Abstract
The computing resources of an organization or project team were often spread across many different platforms and in different locations. Recently, there has been a growing interest in distributed CAAD (Computer-Aided Architectural Design) integration due to the needs of direct collaboration among project participants. The potential for the integration of information is expected to have a tremendous impact on architecture and the construction industry. The aim of this research is to provide a new paradigm for a CAAD system by combining research on integrated CAAD applications with recent collaboration technologies. To accomplish this research objective, the proposed system has been designed and a prototype implemented to produce enough guidelines to foster interest in the development of future CAAD systems on the Internet. To this end, two different scopes of implementation are evaluated: first, global architecture and the functionality of a distributed CAAD system; and, second, the association of an architectural application to the system. Keywords: collaborative design, distributed collaboration, design process, integration, Internet 1. Introduction I n t e r n e t i s b e c o m i n g t h e o p t i m a l t o o l f o r The needs of collaboration among design participants collaboration among participants in architectural spread in different locations is emphasized in design d e s i g n a n d c o n s t r u c t i o n p r o j e c t s b e c a u s e o f t h e stages in order to not only save time and provide low connection costs and wide availability. Such places to meet and talk, but also to save cost for those collaborations will include the exchange of project events as well: This is being realized by the Internet, drawings and various forms of project materials and which helps support a networked, integrated real-time general distribution of project information through multi-user environment. As the base for collaboration the Internet. One way or another, the existence of the activities moves from physical places to cyberspace, Internet and the wealth of related technology will the methods of connecting every participant by means change the way architectural design and construction of a computer technology have been desired and are practiced today. considered. Distributed object computing has the potential to The increased complexity in technical support change the information landscape of a broad range of systems and the fragmentation resulting from the business practices. As integrated computer systems addition of many more individuals to a building project offer the capability to improve the effectiveness and have made the design process far too complicated. efficiency of management processes in practice, their In addition, the lack of collaboration in knowledge use is likely to increase the information flow and the or information representation strategies has made the quality of communication among project participants communication during the design and construction in the collaborative design process. phases more difficult. T h i s s t u d y w i l l i n v e s t i g a t e h o w a r c h i t e c t s c a n E f f o r t s h a v e b e e n m a d e t o e n c o u r a g e t h e collaborate using distributed technology, especially development of collaborative design systems to enable in the early design stages which mainly involve their their use in the design phases. The Internet is a solution cognitive work, and aims to gain insight into the to allow the design systems to be used simultaneously advantages and shortcomings of such an approach. with various interactions, and ICT (Information and F r o m t h i s i n s i g h t , i t i s e n v i s i o n e d t h a t s p e c i f i c Communication Technology) has been an essential recommendations will be made for future development concept for supporting collaboration in architectural o f d i s t r i b u t e d c o l l a b o r a t i v e a r c h i t e c t u r a l d e s i g n design. systems. Through this paper, the architecture of a distributed collaborative architectural design system is investigated and some experiments that examine design * C o n t a c t A u t h o r : S e u n g - H o o n H a n , S e n i o r R e s e a r c h e r, workflow tasks performed within the environment are Convergence Laboratory, KT, 17 Woomyeon-Dong, Seocho-Gu, presented. An application scenario offers an alternative Seoul, 137-785, Korea for design evaluation practice using the proposed Tel: +82-2-526-5467 Fax: +82-2-526-5469 system. The scenario will also include a demonstration e-mail: hshoon@gmail.com of virtual settings and scenes that may be cooperative ( Received May 10, 2005 ; accepted October 11, 2005 ) Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering/May 2006/74 67 places for remote participants, such as planners, need to follow commonly accepted exchange standards designers, architects or engineers discussing possible to be adapted to systems in other firms as well as to be alterations to designs. reused in future projects with flexibility and generality that Coons emphasized in his paper: "The computer 2. Towards Distributed Collaboration s h o u ld al s o b e ab le to f u r n is h in f o r matio n ab o u t In 1963, Steven Coons wrote a visionary paper titled standard processes" (Coons, 1963). "An Outline of The Requirements for a Computer- T h e b u i l d i n g d e s i g n p r o c e s s h a s c h a n g e d Aided Design