Formalizing Generation and Transformation in Design

This paper is an integration of two substantial endeavours. One is a general purpose 3D modelling system, ICE that introduces a new notation and an entire family of graphic design functionalities based on generative structures and manipulation handles. The other is an exhaustively annotated design studio, in which the entire graphic output of students and the annotations of their faculty have been ethnographically recorded. In this paper, we are using the ICE notation to represent the key graphic products of a selected student and the transformation: between these representations. Our goal is to demonstrate that, through ICE’s formal notation (1) graphic entities in complex design sequence can be unambiguously represented, (2) transformations between graphic entities in complex design sequence can be unambiguously represented, and (3) the various design sequences can be formally captured for subsequent process or cognitive analysis