Program Methodology
(a) Methods of implementation
This project utilizes several methods in parallel for its implementation,
including
o Establishing distributed research lab/centre of generative
design, technologies and methodologies study at sites of participating partners
to manage and coordinate the related activities at various sites during and
after the sponsored life span of the project. In particular a net of Generative
Design Labs, one in each involved university, managed by the GDLab of Milan
(or by a Generative Art&Science International Centre, if established)
;
o Conducting short training courses in Europe to provide
training to Chinese as well as European faculties and postgraduates
o Organizing workshop in China to provide practical experiment
opportunities for European and as well as Chinese participants
o Jointly managed and supervise applied research projects
in selected focus directions
o Jointly engaging industrial practical focused design
projects in China
o Organizing local open exhibitions in China
o Organizing international conferences in Europe
o Facilitate and fostering international and regional academic
and industrial publications of the project’s findings, experiences and results
(b) Reasons for the methodology
All of the methods and the type of activities employed in the project are
chosen effectively serve the objective and goal of the project and ultimately
serve the overall objective of the Asian-Link Programme.
o The distributed GDLabs, generative design labs (or centres),
in all participating partners’ sites provide not only an effective managerial,
cultural and activity centre for all proposed activities at these corresponding
sites but also a effective network of bodies for communicating, managing
and coordinating future continuation of research, teaching and practice activities
to be sprouted from this project yet sustained well-beyond its Asian-Link
sponsored lifespan.
o The training course in Europe provides a well-situated
training environment by taking advantages of on-site European professors
and facilities in the original environment of establishment and development
of the major technology involve in the project, generative design methodologies
and technologies. Such course also provides Chinese participants a great
opportunity to meet their European colleagues and to personally experience
the European architectural and design culture as well as research culture
and environment. Such cultural and environment experiences, besides technical
training, will leave lasting positive impacts to Chinese participants and
benefit mutual understanding tremendously in the future collaboration, especially
for those who will be visiting Europe for the first time at this opportunity.
o The workshops in China offer a great opportunity of practical
experiments to European participants as well as Chinese participants. With
experiment topics and major activities situated in China, participants will
enjoy the advantages of direct and close awareness particular and practical
needs and requirements due to Chinese culture, tradition and specific industrial
practices. Furthermore, the workshops provide to European participants an
opportunity of direct personal experience in the cultural and architectural
environment of China, which would have profound effect in future collaborations
between the two continents and two cultures.
o The jointly managed and supervise applied research projects
are designed to accelerate the design and development in the related area
by taking advantages of the European and Chinese synergies. The joint managing
and supervision will allow both European and Chinese partners to upgrade
each others the state-of-the-art research work through closer exchange and
common focuses.
o Jointly engaging into Chinese design projects of industrial
practical nature not only provides and opportunity to put the related technologies
into realistic tests but also directly introduces the new technologies and
thus their applications and influences into design and building industries
of China. Such introduction will not only increase the awareness of European
higher education system and technologies among Chinese industries and communities,
but also directly affect the productivity of the related industries and thus
the economic growth of the region.
o The local open exhibitions are chosen as a means for
disclosing and publicising the result of various activities of the project.
This is one of the most effective methods to spread and publicising achievements
and experiences among building and design communities in China.
o The international conference is another method chosen
to publicising the experience and achievements of the project. In addition
to the Chinese community focused exhibitions, the international conferences
will make the experience and achievements known to European communities of
academics and industries, as well larger communities of the world.
o Besides concentrated and focused exhibitions and conferences,
additional publications in various regional and international journals and
magazines would allow experiences and findings related to various field to
be disseminated to corresponding communities.
