available at the present time have
gone onto prove that they can be mounted and shaped into any form that the user
may see fit. This has reduced the distance between a designer and the design. Then
why do designers still use the age old method of hand sketches to convey their
ideas?

Virtual tools are usually used as passive techniques such as communication of ideas,
but never as an ideation tool to actually design. They were initially meant to work
on already thought out designs. One main reason was the complexity of the user
interface. The requirement of a tech savvy person was a must while using such
software. The difficulty in using such softwares results in usage of techniques such a
sketching and physical models to take up the foreground in the ideation stage.
Digital platforms are not able to depict the precise idea that resides in the
designers mind due to a fixed set of values and combinations that are possible in a
digital platform. Virtual reality softwares could also be very difficult to install and
be used at a large scale. It could also lead to complexity as the focus would most
likely shift to making the right decision according to the software and not entirely on
the ideation process. This paper states the new age system of Hybrid Ideation
Space which allows the designer to make sketches all around them in real time and
scale using a digital tablet and Immersive projection device. This device set out to
be a cognitive platform between traditional sketching techniques and a digital
platform.

Architects need specific routes and channels to express their ideas and thoughts.
Unless they find a perfect platform to visualize their work, they won't be able to
communicate with the clients. The better they master these methods of
communication, the easier it becomes to visualize and express. Graphical tools have
always helped designers to express their ideas and digital design is one of the
platforms which came up to fine-tune their ideas. Along the way, technology may
have led to misdirection in terms of design thinking, which may have ended up in
more focus towards channeling of expression instead of the actual designing
process. To harness maximum output out of the digital software, designer are
suppose to answer such questions and fill out certain parameters into the software
which have not been figured out in the ideation stage. This causes a gap in between
the designer and the software. Since computers need a set of commands to execute
certain steps, the designers are required to figure out a certain amount of technical
details during the ideation stage which is not considered as a requirement by a lot
of designers. This leads to computers becoming a passive technique of design
implementation and not an active design tool. The time and energy spent on
figuring out the parameters to actually execute their design also leads to them
following traditional forms of ideation. Digital tools need to understand that
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ideation is a vague, inaccurate and imprecise method of expression and the

requirement of such complex inputs leads to designers abandoning these tools.
Computers fall short in such understanding due to a set of protocols that are
available within the system out of which they cannot function.

Traditional methods of ideation such as sketching and physical models help

designers in ideating several times but are also a tedious process. Certain
drawbacks of these methods would be the time they consume, the difficulty in
transforming the physical models each time they come up with a new iteration, the
inaccuracy of design and the mistakes in scale and proportions of the idea.

Ideation using Computer Aided Design (CAD)

There is a huge gap in ideation before a designer resorts to CAD, which is due to
the fact that only a certain type of analog tools are available to design within
these software. These softwares were technically designed for computer specialist
to aid the designer with technical drawings of their designs. These platforms have
also been merged with other disciplines such an engineering and manufacturing
which adapted these techniques during later stages of designing. They possess a
certain amount of complexity in front of the designers due to the technical
information required with is a prerequisite in this digital platform.

Drafted Virtual Reality (DVR) helps the designer in creating sketches on a cylindrical
virtual template with can be printed out and worked upon using various hand
rendering techniques. It is a non Immersive VR technique which was the first step into
the amalgamation of digital platform with traditional ideation methods. This
technique basically uses a primary module to represent shapes and give a
graphical layout to the designer to work upon.

Immersive DVR(iDVR) system allowed the designer to sketch around themselves in

real time using a panoscope which projects the sketch all around the spherical room
template or 3D model set up in the room.

Advantages that were concluded after the use of these VR techniques included the
fact that designers were able to use personal expression of sketches as compared
to digitalized sketched on CAD. It was an inexpensive technique and maintained the
ambiguity, inaccuracy and abstraction of the design idea. It makes use of already
mastered sketching skills and does not require much time to get used to the digital
platform provided. It focuses on the design idea and not on its execution by the use
of digital tools. The same stands for Immersive DVR. But additional advantages
observed were the fact that it now projected the drawings in real scale using a
spherical projector and helped in understanding the scale and proportion of the
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design. It contained real time visualization and not deformed images during
sketches. It consisted of non intrusive Immersive sketching which meant that no special
glasses or desires were required spring working on the digital tablet.

Along with these advantages there were certain disadvantages. The main
disadvantage was that it was well adapted to rendering spaces but failed when it
came to specific objects or individuals. There is always an adaptation time required
in iDVR to sketch with panoramic deformations. No walk through or rotating forms
were possible and the sketches can only be modeled on specific viewpoints and no
navigation was possible.

Hybrid modeling
The University then proposed a new idea of Hybrid Modeling which helps the users
go to and fro between digital and handmade models. The users can make rough
physical models which are then scanned using a Rapid Prototyping 3D scanner and
can be applied as a template on the digital platform. Once in the digital space, the
model can be played with using all the digital tools available.

In order to cancel out all these disadvantages and obtain fully functioning software
which exploited all the advantages of the earlier hybrid techniques, the University
came up with Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS).

HYBRID IDEATION SPACE

Is HIS a new ideation tool? Or is it just a connecting bridge between the client and
the designer?

