In recent years, remarkable advances in computer visualisation of objects and physical phenomena have been made.
Computer images can now represent physical objects very accurately.
By using these capabilities, virtual universes can be generated to represent whole environments. The development of techniques such as moving computer views, real world video models, sound tracks, etc. has been made possible because of the improvements in computer graphics devices, better algorithms and faster processors, which allow workstations and high speed PC's to be suitable platforms for visualisation. These developments have been essential for design techniques that rely on wider visualisation as well as other advances such as knowledge-based support systems and objects bases. The emphasis now is to provide intelligent design systems as a result of integration of these capabilities, and considerable research has recently been carried out in these areas. This book, which contains the edited proceedings from the First International Conference on Visualisation and Intelligent Design in Engineering and Architecture, held in 1993, discusses the latest advances in the field.