Among all other technologies and design methodologies, the generative design
methodology in design teaching, design creation and managing design processes
is chosen to fit European tradition in formalization processes and Chinese
tradition in reaching the design objectives. The technologies have been developed
in Europe for years, and all experiences and results from the previous developments
are directly usable in this project. Particularly, the European and Chinese
tradition fitting attitude has been experimented in teaching activity at
Politecnico di Milano that involved Italian, German, Dutch and Chinese people
together. The European tradition has clearly seen represented by the traditional
renaissance codes of harmony and the logical structure of using recognizable
rules in all the design activity. The Chinese tradition is represented by
the multilateral symbolic reference in the design choice and in the analytical
knowledge of designers’ subjectively prescribed aspects of the incoming result.
Moreover, the generative teaching methodology, coming from experiments of
emulation of design processes with Artificial Intelligence and Artificial
Life, researched, experimented and practiced by the three European involved
teams, is a creative logical structure to manage and communicate the complex
evolutions in design process and design knowledge, particularly in the situation
of architectural design and design education.
The project builds its application-oriented activities on top of the previous
research of Chinese small town’s township design model conducted at Tongji
University. Such research provides a foundation for characterising Chinese
architectural and planning of township, which will be directly available
for modelling and generating experiments under the new technologies and methodologies
of generative design. Furthermore, the most original research work of ancient
Chinese architectural studies conducted at Tianjin University offers another
perspective of characterising Chinese architectural and design traditions
and methodologies as well. Such work provides a ground for comparative study
and integration of synergies and results between European and Chinese methodologies
in creative design generations.
The project directly utilizes the network and the annual international conference
in Generative Design that has been on going for five years. New topics will
be introduced as new chapters/sessions to introduce the project’s findings
and their fitting between European and Chinese design culture.
(d) Procedures for internal evaluation
An internal mid-term evaluation will be conducted and managed by a special
group of experts appointed and generated from the participants of the annual
International Conference of Generative Arts that will meet during the Conference
at the end of the 1st year of the project. The leader of the mid term evaluation
group will be elected by the scientific committee of the GA conference. The
evaluation group, using all the Objectively Verifiable Indicators and with
the presentation of the partial results to this international panel by the
project leader and the project staff, also with all available material and
information published on the internet and circulated among the group members
prior to the conference, will conduct detailed deliberations and deliver
conclusion about the competence of the project progress. There will be a
report of evaluation to the funding agency if it is required.
(e) Level of involvement and activity of other organisations
(partners or others) in the project
Politecnico di Milano (leader institution) is the place of summer courses,
workshops and Annual Conferences on Generative Art. In the Generative Design
Lab of Department of Architecture and Planning is set up the team to manage
the program. This Lab brings to the project the longer experience in Generative
approach in teaching and research activities, generative design and projects.
This university is involving professors, young teachers and postgraduate
student to fit the aim of Asia-link programme.
University of Kassel: is a place of summer courses. It brings to the project
a long experience in teaching design and in generative art, involving in
the program professors, young teachers and postgraduate students.
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven: is a place of summer courses. It brings
to the project a long experience in teaching design, involving in the program
professors, young teachers and postgraduate students.
Tongji University participates with its core faculty and postgraduate students
of college of architecture and planning, exchange participants and project
collaborators. They bring to the project their Chinese township design and
planning expertises and their associations and links to local industry and
government agencies, and further their design projects with participating
resources. Location for workshop.
Tianjin University participates with its core faculty and postgraduate students
of college of architecture and planning, as trainees, exchange participants
and project collaborators. They bring to the project their Chinese traditional
and ancient architecture expertises, and demonstrative projects in the field
with supporting resources as well as their associations and links to local
industries and government agencies. Location for workshop.
(f) Reasons for the role of each partner
Prof. Celestino Soddu, project leader and coordinator, is the Chair of Generative
Art annual international conference and director of Generative Design Lab
at Department of Architecture and Planning. He has established his worldwide
reputation as the leader of the academic field of research and practice of
Generative Design and Art, as well as a well known and respected scholar
of related fields of Artificial Intelligence in Design and architectural
and industrial design methods. He has cumulated strong record of lecturing
and research experiences with China in recent years, as invited senior research
fellow at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a well received guest lecturer
at various Universities and design institutes in Shanghai and Beijing, a
personal exhibition of researches at Hong Kong City Museum recently and research
activity in Macao.
