284 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
arising from the collaboration with other branches. The advantages of this type
of design cannot be denied, however in the teaching process also its shortcom-
ings should be shown. The most important shortcomings stem from the problems
of interaction between humans and the computer, particularly visible in starting
designers and they are:- The ease of modification and evolution of the solutions created in models
results in students rarely abandoning the initial concept in order to search
for better solutions. - The lack of a clear scale of mapping in the computer model leads to a situation
where students taught with the aid of computers have difficulties in reading
and transforming various scales of representations. Students have not only
trouble with reading the scale, but also in the composition of boards, thick-
ness of lines and similar details which make drawings intelligible.
Our didactic experience indicates that an important factor leading to an insufficient
exploitation of computer aided design in the initial phases of the creative process is
the lack of freedom in the interpretation of the created model. This feature is best
represented in a manual sketch which allows an unrestricted creation of thoughts in
situations when we do not have a defined goal – the shape of the designed object.
At the same time it cannot be forgotten that thanks to computer technology unreal
dreams of architecture become increasingly accessible.
If we look in the past, many wonderful works of architecture came to existence
through a human dream and the idea of the architect who created that work. In each
epoch, architecture is an expression of its times and the goal of teaching should be to
enable young students to apply all possible tools of creative work: the classical ones,
as well as the modern ones. The latter contain traps but if they are applied skilfully
they can free imagination and allow going beyond solutions impossible up to now.
Notes
1 Pierre von Meiss „The Aesthetics of Gravity”, in The Teaching of Architecture for Multidis-
ciplinary Practice, ed. 17th Conference AEEA, University of Plymouth
2 Nina Juzwa, Adam Gil; „The Influence of Design Tools on Architectural Conception and
Aesthetic”, in Defining the Architectural Space. Material of Architecture, ed.University of
Technology Krakow, Z. 9-A/2006
3 Adam Gil „Sketch, mock-up, computer model”, PhD thesis, supervisor: Nina Juzwa, SUT,
Gliwice 2005