System" which suggested two main significantly in the last years. Generally, it is a matter trends that a CAD application would face in order of fact that the technological developments in every to support various design tasks, and set the research field of science have an influence on the society and agenda in CAD for the next generation. therefore on the design and the design process itself. Currently, CAAD systems have adequately satisfied Architectural specialists are considering especially several demands. They have dramatically improved for the influence of the rapid developments of ICT in the accuracy and consistency of working drawings, architectural design (Sariyildiz et al., 1997). enabled designers to visualize their design ideas in The Internet has evolved as an excellent resource three-dimensions, allowed the analysis of designs f o r t h e A E C ( A r c h i t e c t u r e , E n g i n e e r i n g , a n d through data exchange and integrated databases, Construction) disciplines, as it allows quick, efficient, and even allowed the designers to evaluate designs and widespread communication to those who can based on comparisons to previous cases and/or the access it, sharing everything from design information formalization of grammars. to project participant communication. Companies who There is, however, a consensus that CAAD systems previously marketed and sold CAAD products are now have not yet achieved their full potential. First, most diversifying and offering services and other resources systems employ a single-user approach to solving related to all aspects of the design industry. architectural problems which fails to grapple with J u s t a s t h e e a r l i e s t C A A D a p p l i c a t i o n s w e r e t h e f a c t t h a t m o s t d e s i g n w o r k i s d o n e t h r o u g h relatively unsophisticated in their capabilities of teamwork. Second, current systems still cannot support making the drafting process of designers easier, these early design stages which involve client briefing, online services are currently in an early, formative data collection, building program formulation, and period. The CAAD and AEC industries are relatively schematic design generation. beginner on the Internet and so such services have T h e f o c u s o n c o l l a b o r a t i o n i s d u e t o r e c e n t strong as well as weak points. Already established technological advances, both on the hardware and CAAD companies enhanced the features of their software sides, which, coupled with a maturity in the o f f e r i n g s w i t h i n n o v a t i o n c o u p l e d w i t h k n o w - knowledge-base of group behavior and dynamics, have how, while newly joined enterprises to the industry made it possible to support and enhance collaborative realize of the needs of the industry viewed from new processes through technological interventions (Jabi, perspectives. Considering the consummate growth 1996). and widespread utilization by the AEC industry, the Coons, first of all, emphasized the role of Human- Internet and these Web-based services will be the Computer Interaction (HCI) with which the future greatest area of growth and development in the CAAD CAAD systems would be pursued. Although there industry (Park, 2001). have been many research projects in HCI to improve Another new strategy for collaboration is proposed communication between human and systems like to empower designers in the architectural field with an CAAD systems, one of the current issues in interface innovative process, which comes from the utilization design is how to manipulate interaction with non- o f d i s t r i b u t e d c o m p u t i n g b a s e d o n t h e O b j e c t - geometric data. Also, the rapid growth of the Web Oriented (OO) approach. OO design applied to CAAD and its business and academy-oriented opportunities development lends favorably to the expected nature of portend a new need for information interaction and distributed objects, which can considerably cut down visualization. decision-making procedures by providing cooperation An architect uses non-geometric data in making between them; developments in CAAD technology design decisions both for administrative purposes has led to modular objects and eventually to their a n d t o m a n a g e t h e d e s i g n p r o c e s s . I n p r a c t i c e , a distribution. Distributed technology allows the designer design is produced with synthesis and analysis of to extract valuable information associated with the information. Such information can range from site objects distributed online, not only values such as data to legislation, standards and product information. simple dimensions, but also other user-defined values Because most of this architectural information pertains from which reasonable updates and modification can to a building model, information about architectural be made. design needs to be related to the building model as a Web services are appearing that cater to the AEC core model. Additionally, these building model data industry's need to collaborate efficiently and methods 68 JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han o f i m p l e m e n t i n g We b - e n a b l e d c o l l a b o r a t i o n a r e activated as the abstract model, and visualized by arising. Recent peer-to-peer, distributed approaches VRML plug-in for the Internet browsers. are becoming a major trend of collaboration, although 2 ) R e p r e s e n t a t i o n : E v e r y c l i e n t i s r e p r e s e n t e d they have not been commercialized in the architectural o r e m b o d i e d w i t h i n t h e v i r t u a l e n v i r o n m e n t profession yet. This approach provides a basis for all u s i n g a v a t a r s a n d i s v i s u a l i z e d t o o t h e r u s e r s b y work to be done, concerning everything from project means of this embodiment to enhance access and information to application without having to worry comprehension. Each user is autonomous and able to about obsolete or non-common hardware, software or move independently around the virtual environment. unneeded personnel. Building design components which are objects in the Concepts and tools such as HCI, Data Exchange virtual environment are extracted from the scene- Standards, OO Programming and Web technology graph, and represented by a separate Graphical User h a v e a l l e m e rg e d f r o m w o r k o n c o n c e p t u a l d a t a Interface (GUI) called 3D Building Object Editor for models and network computing, and are apt to foster the system. the development of a new paradigm that will enable 3) Communication and Collaboration: Participants researchers to take a new approach to CAAD. Indeed, can communicate and collaborate in many different the development of CAAD software applications, the w a y s t h r o u g h d i ff e r e n t c o m m u n i c a t i o n c h a n n e l s development of new modeling methodologies and within the computational and networking domains. A the definition of standards for information exchange chatting window, for example, is provided for textual create opportunities for achieving distributed system intercommunication using a specific communication integration. channel, and a 3D Building Object Editor is used for Therefore, the opportunity is seen to implement distributed collaborative design among distributed a solution which will provide both objects of basic p a r t i c i p a n t s t h r o u g h a d i ff e r e n t c o m m u n i c a t i o n usability to designers and the ready accessibility of channel. those objects in the form of programmed applications 4) Decision-Making: The proposed system is also over the Web, and will thus be manifested in the concerned with improving the support for collaborative CAAD-enabled distributed system. decision-making based on observations of critical issues in agreement and negotiation drawn from the 3. Proposed System Architecture discipline of social science. T h i s p a p e r i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e d e s i g n a n d When a participant in the design team attempts to r e a l i z a t i o n o f d i s t r i b u t e d c o l l a b o r a t i v e v i r t u a l update a design proposal, for instance, an agreement e n v i r o n m e n t u s i n g D i s t r i b u t e d M u l t i - U s e r must be reached from all other connecting users via a Technologies (DMUTech), a working prototype of networked agreement procedure in the system. 3D computer-generated design environment, which 5) Evaluation: The most important concept for actively supports collaboration between distributed evaluation is observations of and reflections on the participants. The approach taken in this system reflects effectiveness and shortcomings of the distribution both the management of interpersonal communication aspects of the developed system. A dynamic Web- and the utilization of connection in distributed systems. based system evaluating application is implemented Consequently, a distributed collaborative design for the purpose of those observations, and its data are s y s t e m , n a m e d A R C H : D M U V R h e r e , t o s u p p o r t reviewed by experts for future development. m o r e e f f i c i e n t c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d i n t e r a c t i o n Since there is diversity in realizing communication among multiple participants in the design process, is between different design processes, such as between proposed. The scope of development and functions different participants who have different knowledge- of this application is narrowed to focus on its major bases, the main communication option is direct peer- contribution to the distributed system - a tool to test the to-peer communication using CORBA (Common integration performance of the proposed system. Object Request Broker Architecture). In addition, the The role of the proposed system here is to help central server which already controlled a few other architects make better design decisions with real-time communication channels cannot become a bottleneck presentation, communication, collaboration, feedback, in this way. and evaluation, especially in geometric aspects of the F o r d i s t r i b u t e d v i r t u a l e n v i r o n m e n t s ( D V E ) , building design. The following key characteristics objects have a graphical representation (scene-graph), of the distributed systems have been reviewed and an internal state and a behavior usually defined by prototyped in terms of computation to gain successful p r o g r a m c o d e . S u c h o b j e c t s h a v e t o b e a d d e d o r implementation of the proposed distributed design removed from a scene in real time, their behavior has system: to be tracked in real time and their implementation has 1) Presentation: There is a notional world or space to be distributed immediately on different computers in presenting design proposals, which is the virtual the