1 Making the urban or architectural designer less vulnerable in the math-based company of technical specialists by simulating their contributions in Excel and Visual Basic INTED2008. International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, March 3rd-5th, 2008 Session Educational Software & Games, Tuesday, 4th March 2008 at 17.00hr. Room No.4 Prof.dr.ir. Taeke M. De Jong, chair Technical Ecology And Methodology, sharing a chair Regional Design Faculty of Architecture, department Urbanism

GIS for environmental design? 2000Trend 2040Growth 2000 Scenarios by RIVM, licensed by Parliament for all relevant data

GIS not popular in design Data –expensive, laborious –difficult to judge relevance and reliability –doubtful related to local potentials, unexpected combinations –cheaper to evaluate design afterwards by specialists Designers look for –extending possibilities rather than obeying probabilities –a robust built environment surviving preliminary trends Graduates in design applying GIS tend to –reduce possibilities by sieve-analyses –overlook new possibilities by design

Averages misleading design The same person at 1 or 2 m 2 results in density values of or 5000 inhabitants per ha Misleading density image applied on the different surfaces Two average density GIS interpretations of the same state of dispersion caused by grid choice

Pointillistic representation Zero variantdesign TKA ‘ residential ’ design Hosper ‘ recreation ’ design H+N+S ‘ nature ’ to compare design alternatives properly: 50 dots each representing real size the floor space for 1000 inhabitants show directly: form (state of dispersion), varying density, quantity, local possibility for facilities.

Pointillistic sketching ScareToolQuadTreeToolGridDensityTool Developed by graduate student David Rutten for CAD: close to design thinking direct quantitative check better than tables referring to drawings

Visualising 3D altitude database Dutch xyz- coordinates now available for every 5m in maps 5 x 6.25 km How to access for a 200 x 200 m Google Earth Section suitable in design? improved 3D accessibility for design in Excel 200 x 200 m simulating ground water levels However, relevant detailed xyz altitudes GIS recently available :

Tracing a built-up area An allotment 900 x 1450m Tracing and numbering by brain scanner ImageJ Results in m 2 built-up by a medical brain scan application counting cancer cells:

Hidden suppositions not clear in VB The urban island of an ensemblemultiplied into a neighbourhood with a hierarchy of dry and wet networks > Publications 2001 > Standaardverkaveling

Stimulating quantitative awareness of counter-intuitive processes Capacity / traffic lane(velocity)Density(number of storeys)

Sliders in Excel show hidden specialists’ suppositions (parameters) fine tuning input and desired output variables directly

12 Making the urban or architectural designer less vulnerable in the math-based company of technical specialists by simulating their contributions in Excel and Visual Basic INTED2008. International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, March 3rd-5th, 2008 Session Educational Software & Games, Tuesday, 4th March 2008 at 17.00hr. Room No.4 Prof.dr.ir. Taeke M. De Jong, chair Technical Ecology And Methodology, sharing a chair Regional Design Faculty of Architecture, department Urbanism