=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Digital Curation in Architecture Curricula and Vocational Training for Architects. The DEDICATE Framework in Architectural CAD Courses Design
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1016/paper16.pdf
|volume=Vol-1016
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/digcurv/AndersonL13
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==Digital Curation in Architecture Curricula and Vocational Training for Architects. The DEDICATE Framework in Architectural CAD Courses Design==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1016/paper16.pdf
Digital Curation in Architecture Curricula and
Vocational Training for Architects
The DEDICATE Framework in Architectural CAD Courses Design
Dr Ian Anderson and Dr Ruggero Lancia
HATII (Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute)
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, UK
Ian.G.Anderson@glasgow.ac.uk and Ruggero.Lancia@glasgow.ac.uk
Abstract—As the design processes in architectural practices procedures in the day-to-day operations of architects and the still
switch toward entirely digital workflows, architects are gradually high costs of the CAD procedures management, delayed the
required, because of their legal and commercial liability, to provide development of a specific CAD education in Architecture
for both a relatively long-term curation of their own digital curricula. Interestingly, in 1980, a review conducted by Patrick
products and the deposit of authoritative data. But, despite being
Purcell on the CAD syllabuses offered by the architectural
the sole curation actors for their data, architects receive little
education or training in either pertinent competences nor agreed schools of the British Isles and other prominent international
and established procedures to comply with these duties. institutions explained the difficulty of inserting a formal CAD
syllabus in the Architecture curriculum, emphasising the lack of
In this paper, the DEDICATE project, an AHRC funded project architectural competences and research interests among CAD
hosted by the HATII of the University of Glasgow, will be
educators, in most of cases coming then from engineering and
discussed to explain its role in the design of Digital Curation
courses within architectural CAD education and architects' computer sciences [2].
vocational training. Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s,
Keywords—Digital Curation, CAD, CAM, Architectural CAD CAD applications triggered a switch in the traditional design
Education. process introducing 3D modelling and visualisation functions,
parametric modifications and semantic modelling with simplified
I. CAD/CAM IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES AND analysis features.
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Since the 90s, CAD training has been regularly offered in the
Early computer aided drafting systems started being adopted
majority of the Architecture courses in Developed Countries,
in Architecture design as soon as the 1970s within large
more often than not within other disciplines syllabuses and
companies and public bodies [1] At the beginning of the 1980s,
usually without either formal assessments nor graded
both the diffusion of personal computing and the releases of
progression. Because of both this persistent informal approach to
CAD software running on microcomputers permitted this
CAD education and the diffusion of professional CAD packages
phenomenon to expand across smaller businesses. These firsts
running on personal computers, vocational and technical schools
systems were generally developed as substitute of the
CAD courses started acquiring popularity resulting in a new class
conventional drawing board and aimed at augmenting the
of specialised draughtsmen lacking any design background [3].
efficiency of the traditional design process cutting the drafting
costs. More elaborated idiosyncratic systems with integrated Despite the lack of formal education in these years, the design
analytical functions started being developed in the same period processes in architectural practices grew predominantly digital,
within research institutions and large corporations especially to the availability of integrated procedures for the design and
manage statutory requirements of design, such as the energy production of building elements, such as CNC (Computer
codes. Numerical Control) manufacturing, has accelerated practices'
switch toward entirely digital workflows often concurrent with
In the first two decades of CAD application to Architecture
other related digital design workflows, such as Engineering
Design, the scarce integration of automated methods in the
Design. Major architecture schools have interpreted and
building industry, the limited diffusion of computer assisted
supported this change offering training and post-grad specialist
qualifications in advanced CAD scripting, generative and responsibilities will likely take place as a result of both the
parametric design. technological adaptation of competitors companies aspiring to
public clients and the strategic request of public bodies for an
Despite the thorough understanding of both the processes
increased control over the Built Environment.
applied on and the characteristics of digital design data required
by these technologies, there are neither Architecture curricula So far, the heterogeneity and complexity of architectural
including Digital Curation training nor vocational training for digital data, as well as the prevailing role of major repositories
architects on this subject to support the rising need for in establishing preservation and curation policies, has neglected
management of digital data. policies, agreed standards and feasible procedures to be
implemented by design professionals.
