The thesis Defense session of Mr  Shokohi Dehkordi,Kaveh with the title of“ Comparative evaluation of methods for producing architectural sketches in the early stages of the design process   ” under supervision of Dr.Hashemnejad ,will be held in 24 of January 2013 at 15:00 Pm in School of Architecture and environmentaldesign.

  

Abstract :

 

The era saw the rise of technology in all areas of life. Digital technology, information and communication technologies and computers are the themes of these technologies. Information technology and computers have made many cultural, social and economic developments on human life. Architecture is also one of the most effective sequences. Today, architectural design and production processes, tools, ideas, theories, methods and forms have been affected by computer and communication technologies extensively.

 

The increasing use of computers in architectural design and engineering is one of the most recent human achievements in promotion and enhancement of the efficiency of the various stages of construction design process.

 

The early 1960s saw the advent of the computer has been used in many areas. computers were used in the construction industry and their application has grown in the field of architectural processes. Nowadays, the computer have become one of the main tools used by architects and engineers in the architectural profession and the building construction.

 

In recent years, extensive studies have been done about CAD and CAAD. These studies suggest that the arrival of the computer to architecture design process occurs in three steps. The steps are : Early stage of architectural design , Drawing and design stages.

 

This paper studies the use of computational tools in the early stages of the design process . and the effects of CAD compared with traditional and manual design tools. The role and impact of communication technology in the architecture is studied. Theories about design, architecture and the initial stages of the design process, the use of computers in the early stages of design and computerized design tools have been carefully studied. In order to investigate the applicability of computer tools early in the design process of architectural evaluation and Sketchup software was selected as the best of them.

 

The main purpose of this thesis reviews the impact of computer applications in the early stages of the design process. Therefore, the comparison between architectural design method by various devices is conducted. In this thesis ,the material and methods are experimental research  and survey. In this research, three methods of architectural schematic drawings (sketching) as main activity is related to the early stages of the design process, including methods of sketchting with computer tools, traditional tools and combination methods (both of computer and tradiotional devices) are compared with each other in the study statistics population.The computer tool is to be used in the early stages of architectural design is Sketchup which is defined the most appropriate tool for the early stage of architectural design. In this thesis, an experimental sketching design was held and a jury group that was of three master of architectural design course, judge the sketches and evaluate their scores. Judges' scores were based on the criterias were defined during a survey to assess the sketches.

 

For the analysis of data of this thesis we use judges scores, factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance test questionnaire - MANOVA. Statistical studies show that the architectural sketching method is effective on the grades and students performance. Also according to the test scores of students in the three groups of participants, sketching group with traditional tools (paper and pen and clipboard) achieved the highest scores.

 

Finally the comparison between computer and traditional design tools show that computer tools can not be a substitute for architectural design in the early stages of design process and traditional methods contain manual tools are still preferred.