Design Analysis Network: An educational environment for architectural analysis

Design Analysis Network (DAN) is a web-based environment for the construction and presentation of a body of architectural analyses in the context of a design studio. We use DAN in order to achieve an extensible and cooperative library of architectural design analyses; searchable by content, and instructional for coming generations of students. DAN also acts as a presentation environment for students, where they can present their analyses to their design instructors. DAN has been used in two iterations of instruction in the second year design studio at the Faculty of Architecture. After its use, we carried out an extensive evaluation of the use of DAN, its usefulness and how it fits into the educational process, in a laboratory environment. The evaluation results provided valuable insights. In this paper, we describe the DAN environment and its tools, and we discuss its use in the design studio. We also describe its evaluation process and results, the analysis of these results and their conclusion. We conclude with recommendations for improvement to the application and its implementation within the design studio.