An architectural Shift+F7 Supporting Concept Development Through Design Cases

Abstract

This paper describes the linking of Idea Space/E3dAD, a system that captures and interprets the architect's ideas with DYNAMO, a dynamic memory of design cases, to support concept development in architectural design. So far, a major obstacle for the breakthrough of digital case bases like DYNAMO has been the separateness of these tools from the architect's working environment. Having to leave this environment to consult a case base inconveniently interrupts the design process. The remedy proposed in this paper was inspired by the Shift+F7 shortcut in Ms Word. Just like this shortcut allows authors to look up synonyms in a thesaurus without having to leave the text, linking Idea Space to DYNAMO enables architects to trigger case retrieval ‘en passant', that is during the very act of designing.