This design thesis is an assessment of the tectonic capabilities and applications of large format 3D printing, given the current available and practiced technologies. This review consists of an analysis of the technical specifications and limitations of the various forms and methods of 3D printing at all scales, followed by an in-depth analysis of technologies that have been adopted and employed at an architectural scale. A number of case studies are assessed to create a typology of tectonic types created by employing 3D printing technologies. These tectonic types: Holistic/Homogenous, Complementary/Integrative, Structural, and Sculptural are then tested to see how they can be incorporated into the design process. This study culminates in a design project that utilizes these technologies and tectonic types in a higher educational facility focused on fabrication and continued research into 3D printed construction. The design acts as a prototypical model for the implementation of 3D printed technologies into the design and construction process, specifically focused on educational institutions on existing campuses. Advancements in this technology and strategies of application have yielded enough capabilities for this design assessment to be formed.

This thesis began as an exploration of how to create an immersive design through an immersive design experience. The project I used to study this inquiry was the design of a new country pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World based on Peru. This project revealed that in architecture, the design process is integral to the outcome; they are interwoven and cannot be separated. Weaving has emerged throughout every level of this investigation, from the intertwining of the overarching ideas to the physical and metaphysical weaving within the project. The method in which I worked became a weaving of the study of artifacts with the use of traditional architectural techniques and the exploration of emerging design technologies. Traditional architectural design processes must be iterated on and adapted to better address more specialized sectors of the industry. For a themed entertainment project specifically, the design process must be catered to understanding and enhancing the user experience. I argue that a more immersive, multimedia design process is necessary to appropriately address these issues. / Master of Architecture / This thesis began as an exploration of how to create an immersive design through an immersive design experience. The project I used to study this inquiry was the design of a new country pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World based on Peru. This project revealed that in architecture, the design process is integral to the outcome; they are interwoven and cannot be separated. Weaving has emerged throughout every level of this investigation, from the intertwining of the overarching ideas to the physical and metaphysical weaving within the project. The method in which I worked became a weaving of the study of artifacts with the use of traditional architectural techniques and the exploration of emerging design technologies. Traditional architectural design processes must be iterated on and adapted to better address more specialized sectors of the industry. For a themed entertainment project specifically, the design process must be catered to understanding and enhancing the user experience. I argue that a more immersive, multimedia design process is necessary to appropriately address these issues.

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This thesis presents a new method that improves upon the existing approaches to developing collaborative tools. The new method uses automatically inferred and manually recorded design rationale to intelligently filter the information that is shared by a collaborative tool. This represents an improvement upon the existing state of the art in collaborative engineering tools. To demonstrate the viability of the method three collaborative tools were created. The first is a multi-user collaborative design environment tool named SimulPart and built upon the NX CAD package. SimulPart uses the new method to limit the amount of communication required to keep every user in synch during a multi-user co-design session. The second implementation is a visual history tool named VisiHistory that allows designers to watch time lapse videos of the creation of a design that are automatically generated using the new method. The final tool is an intelligent user directory named SmartHelp that uses the new method to allow designers to identify which of their peers have expertise in certain CAD operations. Validation was performed for each of these tools by benchmarking the tool against the leading commercial solution or industry process. The results of the validation showed that the new method does in fact offer a superior collaborative solution as it outperforms the existing tools and methods in several key collaborative metrics. As a result of this work future efforts are encouraged into both improving upon the quality of the inferred design rationale and increasing the functionality of the three tools created using the new method.

