photoshop assignment one

Our first assignment on photoshop was to create a victorian inspired pattern from an urban landscape.  Victorian patterns tend to be organic and repetitive, which is why I chose this curved highway.  This picture was originally of an Japanese city.  After cropping a part out of the image and altering it in several ways, this was the final product. 

response to "computing in architectural design"

In response to the article, I must say I found this information to be informative to the history of computer programs. Due to technological advances, many improvements and explorations have been discovered since Renaissance times. Although the Vitruvian man did give designers and architects a better understanding of the human body and its proportions, there was still a large gap between estimation and precision. Another advancement was the introduction of perspective drawings. This gave designers a way to put their ideas in space, including scale figures helped to see the proportions of different objects in a spacial layout they have created. This 2-D method made it possible to see the space in a 3-D sort of way.

Continuing to improve methods of designing, CAD was introduced, and soon began to appear in architectural firms. The first generation CAD systems contained many limitations, such as large and powerful computers, costly equipment and was considered a program generally only used as a "building design system". While CAD programs are improving, architects are able to use this program for not only drafting, but renderings as well to help better communicate their designs to their clients. This second generation CAD system dealt with polygons, solids, NURBS and "blobs" (as opposed to already created stairs, doors, etc.) which made this program more versatile. The third generation CAD continues to improve, using object oriented designs and staying away from the geometrical forms used in the second. Third generation systems were similar to the first in a way that the architectural objects intended to support the design. The advancements in the third generation systems included object-oriented programming, artificial intelligence and database management systems.

These brilliant and innovative virtual programs have created advancements and opportunities for designers that were never imaginable. These programs have improved extensively since the 1970's and are continuing to improve today. It is hard to imagine what these programs will become in the next few years. With almost effortless applications on the computer, as a future designer I feel knowledge in both hand renderings and computer aided drawings will be necessary to succeed in this field.