The purpose of the research project described in part here was to inform strategic environmental and architectural issues in the design of three buildings for Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. The design team consists of Richard Rogers Partnership (architects), the Martin Centre (research consultants), RP+K Sozietät (environmental engineers), debis Immobilienmanagement mbH (client), and Drees & Sommer AG (project manager). The research element of the project was funded by the European Union's JOULE II Solar House Programme (JOU2-CT93-0436) and the Mitsubishi Corporation Fund for Europe and Africa. Our role in the design development was as daylighting and sunlighting research consultants with the aim of informing building form, façade design and the interior to improve environmental performance. This paper focuses particularly on the research and development of the façade, briefly describing the role of research activities in design. The purpose of this paper is thus not to describe new or pure research, but rather to investigate the architectural potential of environmental issues and analysis techniques.

The students and faculty affiliated with the Design Studios at MIT have conducted several experiments in geographically distributed design activities as part of the Design Studio of the Future research and education initiatives. Some of these experiments have involved collaboration among the studios within the institute while others have involved faculty and students in academic institutions from as far East as Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. The goal of this paper is to describe our experiences to date with synchronous distributed collaborative design over the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other commercially available communication systems. In particular, we will outline technical and social requirements for successfully conducting remote design reviews. Such reviews require a shift in design content from physical to electronic media which brings with it associated changes in roles, responsibilities, tools, and feature set. These changes are identified in this paper. Finally, we provide helpful suggestions for others who want to try the virtual review format in their organisations.

Interactive rendering combines the geometrical precision of classical computer graphics with the representational freedom of a paint program. It is more sympathetic to the ways in which designers use images, and overcomes many of the frustrations experienced in rendering from CAD models. The scene is generated in a standard viewing application, but saved as a specially enhanced raster image. The extra information allows the interactive renderer to apply brushed-on rendering effects which are sensitive to the perspective of the image. Effects can be applied locally or overall, and may be overlaid, blended and erased to create complex combinations. A huge range of treatments is obtainable, both photorealistic and not.