University of Sydney Design Lab

The University of Sydney Design Lab, formerly the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, is a teaching and research centre of the University's School of Architecture, Design and Planning, established in 1968. The aim of the centre is to apply human-centred design to products, services and systems.
The Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition was founded in 1968 by John Gero to research computers in design as a way of modeling and understanding designing. In 2007, after the departure of its co-directors John Gero and Mary Lou Maher, it changed its name to the Design Lab. During the intervening years its ambit grew to embrace teaching. The KCDC’s research is founded on the use of a scientific approach to the development of models, theories and methods to understand designs and designing.

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Naming history

1968 Computer Applications Research Unit
1973 Renamed Architectural Computing Unit
1982 Renamed Design Computing Unit
1990 Renamed Key Centre of Design Computing
1998 Renamed Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition
2007 Renamed Design Lab

Research

The KCDC from 1968-2007 had four overlapping foci in its design research:

The first phase researched design via simulation.
The second phase researched design via optimization.
The third phase researched design using artificial intelligence and knowledge-based approaches, with a focus on design theory, design synthesis and computational creativity.
The fourth phase researched cognitive aspects of designing as a basis for models of design and as foundations for design computing.

Teaching

Undergraduate architecture student teaching of computational approaches to design, introduced in 1966
Professional courses for practicing designers on computational approaches to design, introduced in 1969
PhD program in design research, introduced in 1969
Master of Architectural Computing, introduced in 1978
Graduate Diploma in Architectural Computing, introduced in 1978
Master of Design Science, introduced in 1988
Bachelor of Design Computing, introduced in 2003

Conferences

The Key Centre was very active in organizing conferences and workshops as a means of both creating a research community and producing a broader impact.