A Design System based on Architectural Representations

A wide variety of drawing packages is available for architectural design. However, most of these systems are oriented to the production of final technical drawings, and only few support the early phase of design. In this paper, we present a new approach for a design system to support the early design phase. The method is based on a framework from architecture on the meaning of 2D drawings in architectural design. In such drawings, not only standard graphics elements like contours, but also elements like grids and axes of symmetry play an important role. These are encountered also in standard drawing systems, but often only as tools. We propose to consider such elements as graphical objects. Relations between these objects can be defined to capture higher-level information on the structure of the design. These relations are used for the propagation of the geometric transformations on objects. Additionally, we offer a natural user interface for the designer, which enables them to explore design space effectively and efficiently.