Collaborative design system with hypermedium and networking

During the past 10 years, the Sasada Lab of Osaka University has been using computer graphics (CG) for presentation, design review, and design for pra ctical architectural design projects. Our laboratory is interested in "coll aborative design" with designers, clients, and citizen. We discovered that there are two major problems, initiatives and timing, and have found new so lutions using network technologies. This method have solved these problems, but we have found major problems in "collaborative design" that occur duri ng many practical architectural design projects. This paper presents these problems and some of the solutions and research t hat our group has accomplished, or is pursuing, in the field of "collaborat ive design" using some of the latest technologies in hypermedium and networ king. This paper presents the requirements for collaborative design system, the new technologies and the thought of system architecture, the prototype system in practical design project, and the evaluation of prototype system . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.