Integrating Scientific Visualization with Studio Education – Developing Design Options by Applying CFD

To meet the urgent need of education in environmentally responsive architecture, the Architecture Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong has organized lectures and studios to provide students with knowledge and hands-on experience in environmental design strategies. Considering the context of Hong Kong with a hot-humid sub-tropical climate and hyper-dense urban environment, the current approach in the design studio education has been mainly based on intuition with very limited supports in terms of technical know-how and scientific evidence. Many students of architecture tend to follow established paradigms that have evolved through experience with similar projects. In this paper, we report the research findings of a pilot study that applied advanced scientific simulation skills in studio education designed to help students explore environmental design strategies during early stages of project design development.