Computer-aided architectural design

There are two Computer courses currently given at the Graduate School of Design. One is a theory course and the second is a workshop. The workshop is primarily a “hands-on” graphic programming course using Harvard's PDP-10 computer and a variety of Tektronix CRT's and two 4051 micro-processors. The course teaches the fundamentals of computer, graphic programming (BASIC and FORTRAN), as well as computer graphic technology and how this technology is applied to architectural design. There is one two-hour lecture per week in which application areas are dealt with by explaining graphic data structures and the mathematics and algorithms that are used to support the particular application. There are also weekly meetings with tutors to work on individual problems.The other course is an introduction to systems and design methods using the computer to illustrate various algorithmic aspects of the design process. The course looks at design from a systems point of view and includes a basic introduction to systems, models, simulation and quantitative analysis applied to physical design. Comprehensive approaches to design and planning are described and illustrated using existing computer aided design models. There is a great deal of utilization of existing interactive graphic design programs to illustrate aspects of construction management, planning, architectural programming, space allocation, two and three dimensional graphics with hidden line solution and shading of surfaces.