Data management constituted a topic of the CAD education at
the beginning of the 1980s in the MIT Master of Science course The workflow ramifications and the still limited legal
in Computer-aided design and at the Carnegie-Mellon University, pressure on architecture practices for both implementing
in a four-week module in the professional architectural consistent data retention procedures and depositing authoritative
programme [2]. As idiosyncratic CAD systems development was data, actually prevent both Digital Curation professional from
superseded by commercial package solutions, the interest on this approaching this field and architects from appealing to their
topic was exhausted and, to date, there are no evidences of other services. As a result, most practices resort to commercial
CAD courses held in Architecture Schools addressing the services for data management that do not solve crucial curatorial
management of design data. issues, such as long-term data accessibility and
authoritativeness.
II. ARCHITECTS' COMMERCIAL AND LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
FOR DIGITAL CURATION III. THE DEDICATE PROJECT
There is evidence that statutory project documentation is The Design's Digital Curation for Architecture (DEDICATE)
mainly adapted to be printed and kept in paper archives by project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
architectural practices [4]. But, the request for producing and (with the ref. AH/J008265/1) and is hosted by the Humanities
depositing authoritative digital data is an emerging phenomenon Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) of the
across many international Building Control authorities and University of Glasgow.
Public Investors that are urging architectural practices to
This project is aimed at delivering the policies, requirements
implement consistent data management procedures.
and procedures to build a sustainable curatorial framework for
For example, in Netherlands, since November 2011, the Rgd CAD/CAM assets minimising their loss risks and maximising
BIM Norm obliges design contractors involved in public their reusability and interoperability within their stakeholder
building projects to produce and deliver their products in community.
Building Information Modelling formats following the policies
In more detail, DEDICATE is aimed at answering these
of the Rgd BIM standard [5]. In the same year, the United
research questions related to the different curatorial stages of
Kingdom Cabinet Office announced in the Government's new
CAD/CAM data, as they are categorised by the high-level
Construction Strategy that will require on all public works BIM
abstraction of the DCC curation lifecycle model [9]:
documentation by 2016 [6].
Further, where workflows are entirely digital, the 1) [Data Pre-production stage] Which capture methods
commercial liability of architects extends these requirements for should be preferred for ingesting authoritative data relating to
the consistent management of digital data, introducing the need Built Environment? Which modelling tools might be preferred in
for relatively long periods of reliable data retention. Such as for order to obtain products apt to enter the curation workflow, that
example, in United Kingdom, the architects' professional is released in durable formats and with a metadata set suitable
liability period amounts to 12 years [7]. to record their production process? Which data formats should
be adopted to enhance the persistence and the reusability of
Borrowing from the definition of Digital Curation by Neil information? What information should be kept in metadata at
Beagrie as “the actions needed to maintain digital research data this stage and through which technique?
and other digital materials over their entire life-cycle and over
time” [8] and combining these data management requirements, it 2) [Data Creation stage] How to record the actual use, that is
is evident that architects are being given Digital Curation the set of events determining either a modification or the
responsibilities over their digital data. In addition, because of the employment, of the digital objects before their ingestion in the
key role of public commissions in the growth of commercially repositories?
successful practices, a progressive extension of these
3) [Data Appraisal stage] What policies should be defined to tools developed by three outstanding Digital Curation initiatives
implement an evaluation method for the appraisal and selection focusing on specific aspects of digital assets' life-cycle:
of the digital objects to be collected in repositories? How might 1) DAFD (Data Audit Framework Development) which
be involved actively the stakeholders' expertise in this process? provides an audit methodology and online tools to support and
4) [Data Ingestion stage] Which ingestion processes could be facilitate organisations to establish an overview of their data
assessed culturally and economically sustainable in this holdings, policies and practices against best practices and new
context? Which policies should be adopted to integrate risks (http://www.data-audit.eu);
automated procedures and the self-submission of the assets? 2) similarly, DRAMBORA (Digital Repository Audit Method
Which information should be retained at this stage for curation Based on Risk Assessment) which offers an audit methodology,
and preservation purposes, and how? complemented by a computer-aided audit software, addressing
5) [Data Preservation and Storage stage] Which digital asset the assessment of risks implied by the policies adopted by the
management architecture should be adopted and how should it repositories;
be implemented to fit the policies and processes of the 3) and finally, Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access
researched repository system? through Networked Services) which offers a testbed to
6) [Data Access stage] Which kind of interoperability model experiment the effects of curatorial actions on digital assets.
