International Journal of Architectural Computing

Contemporary video games such as Mass Effect or Assassin’s Creed are emerging as a new form of media departing from traditional games purely seen as problem-solving exercises. They represent a new creative direction enjoyed by a broader audience, similar to those of TV and cinema. At the same time, they are significantly different from TV and cinema, since they place the user at the center of interactions, allowing content creation and forming strong emotional bonds. This article discusses the role of narratives in these new epic games as the main driver behind their social appeal and commercial success. It also poses a number of questions in the context of architecture and the possible fusion of both architecture and narrative.

Real-time virtual engines have experienced a degree of popularity in contemporary architectural education. Acknowledging that primarily the real-time virtual engine is deployed as a visualization tool, this article notes that the capacity to extend beyond the sensation of experiencing form and space exists through the deployment of the game mechanics. A survey of architecture students in digital design courses is used as a case study to identify how game mechanics can be used effectively in a design studio setting. The discussion concludes on the game mechanic as an opportunity to rescript design studio behaviors.

In this article, we propose a method of generating two-dimensional schematic diagrams from three-dimensional models of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems on computer-aided design software to represent this information in a more traditional, user-friendly format. It can be difficult to grasp the relationships between various mechanical, electrical, and plumbing elements in building information models because they are represented in a visually complex, three-dimensional manner. On the other hand, the relationships between building elements can be easily understood when using traditional schematic diagrams. First, the network of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and a section view are extracted separately from three-dimensional models. Next, these extracted files are displayed as schematic diagrams on computer-aided design software. The expressions of traditional drawings were referenced to generate new diagrams. After schematic diagrams were created, they were evaluated by staff members in the facilities department of a university in Japan.

Large-scale airports such as Incheon International Airport have large-scale terminals, annex buildings, and numerous open spaces. An integrated space management system is required to manage these buildings and spaces efficiently. Thus, Incheon International Airport Corporation developed a three-dimensional computer-aided design–based integrated space management system. The major system development goal was to provide intuitive three-dimensional-based visual information, thereby realizing an integrated space and asset management system that does not require expert knowledge of any specific field, such as architecture. This article discusses the construction of the system and the problems that had to be resolved to achieve this goal.

The goal of the article is to find the relationships between theme park visitor traffics and service facility location along with their capacities. To do that, we analyzed four Disneylands situated in Paris, Tokyo, and the United States (Florida and California). By analyzing the visual integration of visitor traffics at each Disneyland and calculating the capacities of service facilities such as the attractions, shops, and restaurants, we ran through a linear and a geographically weighted regression analysis. Our results indicate that there is a unique relationship between the service facility placements and the amount of predicted traffic flows for each Disneyland.

Responsive environment uses human–computer interface to improve how humans experience their surroundings. Many research aimed at different kinds of interactive environment modules with new digital tectonics or computation components. However, those new environments sometimes could be manipulated by components which are less user-friendly and complex than traditional counterparts. In this article, we implemented a real responsive interface – the Spark Wall system, which use 160 actuator modules as our responsive feedback interface and depth camera as sensing input. We built up multi-modal interface for different operating purposes allowing the user to control responsive environment with their behaviour. The user could change his or her body posture to change the pattern of the wall and moreover define touch-input area on any surface. From the user’s perspective, a responsive environment should be a simple system with understandable control modes. A responsive artefact should also be able to dynamically correspond to different methods of operation according to the user’s intentions.

Family support is the key to the well-being problems of elderly. Unlike health problem, mental problem often depends on the social network of elderly. How to enhance elderly well-being problems will become how to increase the interaction between elderly and their family. Horticultural interaction proves to be an effective but smooth impact on improving well-being problems of elderly. By designing a horticultural interaction game for motivating or invoking the communication between elderly and their family members, the prototype is developed based on the framework of behavior setting and semi-fixed features. Three groups of games, physical games, virtual games, and spatial interaction games, are analyzed and 14 cases are studied and evaluated for the features required. Particularly, spatial interaction games with both physical and virtual games are brought into scope, and HiGame (Horticultural Interaction Game, hi game) is developed. Five scenarios using sensor network and mobile interface are unleashed and tested in an experiment with two sets of elderly family participants. HiGame has connection to both physical and virtual spaces for elderly and their family. Elderly interact with distant family through physical watering, weeding, and fertilizing. And distant family use virtual game to support elderly. The interaction process can be further enhanced with the following: (1) separating the tasks for elderly and family ends individually and then cooperating together might enforce the intergenerational interaction and reflection on cooperation in the gaming process; (2) the connection among each scenario can be further developed into a different process, such as competition of different members for helping the elderly to complete certain task might motivate the game experience further.

This article develops a new research framework and method combining cognitive and linguistic approaches to investigate parametric design. At the core of this new approach is a dual-coding system for protocol analysis, which can formally capture both cognitive and linguistic characteristics of the design process. In this article, the method is applied to the analysis of the results of a design experimental undertaken by a set of Australian and Swedish architects working individually in a parametric environment. The results of the experiment demonstrate the effectiveness of the dual-coding system and, with the support of linkography, facilitate the in-depth exploration of design cognition and its relationship to spatial language. This method directly contributes to a new insight into the role of language in design.

This article presents the results from exploring the impact of using a parametric design tool on designers’ behavior in terms of using design patterns in the early conceptual development stage of designing. It is based on an empirical cognitive study in which eight architectural designers were asked to complete two architectural design tasks with similar complexity, respectively, in a parametric design environment and a geometric modeling environment. The protocol analysis method was employed to study the designers’ behavior. In order to explore the development of design patterns in the empirical data, Markov model analysis is utilized. Through Markov models analysis of the parametric design environment and geometric modeling environment results, it was found that there are some significantly different design patterns being used when designing in a parametric design environment compared to designing in a geometric modeling environment. The article articulates these differences and draws conclusions from these results.