network. Some objects can be controlled by other environment, generated from the core design model, objects and they should be able to share information. JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han 69 Fig.1. Proposed Distributed CAAD System (ARCH:DMUVR) F u r t h e r r e q u i r e m e n t s r e s u l t f r o m s e c u r i t y appropriate for their communication. considerations, e.g., protecting a scene from vandalism. An object can grant or deny access to its data and 4. System Implementation and Experiment behaviors. For this purpose, it could provide user ARCH:DMUVR can be started at two different rights. In a process called authentication, the identity of levels; one is an expert system component accessed users and their objects has to be checked. When several by designers who need to perform an initial task of objects try to access a shared resource, a conflict building site analysis and selection. The scope of can arise. Such conflicts can be avoided through development and functions of this GIS knowledge- transaction mechanisms or they can be resolved by based application will be narrowed to focus on its conflict solution strategies towards decision-making major contribution to the distributed system to test (Diehl, 2001). accessibility and usability of the prototype, as not only A VRML browser usually allows two primitive the entry level to be integrated into the main system, network operations: hyper-links and inclusion of media but also as a stand-alone, specific-purpose application. stored on different servers in the network. DMUTech T h e o t h e r a c c e s s l e v e l i s t h e m a i n e n t r a n c e t o is used for all aspects of network communication in ARCH:DMUVR for all other normal participants multi-user worlds which have not been provided by the using the Design Visualization Interface. This interface VRML browser (Roehl et al., 1997). is the way in which ARCH:DMUVR is visualized to T h e V R M L b r o w s e r a n d t h e J a v a a p p l e t s c a n all connecting participants. It is anticipated that the c o m m u n i c a t e v i a t h e E A I ( E x t e r n a l A u t h o r i n g system will normally be used with 3D graphics, and Interface). But, for the transmission of time-uncritical, this is basically reflected in the design of a 3D GUI large-scaled messages among browsers, it would be and has been supported by VRML browsers as shown better to use CORBA and its network protocol, IIOP in Fig.2. At the top of this main window is the 3D (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol). These browsers are now graphical view of the building design visualized by capable of communicating through an Object Request CosmoPlayer. An abstract VRML model is launched Broker. The programmer no longer needs to write code into the interface for the previously selected building for sending messages to other hosts, but simply calls model, and clients' avatars are bound to the built VR methods of the objects, which actually exist at other environment. This shows a view into the virtual world hosts where the methods get executed. as the graphical client of ARCH:DMUVR. At the For textual interaction between browsers, which bottom of the window is the communication interface is actually interacted by participants, IIOP is too which makes it possible for users to communicate with slow, and TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) is more each other about the building model through textual 70 JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han from which she or he looks at the scene. The shape of the avatar determines how the user is seen by other users. If a user navigates through the scene and moves the viewpoint, the avatar also moves in the views of the other users. Clients are able to participate in the collaborative virtual environment and interact with other clients through avatars. In decision-making stages, the role of the avatars is more important. For example, if a conflict occurs between different experts during the decision- making process in adjusting the dimension of the building component in a design proposal, and if they want to investigate the target component at the same viewpoint, they are easily able to move to the point of interest by recognizing the other avatars in the scene. The position of the moving avatar is immediately n o t i f i e d t o a l l o t h e r a v a t a r s , a n d i t s c h a n g e s a r e instantly reflected in the scene. This way, one avatar who suggests the meeting at a specific location in the scene, can move first to the spot and lead other avatars Fig.2. Design Visualization Interface to the same spot; this will help the users collaborate exchange and share information. The user connecting smoothly and make better decisions. to the system requires an authentication. The Design Visualization Interface interacts with a Java application which provides tools to connect the authoring functions for the built VR environment, show the world information such as building layer and user connection properties, and link supplementary features of design evaluation applications. Specific building component data to be used in the application server can be obtained either continuously from the client's local computer using middleware via IIOP, as long as the connection with the client is maintained, or discretely by packages of data through the database repository at reasonable time intervals. While