Three Dimension Thinking in the Architectural Design Process: An Analysis of Traditional and Digital Methods

The architectural model is not only a visual product of design, but also a working tool that supports the three-dimensional thinking and perception stages of the design process. Studios or ateliers, the places where this tool is often used in architectural education, have now transformed to digital spaces that are gradually moving away from making physical models in the design process. This change of designing process also changes the designer's design concerns and puts the designer in a new role as the controller of digital screen interfaces. In this study within this context, Paulo Belardi's question “Why do architects still draw?”, which he asked to emphasize the sketch as a method of thinking, is re-directed to the users of today's architectural studios as “Why do architects still make physical models?”. Based on this research question, this study aims to analyse how model making, digital design programs and artificial intelligence applications change the perceptual scale and formal concerns in the design process through the advantages and disadvantages of these different methods. In this context, an experimental study was conducted with 15 2nd year students from the Department of Architecture at Yeni Yüzyıl University. The class level of the study group was limited based on the students' preferences being reshaped when they moved from the first-year design studio courses where they made models intensively to the second-year courses where they started to learn and use computer programs. The study methodology consists of three stages. In the first stage, a survey consisting of questions about the frequency of using model making, the use of 3D computer programs and model production through artificial intelligence (AI), which are used as three-dimensional thinking tools in design, and their level of knowledge about these tools was conducted. In the second stage of the study, the students participating in the experiment were given a design problem and were asked to generate solutions to this problem with artificial intelligence consisting of three-dimensional visuals. The results were evaluated and interpreted in terms of proportion/proportion, shape, form relations. In the third stage of the study, focused interviews were conducted with each participant and the difficulties they encountered during the study and the positive and negative aspects of their designs were asked. To summarize, it can be said that the students' verbal description skills contributed to the development of the final product obtained in the initiation of the three-dimensional thinking process with artificial intelligence software. However, in the model developed with only verbal descriptions, it is revealed that perception and scale problems will arise due to the lack of hand-eye coordination caused by model making, and this will negatively affect the next stages of the design process.