should guarantee access to the information? How many of the To complement the audits' information with statistical results,
original functionalities of the digital object should be granted to scripted analyses are run on the partners’ data repositories to
their users and adopting which methods? How to deal with the characterise digital products,that is to record important data
intellectual property management of these digital objects characteristics, and measure their distribution.
considering as well the possibility of deriving new data from
those? Thus, the audits consist of both experimental investigation
activities resulting in metric findings assessing the digital
7) [Data Transformation stage] Which kind of curation actions held by stakeholders and, on the other,
transformations could affect the original data in the repositories unstructured interviews and reports of unobtrusive observations
and following which policies? How to manage the data describing the digital assets, the processes taking place in the data
migration for preservation purposes in order to retain repositories and their agents.
perpetually its contextual functions? Data derived from stored
The curatorial framework for CAD/CAM data will result
assets might be considered either transformations of the original from both the analysis of the context recorded by the audits and
digital objects or new items, and which metadata set should the study of the specific digital workflows involved by common
record these kind of relationships between assets? Which model procedures within the stakeholder’s community against the
of rights management would enable the control of diverse agreed and general technical and administrative requirements for
typologies of intellectual property? a consistent data management across the entire digital products
In this investigation, the actors of Built Environment lifecycle.
modification and management are considered the major and Eventually, the feasibility of this framework will be
more vulnerable stakeholders of these digital products. Thus, evaluated by applying the testbeds developed in Planets and
this study is particularly concentrated on architectural practices, CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for
engineering consultancies and Building Control bodies. Preservation, Access and Retrieval), specialised in data
Given the different results this research aims at preservation and in perpetual accessibility of the digital objects
accomplishing, a multiplicity of methods is needed to fulfil the and their contextual environment. In doing so, borrowing from
tasks that each investigation stage is intended to carry out. the Information Studies both the quantitative and qualitative
approach to services evaluation, the audits will triangulate
In order to identify the functions and the current use of the metrics, ethnographic observations and unstructured interviews
CAD/CAM assets as well as the events that modify their to assess the implementation of the proposed policies and
consistency and to assess the curatorial management of the recommended procedures.
digital objects emphasising their correlated risks, this project
makes extensive use of audits on project partners, from the
selected categories of stakeholders, drawing on the models and
IV. DIGITAL CURATION IN ARCHITECTURAL CAD EDUCATION – 6) to monitor and restrict privileges for data access and reuse
THE DEDICATE FRAMEWORK CONTRIBUTION according to professional and legal requirements;
The scope of the CAD/CAM data curation involves a wide 7) to plan and implement procedures to track the data reuse
stakeholder community spanning across different communities and transformation according to good practices in IPR
of practice and often bears the responsibility for the preservation management.
of information of public interest although not benefiting from
statutory archival retention. The three categories of Built The corresponding technical competences expected from the
Environment actors which have been selected as context for the addressees of the course are:
researched framework constitute a coherent group of 1) expert knowledge of formats, data structure and digital
stakeholders both cemented by the mutual need for information design computing procedures;
and data exchange, and sharing responsibilities over their digital 2) advanced knowledge of metadata standards and data
assets.