Design mainly consists of three stages. The first, ideation, is the most important stage
and the one around which this study is based. It uses mainly hand drawn sketches
and imprecise drawings. The second stage, visualization, consists of 3D
modeling and the third stage is the one in which we create technical drawings. In the
age of technology, designers still use hand drawn sketches to bring out their ideas.
Computers or technology do not come into play until the second stage. Thus, the use
of technology is only limited to visualizing already thought out ideas and designs
which are then used to bridge the gap between the client and designer. One of the
main reasons behind this may be the fact that even after the presence of
parametric modeling, designers are never able to bring out the original or accurate
design onto a digital platform. It required a tech savvy person and is also limited
by the set of algorithms within the system.
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HIS was made to bridge this gap. It was developed as a cognitive space for
ideation. It helps in putting the designer inside the sketches in real time and helps in
modeling ideas in actual scale all around them using a digital tablet and Immersive
projection device. This was a brilliant way to merge the traditional method of
sketching and the virtual space.

The University of Montreal decided to take on an experiment using 20 students to

evaluate the workability of HIS. The concepts of design flow and workload were
used to come to a consensus about this methodology.

Design flow is considered a state of mind in which an individual is completely

immersed in their work and the activity flows out without a pause. This is often
accompanied by an altered sense of time, control and merging of action and
awareness. To achieve this state, there needs to be a proper balance between the
challenges presented and the people's technical skills. If the level of challenges
keeps varying, it might lead to boredom or anxiety within the designer.6

Immersive sketching is the technique used in HIS. It refers to a spherical graphic

template constructed using a reflective sphere on 3D model. It is used with a printer
software such as Coral painter. The sketches are made using a digital tablet which
is the input device. A spherical mirror placed on the ceiling is used by the software
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as a projection device. The projection is then corrected and the designer can see
what they draw on the tablet all around them in normal perspective.6

Results of this experiment show that the process involved in HIS is not demanding
and neither is it laborious. Even first time users who were involved in the experiment
stated that they were in a state of flow while designing. With time limitations, there
was an increase in anxiety but it was proved to be much less than what is achieved
during 3D modeling. There were certain disadvantages such as getting used to the
hand-eye coordination. But these were minimal as compared to the advantages that
were concluded at the end of the experiment. Concepts of scale and proportions
were resolved due to real scale of the projection. The students were able to ideate
easily as compared to 3D modeling.

Though this tool is a culmination of sketching and technology, it is the technological

influence on it that makes it more user friendly than all the other softwares
developed till date. HIS has succeeded in becoming the cognitive platform that it
set out to be using both technology and hand work. It has not only helped in
improving the imagination and possibilities but had also catered to areas such as
scale and proportions in hand drawn sketches which used to be a huge drawback
of hand sketching.
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CONCLUSION

HIS has bridged one of the greatest gaps between man and technology and that is
the depiction of ideas. The amalgamation which t set out to achieve between the
traditional ideation techniques and the new age technology were deemed
successful. The rate, at which technology is expanding, particularly in this field, due
to the need of advanced techniques, there will come a time in the near future when
no obstacles would be present between the architects' imagination and the
softwares response to it.

REFERENCES:

2. Karim Hadjri & Jamal Al-Qawasmi,2007

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298531319_Architecture_in_the_digital_age_The
_effect_of_digital_media_on_the_design_production_and_evaluation_of_the_built_environment

3. Rivka Oxman, Volume 29, Issue 2, March 2008

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142694X07001032

4. Tomás Dorta (2007) Ideation and Design Flow through the Hybrid Ideation Space
https://cumincad.architexturez.net/system/files/pdf/sigradi2007_af56.content.pdf

5. Dorta, T., & Pérez, E. (2006a). Immersive Drafted Virtual Reality: a new approach for ideation
within virtual reality. Louisville: Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture.

6. Dorta, T., & Pérez, E. (2006b). Hybrid modeling: revaluing manual action for 3D modeling.
Proceedings of the ACADIA Conference, Synthetic Landscapes.
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APPENDEX
1. Tomas Dorta, Université de Montréal, 2007, Augmented Sketches and Models:
The Hybrid Ideation Space as a Cognitive Artifact for Conceptual Design

a) advantages and disadvantages of several hybrid ideation techniques :

b) Augment Instead of Imitate: Hybrid Techniques :

Several digital tools imitating traditional design tools transform the computer into a
“funnel” for design information treatment. And as mentioned before, despite the
advantages offered by the machine, human computer interface approaches are not
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well adapted for ideation. The main goal of hybrid (analog and digital) design
tools is to take advantage of each mode and not only transit in one direction:
towards digital. In this way, designers and computers can treat design information
when and where they are most competent.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

1. Karim Hadjri & Jamal Al-Qawasmi,2007, Architecture in the digital age: The
effect of digital media on the design, production and evaluation of the built
environment
As noted by Kolarevic(2003) "The use of digital modeling (3D) and animation (4D)
software has opened new territories of formal exploration in architecture, in which
digitally-generated forms are not designed in convention always."

2. Digital architecture as a challenge for design pedagogy: theory, knowledge,

models and medium, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion, Institute
of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. The paper introduces and discusses current
developments in architectural discourse, design theory, digital design models and
techniques and their relations to design pedagogy.

3. The ideation gap: hybrid tools, design flow and practice, School of Industrial
Design, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada. Ideation is still done with
traditional analog manual tools because current computer interfaces are inconsistent
with the needs of designers. The Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) was developed to
respond to this lack by augmenting analog tools with digital capabilities