PhD Success for Dr Zuhair Nasar
Congratulations to Zuhair Nasar for completing his PhD thesis, ‘ParaSIM: a Hybrid Technology-Enhanced Framework to Learning Energy Modelling in Architectural Design Education,’ in November 2020. Zuhair is returning to his home country and will continue his research and look at possibilities for a start-up business from there.
Zuhair’s thesis explores the use of parametric design as a pedagogic tool to enhance architecture students’ understanding of environmental aspects of their studio design projects. Since the widespread introduction of digital tools in architectural education, practice and research, their implementation within architectural education have yet to change significantly in many educational institutions. Consequently, architectural pedagogy must be enhanced to adapt to the development of advanced digital skills, along with technical knowledge including structure, energy, and climate.
These factors emphasise the need for a more comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the impacts and roles of parametric design and digital simulation technologies in architecture pedagogy and design studio education. Therefore, the main research aim was to examine these tools and propose a flexible functional pedagogical, as well as conceptual framework in architectural education. Building on existing work on digital tools and technologies, his thesis asks: to what extent do current digital tools support architectural students’ design knowledge, thinking and modelling in their decision-making, and how can advanced digital tools advance these processes? The use of advanced parametric simulation tools is phrased as ‘ParaSIM’ for the research.
Zuhair presented his ongoing research at the Design Computation conference (DC/IO), which was held on the 7th & 8th of October 2020 in London:
- Nasar Z. A., Webb N. J, Farhan, S.L., 2020, Using Parametric Design Approach for Improved Building Energy Modelling, Design Computation conference (DC/IO), 7 & 8 October 2020, London, UK