quality assessment;
In such context, post-hoc data curation procedures are 3) thorough knowledge of both the purpose and the
neither feasible nor effective, instead, as Alistair Miles proposed originating digital work flow of data;
for the project ImageStore, a DCC SCARP section, curatorial 4) understanding of preservation routines function and
attention when integrated in the very workflows defining the strategies;
data lifecycle enhances the quality of data and their preservation 5) knowledge of repository architectures options;
viability in informal retention contexts [10] Therefore, the 6) understanding of the techniques and procedures for
researched framework of the DEDICATE project, delivering the privileges based data access;
policies and procedures to build a sustainable curatorial 7) knowledge of data watermarking, cryptographic techniques
framework for CAD/CAM assets, is expected to be highly options and format migration issues.
integrated with architectural design procedures and, as a result,
tending to substitute the professional digital curators' Trained architects should be able to understand and promote
interventions on this repertory with a competent management by curatorial framework updates as the technologies and the tools
the stakeholders themselves. for both curation and design evolve.
From this standpoint, the DEDICATE framework will offer also Moreover, the dissemination of curatorial competences to
the knowledge to design specific Digital Curation training for students and architects through the CAD training would support
Architecture education and architects' vocational training by the evolution of the architect profession and corroborate the
contributing technical and managerial competences pertinent to control over the commercial exploitation of digital design
the entire design data lifecycle. products.
In particular, the managerial tasks that architects are The traditional rationale for introducing computer education
expected to be able to carry out are: in architectural schools has predominantly regarded the
1) to plan and implement consistent curatorial procedures professional relevance of the presented techniques [2]. With the
along the digital design workflows; affirmation of professional software packages, this attitude has
determined a simplification of CAD education contents, often
2) to formulate data appraisal and selection criteria against a reduced to specific packages employment instructions,
set of economical and professional objectives to formalise promoting a substantial loss of control over the digital design
information disposal procedures; process. The integration of Digital Curation competences into
CAD education will fit the latest digital design techniques that
3) to manage the ingestion of digital assets according to
demand for computing awareness and coding competences.
agreed curatorial policies to ensure data authoritativeness
persistence and accessibility; Further, the affirmation of the digital cultural market and the
integration of digital design techniques with manufacturing
4) to establish preservation policies according to professional facilities are urging the redefinition of the role of the architect as
and legal needs to implement preservation procedures on the a content provider. This renewed scope on the professional
assets held in the repository; services expected from architects demand from them the
5) to manage the persistent feasibility of data storage; necessary competences to legally and persistently manage the
intellectual property rights (IPR) associated to the design digital
products. The Digital Curation module of a CAD training would
offer architects the opportunity to integrate consistent IPR [3] G. Vazzana and D. Bachmann, “CAD salary and employment study,”
management in the very workflows of the digital design Computer-Aided Design, vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 795–803, 1995.
processes and in so doing facilitating the commercial [4] R. Lancia, “First Step Award Final Report - project DIDECU (Digital
Design Curation),” University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Feb. 2011.
exploitation of their products.
[5] D. Van Rillaer, J. Burger, R. Ploegmakers, and V. Mitossi, “Rgd BIM
Standard,” Rijksgebouwendienst, Jul. 2012.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[6] Cabinet Office, “Government Construction Strategy,” May 2011.
The DEDICATE project would not be possible without the [7] A. Speaight and G. Stone, Architects Legal Handbook. The Law for
generous funding from the Fellowship Scheme for Early Career Architects. Oxford, Cambridge, Mass: Architectural Press, 2005.
Researchers of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. [8] N. Beagrie, “Digital curation for science, digital libraries, and individuals,”
International Journal of Digital Curation, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3–16, 2008.
REFERENCES [9] S. Higgins, “The DCC Curation Lifecycle,” The International Journal of
[1] Bijl, Aart. 1977. “The Automated Architect.” Computer-Aided Design 9 Digital Curation, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 134–140, 2008.
(4) (October): p.287. [10] A. Miles, “Zoological Case Studies in Digital Curation – DCC SCARP /
[2] P. Purcell, “Computer education in architecture,” Computer-Aided Design, ImageStore,” Alistair Miles. [Online]. Available:
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digital-curation-dcc-scarp-imagestore/. [Accessed: 21-Jan-2013].