Teaching Engineering for Architectural Projects: A Networked Multimedia Approach

Anthony C. Webster, Director of Building Technologies
Columbia University - Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Morton B. Friedman, Columbia University -
Acting Vice Dean, Chairman: Dept. of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
Peter Rosenbaum, Graduate Research Assistant
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Abstract:

Recent developments in software tools used for teaching architectural technology are discussed. We demonstrate a prototype interdisciplinary, networked multimedia package-an interactive analysis of Mies van der Rohe's 1951 Farnsworth House-which we use to teach engineering undergraduates and graduate architecture students at Columbia University. The case study package is organized as a book-like set of multimedia materials, including: animated and textual overviews of the Farnsworth House; a description of its architectural importance; in-depth structural and building envelope thermal analyses; 3-D detail models; facsimiles of construction documents; and published critical commentary. We have developed it for use on PCS via Microsoft Powerpoint, on Silicon Graphics Computers via Showcase, and on networked PC, Mac and Unix computers via World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape and Mosaic.
The following features of the Farnsworth package are demonstrated via Showcase and Netscape on a Pentium PC:

The use of Powerpoint and WWW interfaces as ``meta-front-ends,'' managing student access to particular technical tools, such as heat loss spreadsheets and finite element structural analyses.

A detailed example showing how first-year engineering students use the Farnsworth package to analyze the building envelope's thermal performance, and to design performance enhancements that are sympathetic to the architect's aesthetic intent.

Summary examples showing how Farnsworth's interdisciplinary information and analytical tools can be used to expose students to a variety of realistic design problems early in their technical education, and to help them understand interrelationships among various aspects of engineering and architectural design.

Computer Based Tools for Teaching Architectural Technology

Graphically based computer tools first developed in the 1970's have helped countless students visualize aspects of architectural engineering problems. The COLUMNS program developed by Raymond Caravety and George Tsakas at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for example, has been used for years to illustrate various aspects of column buckling, and to highlight the effects of boundary conditions and unbraced lengths on buckling loads (figure 1) [3]. More recently, a variety of PC-based structural analysis programs-such as Dast and Staad-have given students an invaluable understanding of three-dimensional deformations of entire buildings that would be impossible to impart without the aide of digital technologies [5]. During this time both the architecture and engineering professions have embraced CAD as a tool for developing construction documents, and architecture schools have increasingly used computer graphics to help students envision architectural space. At Harvard's Graduate School of Design, architecture students use Autocad and Form-z to develop 3-D models [McCollough 92]; students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture use Softimage on Silicon Graphics workstations to create animated flythroughs of existing and proposed buildings (figure 2) [6].