connected to the server application, the client can receive real-time mapping results from the server. ARCH:DMUVR has a feature to bring data into the 3D Design Object Editor, which is a GUI support of Fig.3. Intercommunication between Avatars the collaborative design environment; that is, CoDesign on the menu bar of the initial ARCH:DMUVR system On the other hand, 3D geometric building data calls the Application Launcher, which shows available transferred from the client's local database are mapped applications distributed on the Internet and allows the to the 3D Design Object Editor and visualized in the user to launch those applications. Design Visualization Interface. The Design Object Whenever an application is requested from the user Editor is a specific application that is owned by a by choosing an item from the Application Launcher, it c l i e n t a n d d i s t r i b u t e d o n t h e I n t e r n e t . C u r r e n t l y, searches the Internet using the naming service provided ARCH:DMUVR can connect six different distributed b y C O R B A , a n d c o n n e c t s t o t h e l o c a l c o m p u t e r applications and databases categorized by building which owns relevant applications and data. All loaded components, such as slabs, columns, walls, windows, geometric data from the local computer can be mapped doors, and lighting; it is assumed that each application to the 3D Design Object Editor, and transformed to belongs to a different knowledge-based client. Those 3D graphic components. Modified data using this applications control the components of the scene- editor are passed to the Design Visualization Interface, g r a p h i n t h e D e s i g n Vi s u a l i z a t i o n I n t e r f a c e , a n d examined above, for a VR presentation, and dispatched linkage between the two interfaces is maintained to all participating users for collaboration. by the application server, which is an owner of the I n m u l t i - u s e r e n v i r o n m e n t s , a v a t a r s p l a y a n application. important role as the virtual representation of a user. This 3D GUI is the way in which design proposals It is located at the viewpoint of the representing user are authorized in 3D graphics. The building objects can JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han 71 interface. The axes on the canvas can also be toggled individually. O n e o f i m p o r t a n t r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r o p e r a t i n g ARCH:DMUVR is the security consideration. During collaboration, the scene-graph must be protected all the time from any possible bad behaviors or accidental changes. For this purpose, at the middle of the design update procedure is the Agreement Interface. This interface plays an important role in mediation of different opinions arising from the decision-making process. When a client attempts to update a design proposal with the 3D Object Editor, this action is immediately notified to all other clients who can grant or deny access to data and its behavior by responding to the Agreement Interface. The Agreement interface uses the voting system, Fig.4. Interaction between 3D Object Editor and VR Browser a l t h o u g h t h e r u l e o f g e t t i n g a g r e e m e n t c a n b e considered in various forms. Users' responses are be drawn using 3D graphic algorithms at the central anonymously collected in the server machine, and canvas, and can be modified by altering the properties the server returns the voting result to all clients. Once at the right-side in this interface. Altered data using the applicant for the design update acquires the votes this editor are transferred to, not only the central server for agreement from half or more of the respondents, to dispatch them to all clients for their modified VR the design proposal can be modified. This networked visualization, but also to the application server from agreement procedure will help the design participants which the 3D Design Object Editor was originally collaborate in a reasonable, positive manner. launched, in order to pass those data to other clients' T h e p a r t i c i p a n t s i n t h e s y s t e m n o t o n l y c a n Design Object Editor interfaces and to change their communicate through the interface and leave their drawings simultaneously. The current version of the annotations, but can construct their evaluation criteria 3D Design Object Editor supports collaboration only for major characteristics of a building presentation in geometric aspects of the building design due to which is the most crucial aspect of a collaborative limitation of the building property data. environment. Supplemental functions for design manipulation are Evaluations consist of scoring evaluation criteria also provided at the bottom of the interface. Such tools associated with a score value, and leaving a comment are not for collaboration, but for personal operations for each criterion in a text field. Scores and comments between current single user's 3D Object Editor and the entered in the form are sent to the server-side and VR Visualization Interface. Those actions are network- saved in the system database with a client ID and a independent and not broadcast to other clients. For date written. A later appendix from other clients can example, as shown in Fig.4., when a user wants to be filled out through the same interface and added remove the upper slab from the scene for a better view, immediately