In design studies, design computing is the practice of design activities through the application and development of novel concepts and techniques in computing.
In recent years a number of research and education areas have been grouped under the umbrella term "Design Computing", namely:
Artificial Intelligence in Design
Artificial Architecture
Expert and Knowledge-based Systems
Computational creativity
Computer-Aided Design
Digital morphogenesis
Visual and Spatial Modelling
Computational Analogy
Automated Design Systems
Design Support Systems
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
The main research groups working in this area span from Faculties of Architecture, Engineering and Computer Science. Australia has been a pioneer in this area. For the last four decades the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition (KCDC), currently known as the Design Lab, at the University of Sydney has been active in establishing this area of research and teaching. The University of Sydney offers a Bachelor of Design Computing ([1]) and the University of New South Wales also in Sydney a Bachelor of Computational Design ([2]). In the US this research area is also known as "Design and Computation", namely at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other relevant research groups include:
Critical Research in Digital Architecture (CRIDA), Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne
School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon
Department of Computer Science, University College London
Department of Informatics Engineering, Universidade de Coimbra
Department of Computer Science, Vrije University, Amsterdam
Creativity and Cognition Studios, University of Technology Sydney
Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
Department of Architecture, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Department of Architecture, MIT
Department of Computer Science, Helsinki University of Technology
College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology
Design Machine Group, University of Washington College of Built Environments, Seattle
Design Computing Program, Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture
School of Interactive Arts + Technology, Simon Fraser University
Department of Architecture, Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands
Institute of Computational Design, University of Stuttgart
Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
The biannual International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC) brings together high quality research on this area, as do annual conferences by the Association for Computer Aided Design In Architecture and others.
