ShapeHub: An Online Collaboration Platform Implementing Version Control for Collaborative Design

The pandemic has forced a major transition in education: from face-to-face to online education, which poses challenges for students in collaborative design. Recently, the process usually involves communicating through video conferences and chats, copying design files, and continuing to make modifications, which lacks effective communication and may lead to irreversible changes. In the research, a web-based collaborative design platform is developed, where teammates can share ideas and iterate on others’ designs. The platform adopts an asynchronous communication model, but it also supports synchronous design features, such as real-time online chat. It integrates the branch mechanism and history function to implement version control, thereby improving the efficiency and experience of collaborative design. The platform is neither an online version of a traditional architecture studio nor a 3D version of GitHub. It inherits the former’s collaborative culture, references the latter’s workflow and functions, and develops on this basis to meet the needs of architectural collaborative design and adapt to the characteristics and limitations of digitalization. By rethinking the design process, platform and culture, the research is expected to contribute to the creation of an online collaborative design community.