Saturday 18th June, 1pm to 6pm at Broad Oak Social Club
The first interactive computer system to design real buildings
Prue Amner CITP MBCS
Prue is a freelance education adviser/consultant for the further education sector since 2001. Her areas of expertise are in Information and Communication Technology for which she has been an associate inspector on behalf of Ofsted for 15 years.
Previously she was a senior manager at Highbury College Portsmouth and also in managing Computing, Business and Technology Departments, community learning and offender learning.
She qualified as a telecommunications engineer and has extensive practical experience as an IT practitioner and senior manager in areas of commerce; manufacturing, architecture and telecommunications design.
The first interactive computer system to design real buildings
The system was designed and implemented at West Sussex County Architect’s department in the early 1970s. The talk will cover skills of the team involved in this revolutionary systems design; the limitations of the hardware, software and file structures available at that time; the challenges of the users of the system including architects, engineers and contractors. Extracts from specialist magazines at the time include:-
Designing buildings by computer – New Scientist 31st August 1972
“When an architect sat down at a computer terminal in Chichester earlier this year it was probably the first time in Britain that an architect had used an interactive computer system to design a real building.”
Computer programs for West Sussex – Building magazine 4th May 1973
“The light pen and the TV Screen in the computer system at West Sussex County Architect’s department inevitably catch the eye. But the organisation and analysis of the information which lies behind it all are no less important.”
Computers: where now? – The Architects’ Journal 6th December 1972
“A three day international conference on computers in architecture at York University offers advice to practices wishing to take their first timid steps into the machine age.”
You can download the slides from the talk here.