Architectural Design Studies (Theory and Methodology)
Design Computation (AI, Expert Systems. Models of Typological and Precedent based Design)
Digital Design - Digital Architecture
Virtual Design - Virtual Architecture
Experimental Design Studio

Rivka Oxman is holding a D.Sc degree from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion Israel Institute of Technology. She is currently a Vice Dean in the faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

She has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, USA, Delft University of Technology, Holland and held research appointments at MIT and Berkeley, U.S.A. She has been involved with research and teaching activities with the University of Sydney and Kaiserslautern University in Germany. In year 2007/8 during her stay in the UK she has been a founder and director of a new innovative MSc programme in Digital Architectural Design. 'Digital Architectural Design’ in Salford University UK

Rivka Oxman is an Associate Editor of Design Studies (Elsevier) - the international journal for design research in engineering, architecture, products and systems. She is also a member of numerous editorial boards of leading international scientific journals and conferences on design research and theory and on digital design. She was invited to deliver keynote lectures around the world in Europe, USA South America and Asia in leading conferences, universities and institutions. She has published more than 100 papers in numerous leading international scientific journals and scientific conferences including CAAD Futures, ECAADE, CAADRIA, ACADIA, DCC - Design Cognition and Computation, as well as books and invited chapters in books. Her work is widely cited and influential in this area. She has been a Jury Member in the yearly Feidad - Far Eastern International Digital Architectural Design  Award since 2001. 

Her doctoral research was in the area of Design and Computation. Her research relates to the representation of design knowledge and its exploitation in computational models of design. In the area of design computation, she is investigating the impact of the current digital media on design and the development of performance based generative systems for architectural design. She is conducting research on digital design theories and models and formulating their contribution to the emergence of new paradigms in digital architecture.

In 2006 she was appointed as a Fellow of DRS - the Design Research Society for her established record of achievement in design research, and attainment of peer recognition as a researcher of professional standing and competence. Recently she has received the Design Research Society and Elsevier Science Award for the best paper of the year in Design Studies for her contribution to the understanding of cognitive aspects of visual reasoning in design emergence.

1     Oxman Rivka (2009) “Design Paradigms for the Enhancement of Presence in Virtual Environments” in  Xiangyu Wang and Jerry Jen-Hung Tsai (Eds.( Collaborative Design in Virtual Environments, Springer (to be published in 2009) (other contributors: Professor Grhard Schmitt, Professor Mary Lou Maher)

2     Oxman Rivka (2009)"Digital Mrphogenesis in Design" Special Issue on Morphogenesis, IASS Journal  (invited paper - to apear)

3     Oxman Rivka (2008) “Performative Design – a  Performance-model of Digital Architectural Design" Environment and Planning B (in press)

4      Oxman Rivka (2008) “Digital Architecture: Re-thinking Theory, Knowledge, Models and Medium Challenge to Digital Design and Design Pedagogy” Design Studies, Vol. 9 Issue 2. pp. 99-120

5     Oxman Rivka (2008) Towards a Performance based Generation and Formation Model in Architectural Design, IJAC International Journal of Architectural Computing Vol. 6 Issue 1  pp. 1-17 (invited paper)

6     Oxman Rivka (2006) “Theory and Design in the First Digital Age” Design Studies, Vol 27 No 3

7     Sass L. and Oxman Rivka (2006) "Materializing Design" Design Studies Vil 27 No 3

8     Oxman Rivka (2006) Keynote Lecture: "Re-thinking Digital Design in A. Ali, and C. A. Brebbia (Eds) Digital Architecture and Construction, WIT Press in a volume of WIT Transaction on the Built Environment

9     Kvan T., Mark E. Oxman Rivka and Martens b. (2004) "Ditching the Dinosaur: Redefinning the Role of Digital Media in Education" International Journal of Design Computing" Vol. 7, MIT Press

10     Oxman Rivka (2004) "Think-Maps: Teaching Design Thinking in Design Education" Design Studies, Vol 25 No 1 pp 63-91

11   Mark E. Martens B. and Oxman Rivka (2003) "Preliminary Stages of CAAD Education" Automation in Construction, Vol 12 No 6 pp 661-670

