Abstract:

This chapter looks at the evaluation and prediction of human response to building design through computer applications. When selecting methods, the author considers 2 important issues: how to represent knowledge about human response, and how to introduce that knowledge into the design process. He proposes that the modeling approach to knowledge representation and a conversational approach to knowledge integration are the most effective ways to develop evaluative and predictive tools and taken together they constitute "artificial users'. Scenarios for implementing this concept are presented, based on extensions of existing concepts. It is proposed that artificial users would encourage a design process that gives greater priority to user perspectives within a reflective mode of design thinking.