to the database as new records. Then, all this action can be requested at the 3D Object Editor, evaluations stored will be retrieved and displayed on and the results are shown directly in his visualization the result form in chronological order. This evaluation Fig.5. Flow of Design Update with Agreement Interface 72 JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han result will allow the clients to review the building presentation and the design objects (Han and Turner, 2001). M a n y e x p e r t s i n t h e a r c h i t e c t u r a l p r o f e s s i o n s includ in g des igner s , s cholars , d octor al s tuden ts , p r o j e c t m a n a g e r s , a n d a r c h i t e c t u r a l t e c h n i c i a n s , have experimented with this prototypical system that presents the possibility of a distributed system for architectural purpose. It has, as the result, been proven that the distributed object approach to integration has benefits when we consider the current technological and economic state of architectural collaboration. Instead of integration being achieved through static models that define the structure of shared information, the collaboration models were able to be distributed through a network to be easily accessed and modified Fig.6. Variables for Evaluation from multiple users in different locations. W h i l e e x p e r i m e n t i n g a n d s i m u l a t i n g A R C H : The role of the Design Evaluating Application in DMUVR in collaboration with various professions the system is to help architects make better design in the architectural field, the following have been decisions with immediate feedback. It is proposed observed: as a discrete application, which will run on a remote 1) ARCH:DMUVR is a prototypical product of the server and be executable on the Internet. This results distributed system model. As such I think it has been from the assumption that in the future, bigger expert successful. It has provided a demonstration platform to applications will be built on a server domain and will explore the concepts of collaborative design. provide evaluation results to clients. 2) A framework of distributed object computing As a part of ARCH:DMUVR, this application should environments using CAAD and GIS system is usable, satisfy the following criteria: s i n c e i t h a s b e e n h e l p f u l f o r h o l d i n g d i s t r i b u t e d 1) Immediate feedback needs to be served. As an meetings in diversity of professionals over networks. end-user interface, the system needs to have immediate 3) The current focus on peer-to-peer communication, feedback and wait for input from the clients before based on sharing computation with other machines moving to the next stage in the design process. The in the network, is promising. It has been particularly Internet-based application receives input from a local satisfying to see other experts deriving new insight database system and passes the result either back to from its use and enjoying involvement in the virtual the database or directly to ARCH:DMUVR. When the design process with the system. result is not a final one and needs to be approved by 4 ) T h e c u r r e n t v e r s i o n o f A R C H : D M U V R i s a the designer, the direct passing of the result to the main m i n i m a l p r o t o t y p e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n t o c h e c k t h e system is more desirable, and eliminates unnecessary usability of the system in collaboration phases in the data storage in the DBMS. Otherwise, results go design process. A fully functioning prototype needs to the local databases first, and then are passed to to be built to test the applicability to the actual AEC other system components through the connection industries. mechanism, hence improving the system integrity. Especially, most participants in the experiments 2 ) T h e i n t e r n a l e v a l u a t i n g p r o c e s s n e e d s t o b e have emphasized the needs of evaluation tools for both hidden and transparent. Although in most of the quantitative variables in the building model. The cases, the data flow and computational intermediate other application is, consequently, being developed steps need to be hidden from the user interface (to for evaluating quantitative factors that are relative avoid complexity), there might be some cases where to building performance for the modified design a r c h i t e c t s n e e d t o r e q u e s t d e t a i l e d - c o m p u t a t i o n proposals. This kind of evaluation uses objective information for deeper analysis. For those cases, the v a r i a b l e s a n d r u l e s f o r m e a s u r i n g b u i l d i n g optional transparency of the application process should performance, and contains many arithmetic operations. be provided to the end-user in a readable manner. Design Evaluating Applications for this purpose 3 ) A n a p p l i c a t i o n v i e w e r n e e d s t o b e s e t u p a s are built as distributed applications, which are located a c o m m u n i c a t i o n i n t e r f a c e b e t w e e n a p p l i c a t i o n a t a n d c a l l e d f r o m d i s t r i b u t e d e x p e r t s ' c o m p u t e r service expert and the online client. Along with the systems connected to the Internet. CORBA technology information architects get from the CAAD model by is applied to the implementation of this evaluator direct mapping from the server application, this viewer integrated in ARCH:DMUVR; The Design