INTELLIGENT AGENTS FOR CONCEPT INVENTION OF DESIGN FORMS RABEE M. REFFAT Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email{rabee@arch.usyd.edu.au} Abstract. Concept invention refers to the act of discovering new concepts for the first time. Concept invention may require a new interpretation that motivates new mappings of the situation prior to the discovery of a new concept. This paper is concerned with developing intelligent design agents that would be capable of inventing creative concepts of design forms, shapes and compositions while involved in the design process. A new approach of exploiting the old notion of “displacement of concepts” with regard to concept invention in designing in the form of mobile design agents is adopted and utilised in developing the structure of intelligent mobile agent-based system. 1. Invention of Design Concepts Design concepts are composed of rich sets of categorised abstractions of the mutual relationships between observations and actions. This research adopts the view that the process of designing is situated (Reffat and Gero, 2000) and design concepts are formed as consequences of the situatedness of design actions (Gero and Fujii, 2000). The process of designing is intertwined with discovery within and between design episodes whereby unintended consequences of design actions occur. Design actions are determined and executed in relation to: (a) some goals; (b) observations of the circumstances in which they were performed; and (c) internal state of the agent that performs the actions. A recent protocol design study has provided evidences that unexpected discoveries (inventions), play an important role in designing (Suwa, Gero and Purcell, 1999). New concepts emerge out of the interaction of old concepts and new situations. The old concept is not simply re-applied unchanged to a new instance. The new concept emerges in terms of situation within which the new instance is perceived.