Abstract
The paper presents the development of an experimental Web-based design environment called Townscaping to be used at the conceptual stage of architectural and urban design. Inspired by Gordon Cullen’s seminal work on Townscape (1960’s–1970’s), the idea of Townscaping is to explore how 3D digital sketch design tools could be developed to operate in connection with a dynamic virtual city system under a user’s direct control. A prototype of Townscaping has been designed and implemented on the basis of an existing dynamic virtual city system. In Townscaping, a set of tools is provided for users to create and edit 3D graphic elements to be positioned directly onto the user-specified virtual city models. One of the key features of Townscaping is to enable sketching while navigation: designers can perform sketch design and gain immediate visual feedback while navigating the 3D virtual city models to any viewpoint at any moment. The current study suggests that it is feasible for virtual city models to serve as interactive urban contexts for 3D sketch design. Townscaping is considered primarily a research platform with which we are interested in investigating if designers’ engaging in 3D space conceptions may be enhanced through interacting and sketching with virtual townscapes.
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Peng, C. (2005). Townscaping: Development of Dynamic Virtual City Augmented 3D Sketch Design Tools. In: Martens, B., Brown, A. (eds) Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2005. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3698-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3698-1_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-3460-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-3698-9
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