Evaluating will provide any relevant extra information available Application remains ongoing and will be the subject of from the remote application experts. future work. JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han 73 5. Conclusion and Discussion environment. This approach will promote the use of T h i s p a p e r i s c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e d e s i g n a n d computers on-site, in new terms of Network-Aided realization of a distributed architectural collaborative Architectural Design (NAAD). d e s i g n s y s t e m , A R C H : D M U V R , w h i c h s e e k s t o By using the features of the CORBA distributed actively support communication and collaboration c o m p u t i n g f r a m e w o r k , a n e ff i c i e n t l y i n t e g r a t e d between distributed users. Through this paper, the CAAD application system can be built on the Internet. following concerns are addressed to help architects, Ultimately, it enables, by experimenting with the researchers, and other related professionals working on prototype distributed collaborative design system, the multi-user cooperative virtual reality for architectural testing of practical levels of system implementation and design: functionality to draw potential uses and collaborative 1) Architectures for Distributed Virtual Environments tasks in the architectural professions. (DVE); 2) Network requirements of those systems; References 1) C o o n s , S . ( 1 9 6 3 ) " A n O u t l i n e o f t h e R e q u i r e m e n t s f o r a 3) Implementation and use of collaborative Virtual Computer-Aided Design System." Proceedings of the Spring Joint Reality (VR) system; and Conference. May 1963. Detroit, Michigan, USA. 4) Models of interaction and communication in 2) Diehl, S. 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Eindhoven, 1) The user's perspective within the everyday social The Netherlands. world: considering the kinds of interaction and control 5) G r e e n h a l g h , C . ( 1 9 9 9 ) " L a rg e S c a l e C o l l a b o r a t i v e Vi r t u a l that are agreeable to all participants in the system; Environments." Springer. London, Great Britain. 2 ) T h e m a c h i n e ' s p e r s p e c t i v e : c o n s i d e r i n g t h e 6) Han, S. (2004) "A Working Prototype of Distributed Collaborative implementation and management of the system that Architectural Design System." Ph.D. Dissertation. The University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. are affordable to all currently available hardware and 7) Han, S. and Turner, J. (2001) "The Architectural Approach software settings to support this interaction; and t o Vi r t u a l R e a l i t y S u p p o r t o f M u l t i - u s e r E n v i r o n m e n t s . " 3) The network's perspective: considering the form i n P r o c e e d i n g s o f C A A D F u t u r e s 2 0 0 1 . K l u w e r A c a d e m i c and requirements of the communication that facilitates Publishers. Eindhoven, The Netherlands. the interaction. 8) Jabi, W. (1996) "An Outline of the Requirements for a Computer- S u p p o r t e d C o l l a b o r a t i v e D e s i g n S y s t e m . " i n O p e n H o u s e ARCH:DMUVR was designed specifically to be a International, vol 21, no 3. distributed collaborative architectural design system, 9) Khemlani, L. and Kalay, Y. (1997) "An Integrated Computing and some of its key features are: Environment for Collaborative, Multi-disciplinary Building 1 ) A f u l l i m p l e m e n t a t i o n , p r e s e n t a t i o n , a n d D e s i g n . " i n P r o c e e d i n g s o f C A A D F u t u r e s 1 9 9 7 , K l u w e r Academic Publishers. Eindhoven, The Netherlands. representation of the building model and its geometric 10) Novitski, B. (1994) "Architect-Client Design Collaboration." in properties that control all interaction; Architecture. June 1994. 2) Rich computer-mediated communication via 11) Park, H. (2001) "Distributed Representation of an Architectural combinations of text and three-dimensional (3D) M o d e l . " G r a d u a t e S c h o o l o f D e s i g n . H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y. graphics; Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 12) Sariyildiz, S., Volker, H. and Schwenck, M. (1997) "Improving 3) A stable, compatible implementation running on CAAD by Applying Integrated Design Support Systems and New various platform settings; and Design Methodologies." in Proceedings of CAAD Futures 1997. 4) Support for multiple collaborative environments Kluwer Academic Publishers. Eindhoven, The Netherlands. and their own applications linked via distributed computing protocols. This paper also proposed that what is needed for effective computer-aided collaborative design is an integrated application environment, using distributed collaboration technology, which is accessible and comprehensible to all the professionals in the building design team, which not only allows the sharing of information but also the sharing of understanding, and which facilitates the development of design tools for different aspects that can be plugged into it, and details the additional solution to a shared building representation for the envisioned collaborative design 74 JAABE vol.5 no.1 May 2006 Seung-Hoon Han
Journal
Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering
– Taylor & Francis
Published: May 1, 2006
Keywords: collaborative design; distributed collaboration; design process; integration; Internet
