[n]DM is a collaborative design environment for teaching formal theory of composition in architecture using CAD tools. The whole project has been built up from scratch for the teaching of the introductory course to Design Computing at the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology. The project is based on two key ideas: The Design Machine as an algorithmic structure for design (Stiny and March, 1981) and the Meme Machine (Blackmore, 1999) as an evolutionary model for design. The title is derived from the concatenation of the terms [n] and DM: The symbol DM stands as an acronym to Design Machine, essentially one of the first, rudimentary AI models in design. The symbol n stands in a double referential manner as an arithmetical quantifier denoting the chain relation of several design machines but also as an index of the collective authorship that emerges out of the continuous reshuffling of rotating authors-designers and the continuous reworking and transformation of some initial design ideas.

[n]DM²

The complete map of the of student work produced in Fall 2005. The work here presented is the language component of [n]DM, that is, the list of design solutions generated by the design teams during each study. A key idea of [n]DM is its claim in structuring languages of designs (sets of designs) in four phases, each related to some first language in a hierarchical way. These four phases are denoted here as languages, neo-languages, post-languages, and meta-languages. The transformations involved in the generation of these types of languages sometimes nicely parallel the rising complexity of the hierarchy of geometric transformations (March and Steadman, 1974, Mitchell, 1994) with its corresponding entries of isometries, affinities, linearities, topologies and destructive transformations, while other times linkages with other formal systems including shape grammars and transformational grammars (Stiny, 1990, Knight, 1994) are preferable. And still new interpretations that explain spatial transformations involving hyperbole, ellipsis, metaphor, allegory, irony are introduced and cast in a constructive manner. The initial language for the first run of the ex)periment was selected from the early work of NY5 (Eisenman et al, 1975.

Blackmore S, 1999. The Meme Machine. New York: Oxford University Press.

Eisenman P, Graves M, Gwathmey C, Hejduk J, Meier R, (1975) 1997. Five Architects. Ed. Drexler A, Rowe C, Johnson P. New York: Oxford University Press

Knight T, 1994. Transformations in Design: A formal approach to stylistic change and innovation in the visual arts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

March L, Steadman P, 1974. The Geometry of Environment: An Introduction to Spatial Organization in Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Mitchell W M, 1994. The Logic of Architecture: Design, Computation and Cognition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Stiny G, March L, 1981. "Design machines" Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 8 212 – 238.