This thesis presents a new design process in which design specifications and task distribution are determined from a parallel multi user prospective. Using this method, projects are more easily decomposed into tasks that can be performed concurrently, thus decreasing the design time. Also, a framework is provided to determine the correct distribution of available talent and stakeholders that can be utilized on a given project. The research suggests that by involving the necessary stakeholders in a multi user setting, changes can be made quickly and without additional approval wait time. By including individuals from the various areas of required talent, persons of expertise will be able to work together in a mode of shared design rather than an iterative design process. Decreasing iterations as well as reducing wait time for approval will reduce the overall design time significantly. This method has been tested and validated utilizing controlled tests simulating real life situations of much larger scale. The validation results show that the new method does in fact improve design time and overall achievement of initial design goals

While sustainability issues take an ever-larger part in city planning, citizens aspirations toinclusion in projects rise. In France, the government encourages the development ofcollaboration between actors and the emergence of innovations in the creation ofsustainable neighbourhoods. These incentives allow for the development of projects thataim at being demonstrators of French know how. Through these large-scale projects,partnerships are created, thus leading to more inclusive projects and to the creation ofsynergies between actors of the creation of urban fabric. Through an in-depth study of one of these projects, this research aimed at assessing theoutcomes of the top down approach implemented by the government. The idea was tostudy the government that was implemented and its outcomes in terms of creation ofinnovation but also regarding citizen participation. To identify citizens’ aspirations forinclusion and for the creation of fitted housing solutions, in coherence with sustainabilityissues, some research about a successful participatory housing project was conducted. Through the implementation of a fitted governance system, collaboration between actorsfrom different backgrounds and with varying interests lead to the creation of a creativeprocess of innovation and to the development of many pilot projects. Through the analysisof these projects, it appeared that information and communication technologies are onetool to the implementation of a more efficient, of a more resilient city. However, theycannot be presented as one goal and need to take part of a bigger process with other toolsthat are necessary for the creation of new uses for urban dwellers. Though citizen inclusion is an aspiration from various actors of the production of the city,some limits to citizen power in a really framed process of project development wereraised. Despite a strong will, from various actors, there are still many obstacles to thecreation of fitted housing solutions that would meet the deepest expectations of citizens.

Over many years the housing industry has been criticised concerning its performance related to factors such as quality and cost. Together with the challenge of improving its capability in meeting individual customers’ needs, by means of effective production, this has resulted in a situation where companies look at other industries, such as manufacturing, in order to industrialise their products and processes. Swedish housing producers are today working towards finding more commonality in products and processes at the same time as the ability to deliver customized product and services is maintained or improved. In some cases this means an increase in central control of the design work carried out in project groups. This thesis presents a study of the design process for housing at a Swedish property developer, JM AB. Interviews have been conducted with three main groups of actors (project leaders, architects and sellers) connected to ten housing developments. A survey has also been sent out to these individuals as well as to other important actors. The main objectives of these investigations were to find out major actors’ attitudes towards the increase in central control of the design work, in general terms as well as in relation to specific design objects (windows, floor plans, bathrooms and basic structure) for the housing projects. The results show that the trend towards more industrialised processes by more structuring and standardising concerning design has had an effect on the design work carried out in project groups. There are positive as well as negative aspects, as well as similarities and differences in attitudes. These differences can be related to different roles as well as to geographical differences. Within this work a triangle has been developed for measuring and comparing different actors’ attitudes. The work further shows that adapting a more holistic view of the design process, by considering it as part of a firm’s product realisation process, could be a base for further developments / QC 20101129

