Teaching engineering for architectural projects: a networked multimedia approach

Recent developments in software tools used for teaching architectural technology are discussed. We demonstrate a prototype interdisciplinary, networked multimedia package-an interactive analysis of Mies van der Poke's 1951 Farnsworth House-which we use to teach engineering undergraduates and graduate architecture students at Columbia University. The case study package is organized as a book-like set of multimedia materials, including: animated and textual overviews of the Farnsworth House; a description of its architectural importance; in-depth structural and building envelope thermal analyses; 3D detail models; facsimiles of construction documents; and published critical commentary. We have developed it for use on PCs via Microsoft Powerpoint on Silicon Graphics computers via Showcase, and on networked PC, Mac and Unix computers via World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape and Mosaic.