aae2016 Publication Volume 2

Human computer interaction systems and educational strategies to support design participation Robert Aish The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK ABSTRACT This paper brings together some key issues: How can a computationallybased architectural design application be developed to facilitate design participation, specifically using techniques of human-computer interaction?

What is the role of professional architects as facilitators of participation and how can they be educated for this role? What are the implications of design participation as an expression of a wider social and political process of ‘democratisation’?

The term ‘democratisation’ usually refers to the widening of the franchise for active participation in political decision-making compared to decisionmaking dominated by established elites. Recently the term ‘democratisation’ has also been applied to the widening of access to personal opportunities and to technologies, the latter often in the form of computer based consumer products or services. The impact of such ‘democratisation of technology’ may also have wider social and political significance.

Therefore, what better use for the ‘democratisation of technology’ than the ‘democratisation of architecture’?

Design participation starts with two ideas: First, that the most important aspect of any building is the satisfaction of the people who use that building.

Second, if architecture has to balance technical, functional, economic, social and cultural concerns then the people who use the building are best place to determine this balance.

Previously, end-user participation in architectural design may have been considered to be rather ‘idealistic’, because of the lack of tools and methodology to make this a practical reality. The premise of the research presented here is that computational techniques, specifically innovative approaches to human-computer interaction can be used to develop special architectural design tools which can be effectively used by non-professional building users to create viable architecture.

Within the overall theme of design participation there is a very important educational sub- theme. Essentially, the participatory design software must not only provide an opportunity for the building users to express their own design intent, the software must, in ‘very short order’, educate the participants how to make design decisions. Specifically, how to make suitable trade-offs