In a design agency, where time is of essence, it is interesting to see how documentation and reflection, of the design process can be captured by a digital tool with the aim to reuse design. In this thesis, such a tool was deployed at the design agency Apegroup. The main question this study investigates, is the challenge and benefit of a tool that enhances documentation, reflection, and reusability of a design process. The tool was primary inspired by the Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Documenting Design Process area. Interviews, ideation, prototyping, coding, testing and evaluation is some of the activities that were conducted. The results revealed that different design roles values different elements during the design process, which makes it challenging to develop a tool that has value for all. Documentation of activities in the tool was mainly beneficial for the role design director and the value of gathering all internal information about the design process. Reflection of activities in the tool made some of the designers reflect more, but it was challenging to engage all designers. Working with reusability was challenging due to the tool’s need of being used continuously. In the design agency context, the most challenging aspect was time, and competing with the designers’ perceived benefit. / I design agenturer där tid är av ytterst värde, är det intressant att se hur dokumentation och reflektion av design processen kan fångas av ett digitalt verktyg med målet att återanvända design i det långa loppet. I denna studie kommer ett sådant verktyg att släppas hos design agenturen Apegroup. Den primära frågeställningen kommer inom denna studie fokusera på att förstå utmaningar och fördelar i ett sådan verktyg. Verktyget var primärt inspirerat av fälten Computer Supported Cooperative Work och Documenting Design Process. Intervjuer, idégenerering, prototypning, utveckling, testing och utvärdering är aktiviteter som kommer att genomföras av författaren.   Resultaten visade att olika designroller värderar olika ting under design processen, vilket gör det utmanande att utvecklat verktyg som har värde för alla. Dokumentering av aktiviteter i verktyget hade mest fördelar för rollen design director och det stora värdet av att samla intern dokumentation om design processen. Att reflektera över aktiviteter i verktyget fick vissa designers att reflektera mer, men det var utmanande att engagera alla. Att arbeta med återanvändning är utmanade då verktyget kräver kontinuerligt användande för att få ut det maximala värdet. I design agentur kontextet, var det mest utmanande aspekten tid och att utmana designers upplevda fördel under hela design processen.

En av framgångsfaktorerna till en lyckad projektering är god kommunikation och att rätt informationfinns tillgänglig vid rätt tillfälle för att fatta rätt beslut. Tidigare forskning tyder på att traditionellakommunikationsprocesser lett till problem att skapa gemensam förståelse mellan discipliner samt attbrist på transparens i informationsflödet och splittrad data- och informationshantering skaparkommunikationsproblem, vilket kan leda till felprojektering och extra kostnader. Till följd avbristfälligheter med traditionella kommunikationsprocessen har byggbranschen börjat använda sig avalternativa kommunikationsmedel hämtade från andra branscher. Denna studie undersöker huruvidadigital ärendehantering kan förbättra styrning i projekteringen med hjälp av dess genererade data.För att utföra detta examensarbete har författarna hämtat data från en digitalärendehanteringsmjukvara använd som kommunikationsverktyg under projekteringsskedet för ettstörre byggnadsprojekt. Utöver hämtad data har författarna utfört intervjuer medbyggnadsprojektets projekteringsledare som ansvarar för projekteringen och dess internakommunikationsprocess. Data har analyserats tillsammans med svar från intervjuerna för att kunnadra slutsatser kring projektets kommunikationsprocess och dess förbättringsmöjligheter. Studienvisar att med hjälp av digital ärendehantering kan rätt information finnas tillgänglig vid rätt tidpunktför att kontrollera projektets status. Detta för att skapa beslutsunderlag för en förbättrad styrningoch ett mer hållbart byggande. Detta är möjligt i kombination med starkt ledarskap och disciplin frånkommunikationsverktygets användare. / One key factor to a successful design process is to have an effective communication process, and thatthe right information is available at the right time in order to make the right decisions. Previousresearch suggests that traditional communication processes have led to difficulties creating commonunderstanding between disciplines, a lack of transparency in information flow and fragmented dataand information management create communication problems that lead to malfunctioning andadditional costs. Due to shortcomings linked to the traditional communication process, theconstruction industry has begun to use alternative means of communication gathered from otherindustries. This study investigates whether digital case management can improve projectmanagement using its generated data. To complete this study, the authors have retrieved data froma digital case management software, used as a communication tool during the design process for amajor building project. In addition to downloaded data, the authors have conducted interviews withthe project managers of the building project, who are responsible for the design phase and itsinternal communication process. The data has been analyzed together with information gatheredfrom the interviews in order to draw conclusions about the project's communication process and itsimprovement possibilities. The study shows that, with the help of digital case management, the rightinformation can be available at the right time to check the status of the project in order to providesupport for improved management leading to a sustainable construction process. This is possible incombination with strong leadership and discipline from its users.