Design Computing and Cognition '06

This is the second volume of the new conference series Design Computing and Cognition (DCC) that takes over from and subsumes the successful series Artificial Intelligence in Design (AID) published by Kluwer since 1992. The AID volumes have become standard reference texts for the field. It is expected that the DCC volumes will perform the same role. This new biennial conference series provides an international forum for the presentation and discussion of state-of-the-art and cutting-edge design research. The conference proceedings will form a continuing archive of design computing and cognition research. Design is a fundamentally important topic in disciplines ranging from the more commonly associated fields of architecture and engineering to emerging areas in the social sciences and life sciences. Design is the key to economic competitiveness and the fundamental precursor to objects - both physical and virtual - and services. The conference theme of design computing and cognition recognizes not only the essential relationship between human cognitive processes as models of computation but also how models of computation inspire conceptual realizations of human cognition.