12   Oxman Rivka (2001) “The Mind in Design - A Conceptual Framework for Cognition in Design Education” in C. Eastman, W.M. McCracken and W. Newsletter (Eds.( Knowing and Learning to Design: Cognition in Design Education, Elsevier, Oxford

13   Oxman Rivka (2000) "The Thinking Eye: Visual Re-Cognition in Design Emergence" Design Studies, Vol 23 No 2 pp 135-164 (Best Paper Annual Design Studies Award)

14   Oxman Rivka (2000) "Design Media for the Cognitive Designer" Automation and Construction Vol 9   No 4 pp 337-346

15   Oxman Rivka (1999) "Educating the Designerly Thinker" in W. M. McCracken, C. M. Eastman and W Newsletter (Eds) Special Issue on Cognition in Design Education, Design Studies Vol 20 No 2 pp. 105-122

16   Oxman Rivka (1997) "Design by Re-representation: A model of Visual Reasoning in Design" in Akin O. (ed) Special Issue on Perscriptive and Descriptive Models of Design, Design Studies Vol 18 No 4 pp 329-347

17   Oxman Rivka (1997) "Shared Design Web-Space” International Journal of Design Computing, an electronic journal, (invited for the inaugural first issue of the new journal) ISSN 1329-7147, MIT Press, Vol.1

18   Oxman Rivka (1996) "Case-Based Design Support - Supporting Architectural Composition through Precedent Libraries". Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, (JAPR) Vol. 13, No. 3

19   Oxman Rivka (1995) "Observing the Observers: Analyzing Design Activity" Design Studies Vol 16 No 2 pp 275-284

20   Oxman Rivka (1995) Data, Knowledge and Experience in Multi-User Information Systems" Construction Management and Economics, Vol 13 pp 401-409

21   Brown, F.E., Cooper, G.S., Ford, S., Auoad, G., Brandon, P.S. Child T. Kirkham J A.  Oxman Rivka Young, B. (1995) "An integrated approach to CAD: Modeling Concepts in Building Design and Construction" Design Studies Vol.16, No.3, pp.327-348

22    Oxman Rivka (1994) "Precedents in Design: a Computational Model for the Organization of Precedent Knowledge", Design Studies, Vol.15, No.2, pp. 141-157

23    Aouad, G., Kirkham, J.A., Child T., Cooper, G.S., Brandon, P.S, Ford, S., Brandon P.S., Brown, F.E., Oxman Rivka Young, B. (1994) "An Object-Oriented Model of Building Procurement" Microcomputers in Civil Engineering,Vol.9, pp.401-411

24   Oxman Rivka (1992) "Multiple Operative and Interactive Modes in Knowledge-Based Design Systems", in Y.E. Kalay (ed.) Evaluating and Predicting Design Performance, John Wiley and Sons, pp. 125-143

25   Oxman Rivka and Oxman Robert M (1992) "Refinement and Adaptation in Design Cognition" Design Studies, Vol.13 No.2 pp.117-134

26   Oxman Rivka (1990) "Prior Knowledge in Design, A Dynamic Knowledge-Based Model of Design and Creativity" Design Studies, Butterworth-Heinemann Vol.11, No.1, pp.17-28

          complete curriculum vitae (to be completed !!)

          editor of special issue on digital design

Prof. Oxman has also undertaken experimental educational work involving modeling and formulation of formal knowledge and processes in architectural design. She attempts to formulate a new approach to design education through cognitive and computational modeling employing various computational and digital design media. Her approach is termed - " CDM " - Cognitive Design Media (see publications 1 ; 2) where web-based computational design tools are being explored and developed.
She has founded a Digital Design Research Group at the faculty of Architecture at the Technion, in diverse research programs in Digital Design Theories and Methodologies. Subjects currently explored by her students are: the formulation of a theoretical basis for digital architecture, employment of VR technology in design and evaluation of virtual environments, digital archiving systems, designing virtual worlds, etc. These themes are also the subject of study in the framework of her experimental design studios at the Technion. Her research work and the work of her students has been published in books and international journals and presented in major international conferences.