Design Conversations with Your Computer: Evaluating Experiential Qualities of Physical Form

This paper describes a prototype system that evaluates an architectural design using the designers theories about how to manifest experiential qualities in physical form. The system uses AT methods in conjunction with geometric and non-geometric knowledge to represent experiential qualities, e.g. privacy, in terms of concrete details of a design, e.g. wall dimensions and locations. This paper describes the organization and implementation of the system, and reports the results of an experiment in which the system was used to evaluate Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie houses.