Assessing The Impact Of Caad Design Tool On Architectural Design Education

Abstract

The current concept of architectural design education in most schools of architecture in Jordan is a blend between manual and digital approaches. However, the disconnection between these two methods has resulted in the students' failure to transfer skills learnt through traditional methods to the digital method of CAAD. The objective of this study is twofold: to first compare students’ attitudes toward using both methods and to then assess the impact of CAAD use on the quality of architectural design final product. An open-ended questionnaire was designed to measure variables related to students’ preferences toward CAAD and traditional methods. The quality of sixty graduation projects at three Jordanian universities was investigated. The results appear to support the assumption that CAAD tools are used largely as visual means and thereby cause a marked decline in design quality. These findings call for a reconsideration of the status quo and a rethinking of perhaps the entire architectural educational model