SPATIAL COMPUTING AND AMBIENT COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS FOR DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Dan Shapiro Monika Büscher d.shapiro@lancaster.ac.uk m.buscher@lancaster.ac.uk Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK Preben Mogensen Michael Christensen Peter Ørbæk p.mogensen@daimi.au.dk toby@daimi.au.dk poe@daimi.au.dk Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark ABSTRACT The paper describes interdisciplinary research that has produced systems and devices to support the work of architecture, engineering and construction. Spatial computing facilitates the production of abstract and literal spaces for collaboration and teamwork, modelling and experimentation with 3D sites and terrains, bridging between digital and physical materials, mobility, and ambience, with the flexible combination of systems and devices as they are needed. Keywords: Ambient computing, collaborative environments, participatory design, spatial computing, terrain modelling. INTRODUCTION An interdisciplinary group of researchers, aided by European Union funding, have been bringing a range of advanced techniques to bear on supporting the work of professionals in architecture, engineering and construction. These techniques include: • ethnography, to understand in detail the work of design and construction professionals and their needs for further technical support (Luff et al. 2000). • participatory design, to ensure that the technologies developed are practical and useful (Büscher, Gill et al. 2001; Büscher et al. 2002) • spatial computing, which provides a powerful substrate and medium for information systems, services and devices (Ørbæk 2003). Landscape architecture has provided the principal research domain, with the results generalisable to a wide range of activities in engineering and construction. SPACES FOR TEAMWORK If design professionals are observed in their work 1 , one can immediately see (Figure 1): • that it is teamwork, done collaboratively • that it is heavily dependent on the spatial arrangement, and continuous dynamic re-arrangement, of a wide range of materials: plans, sketches, diagrams, photographs, scale models, samples of materials, catalogues, and more (colour versions of all figures can be seen at www.ist-palcom.org/publications/files/aec2005.pdf ). This is also the case for most areas of work, but it is more visually striking in the design and engineering professions. The fact that all these materials are instantly