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Illustrating Algorithmic Design

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Computer-Aided Architectural Design. INTERCONNECTIONS: Co-computing Beyond Boundaries (CAAD Futures 2023)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1819))

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Abstract

Architectural design is strongly based on visual and spatial reasoning, which is not easy to translate into algorithmic descriptions and, eventually, running programs, making it difficult for architects to use computational approaches, such as Algorithmic Design (AD). One of the most pressing problems is program comprehension. To overcome it, we propose an automatic illustration system for AD programs that produces annotated schemes of the program’s meaning.

The illustration system focuses on a basic set of geometric elements used in most calculations to place geometry in space (points, distances, angles, vectors, etc.), and on the way they are manipulated to create more complex geometric entities. The proposed system automatically extracts the information from the AD program and the resulting illustrations can then be integrated into the AD program itself, intertwined with the instructions they intend to explain.

This article presents the implementation of this solution using an AD tool to generate the illustrations and a computational notebook to intertwine the program and the illustrations. It discusses the choices made on the system’s implementation, the expected workflow for such a system, and potential future developments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by national funds of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) with references UIDB/50021/2020, PTDC/ART-DAQ/31061/2017, and DFA/BD/4682/2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INESC-ID/Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Renata Castelo-Branco & António Leitão

Authors
  1. Renata Castelo-Branco
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  2. António Leitão
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Renata Castelo-Branco .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Michela Turrin

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Charalampos Andriotis

  3. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Azarakhsh Rafiee

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Castelo-Branco, R., Leitão, A. (2023). Illustrating Algorithmic Design. In: Turrin, M., Andriotis, C., Rafiee, A. (eds) Computer-Aided Architectural Design. INTERCONNECTIONS: Co-computing Beyond Boundaries. CAAD Futures 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1819. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37189-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37189-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37188-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37189-9

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