Application of artificial intelligence (Al) has been a topic of interest among researchers for the
past decade or more. Years of research in the commercial application of Al, availability of
hardware support for Al application and affordability of software and hardware has generated
a lot of interest in this field and brought this technology within the reach of micro-computer
based users. The commercial impact of AI is due to expert systems (ESs). ES technology is a
collection of methods and techniques for constructing human-machine systems with specialized
problem solving expertise.
This project explores the application of ESs in landscape architecture by developing a prototype
ES and testing implications of its use with designers while working on a hypothetical
problem in a studio environment. The development process helps identify the typical difficulties
of such an application, to uncover technical problems, and to identify areas needing further
research.
The project aims at building an ES that provides very limited preliminary data and design
guidelines to initialize the design process and keeps track of the most fundamental issues
necessary for planning, thus acting as an expert and assistant simultaneously. The idea is to
explore the possibility of applying ESs to facilitate the design process so that designers may
concentrate on other important aspects of design which include intuitive judgement about
qualitative aspects.
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