Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Zuzanna Karczewska. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-117).

Thesis (M.S. in computer engineering)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 22, 2010). "School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-76).

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

One potential role for the architect of the future will be that of the digital craftsperson. Digital technology is allowing the designer to take control of and retool the entire design I fabrication I assembly process. With this new power, architects are crafting the digital tools and processes required to make architecture for the digital age.First, this thesis examines the notion of craft in the traditional way—how it has applied to architecture and building for most of history. This story recounts the architect's role in the designing and making of architecture, from the medieval master mason to the present-day architect. Craft, it is argued, is based on an understanding and skillful application of tools and processes as they relate to designing and making.The second part of this thesis applies this definition of craft to a new set of digital skills, tools, and processes. Digital craft is a combination of the skills of the architect, augmented by computers and computer-driven machines. Designing and making with digital tools is very dependent on a feedback loop driven process centered around a digital master model, into which, design information and data is input, and direct fabrication information and representation is output.The third part of this thesis describes the digital craftsperson through three case studies. The first case study recounts the process of digital tool-making. The second, describes the development of innovative fabrication and assembly techniques using digital tools and unconventional materials. The last case study recounts the design and fabrication process of a full-scale prototype by the author and a team of students. / Department of Architecture

This project is inspired by two facts that occur on an everyday basis in much of the world. First, it is obvious that many persons and organizations in many developing nations are paying large amounts of money for large-scale architecture projects, including skyscrapers, museums, and airport, subway, and train terminals. It is often the case that as the mega-buildings are built, many useful materials—structural steel, wood, reinforcing rods, sheets of corrugated steel, and concrete among them--are wasted, even though they could be utilized in smaller projects. The second fact is that digital technology is playing a more important role in the daily life of many people and professionals. The development of such technologies also influences the ways in which buildings are created. Many types of software programs now facilitate the standard and non-standard workings of architecture offices worldwide, starting with design, moving through fabrication, and culminating with assembly.It is suggested that we can reuse the scraps from huge construction projects to provide much needed small buildings in the developing world (such as houses or small commercial structures) by using new digital technologies. As the technology becomes available, many architects will be able to adapt and utilize all types of raw materials in the most efficient ways possible while minimizing the amount of waste taken to landfill sites.To advance these ideas, the author worked as an intern at Morphosis and visited the offices of Gehry Partners and Greg Lynn Form (all in Los Angeles), and Sharpies Holden Pasquarelli Architects (SHoP) in New York; these firms are among the most influential offices in the world, both in regards to the buildings they design and the digital technologies with which they work. Rule-based design was studied to better understand the logic of computation. Simultaneously, several experimental projects were designed and built.The knowledge gained from these studies, experiences, and experiments can give us confidence that new technology can help architects and designers organize the complexity of unique scraps for use in the construction of buildings or building components.However, problems were revealed that are in need of attention. For example, the machines that are typically used for digital fabrication procedures today, such as the laser cutter and CNC router, do not provide the best support for this work because they are not intended to be used with scraps and the price of the machine is relatively high.It is hoped that this project can be a small first step for other architects to understand the possibility and the logic of digital technology within the realm of building construction waste. If studied and understood, the new technology can be a very powerful tool to utilize the leftover material in the most efficient way. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-108). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Eng.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. / Restricted until November 1999. Bibliography: leaves 185-199.

Visibility, guarding and polygon decomposition are problems in the field of compu¬tational geometry which have roots in real world applications. These problems have been the focus of much research over a number of years. This thesis introduces a new problem in the field - The Axial line Placement Problem - which has some commonalities with these other problems. The problem arises from a consideration of the computational issues that result from attempting to automate the space syntax method. Space syntax is used for describing, quantifying and interpreting the spatial patterns in urban designs by analysing the relationship between the space through which one can move (roads, parks, etc.) and the buildings in the urban layout. In particular, this thesis considers the problem of the placing the axial lines, defining paths along which someone can move, to cross the shared boundaries between the convex polygons which represent the space through which someone can move in the town. A number of simplifications of the original problem are considered in this thesis. The first of these is the problem of placing the smallest number of orthogonal line segments (orthogonal axial lines) to cross the shared boundaries (adjacencies) in a collection of adjacent orthogonal rectangles. This problem is shown to be NP¬Complete by a transformation from the vertex cover problem for planar graphs. A heuristic algorithm which produces an approximation to the general solution is then presented. In addition, special cases of collections of orthogonal rectangles which allow polynomial time solutions are described and algorithms to solve some ofthese special cases are presented. The problem where the axial lines, that pass through the adjacencies between or¬thogonal rectangles, can have arbitrary orientation is then considered. This problem is also shown to be NP-Complete and once again heuristic approaches to solving the problem are considered. The problem of placing axial lines to cross the adjacencies between adjacent convex polygons is a more general case of the problem of placing axial lines of arbitrary orientation in orthogonal rectangles. The NP-Completeness proof can be extended to this problem as well. The final stage of the thesis considers real world urban layouts. Many urban layouts are regular grids of roads. Such layouts can be modelled as general urban grids and this thesis shows that it is possible to find the minimal axial line cover in general urban grids in polynomial time. Some urban layouts are less regular and the idea of a deformed urban grid is introduced to model some of these layouts. A heuristic algorithm that finds a partition of a deformed urban grid in polynomial time is presented and it is conjectured that the axial map of a deformed urban grid can be found in polynomial time. The problem is still open for more general urban layouts which cannot be modelled by deformed urban grids. The contribution of this thesis is that a number of new NP-Complete problems were identified and some new and interesting problems in the area of computational geometry have been introduced. / Thesis (DPhil (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Computer Science / unrestricted

published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

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