Prof. Quinsan Ciao, co-coordinator, is currently a contract professor at
Politecnico di Milano. Also professor of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University. She brought to the project the expertise and effectiveness
in Chinese partner collaboration. With her international (Europe, US, Singapore
and China) teaching, research and professional experiences, her training
background of both eastern and western world, and her long time enthusiasm
in bridging west and east design education and culture, she is well equipped
to be a critical role in the preparation and implementation of this project.
Last, but not least, her establishment of research, teaching and professional
work in the fields of architectural design and research, design methodologies
and technologies, and digital simulation work in building and environmental
aspects will allow her to make important contributions to various activities
in all phases of the project.
Prof. Enrica Colabella is member and co-founder of Generative Design Lab
at Department of Architecture and Planning of Politecnico di Milano University.
Her topic is the implementation of exchanges between European and Chinese
cultural approaches, operating in the field of languages interchange and
construction of transformation codes.
Prof. Hans Dehlinger, director of the Product Design Institute of the University
of Kassel, with his long experience of teaching activities in the entire
world and particularly in China, and with the multiple workshops’ experiences
and co-supervision of thesis with Prof. Celestino Soddu on the field of design
approach, gives a relevant contribution to the success of the project.
Prof. Bouke de Vries, of Eindhoven University of Technologies, has a long
experience in teaching design methodology. The teaching approach of his group
was presented and deeply discussed with Prof. Celestino Soddu in Generative
Art international conferences. His experience in Chinese universities can
give a relevant contribution to the implementation of this project.
Prof. Bowei Wang, dean of the faculty of architecture at Tongij University,
has a long experience with Prof. Quinsan Ciao and with Prof. Celestino Soddu,
that came in Tongij University for a lecture and a meeting on generative
design. In this meeting, in 2001, Prof. Bowei proposed to Prof. Soddu to
built up a Generative Design Lab as the one in Politecnico di Milano University.
Prof. Bowei has a long experience in teaching collaboration and bring to
the project his personal experience in involving different cultural entities
in a jointed cultural project.
Prof. Changming Yang, Dean of the Institute of Architectural design at Tianjin
University, His particular specialty in the field of archaeological study
in ancient Chinese buildings and historical Chinese building renovation will
allow him to play a very important role in this project in terms of bridging
European and Chinese architectural traditions and cultures.
(a) Team proposed for implementation of the project
1. Coordinator: Celestino Soddu, Politecnico di Milano
University.
2. 2 managers working in Generative Design Lab of Politecnico
di Milano University for the managing and implementation of the project.
Their activity is focused in all the activity of the programme. (their activity
in teaching too is inside the cost of this position). In particular the 1st
manager, English and Chinese language, follows the relation with other universities
and with external partners in constructing further opportunities, helps the
Chinese universities to organize the workshops and the applied projects.
The 2nd manager follows the teaching activities and experimentations, the
publishing in paper and in the website and masters and PhD programs. The
two managers support the coordinator in the implementation of the entire
programme. The managers teach in summer courses and in workshops too.
3. 1 technician as web master of all the GDLabs (in Milan)
4. 1 technician part-time for the Generative Design Lab
of Politecnico di Milano
5. 1 technician part-time for the Generative Design Lab
of Kassel University
6. 1 technician part-time for the Generative Design Lab
of Eindhoven Tech. University
7. 1 technician part-time for the Generative Design Lab
of Tongji University
8. 1 technician part-time for the Generative Design Lab
of Tianjin University
Summer course teachers (each year):
4 of Politecnico di Milano University
1 external from European Universities
3 of Kassel University
2 of Eindhoven University
1 of Tongji University
1 of Tianjin University
1-2 technician
Workshops teachers:
3-4 of Politecnico di Milano University
2 of Kassel University
2 of Eindhoven University
2 of Tongji University
2 of Tianjin University
1-2 technician