Colleague Marc Syp has been working on a real time space planning tool using Spring Dynamics in Grasshopper. I had the privilege to have a cameo as well. Check it out after Marc’s description below.

This is a preview of a parametric conceptual design tool for architectural practice that I have been developing at NBBJ. I wanted to develop a system that allows designers to quickly organize and understand complex architectural programmes in three dimensions.

It is an advancement of the traditional bubble diagram; it solves adjacency requirements automatically and suggests planimetric and sectional relationships. The resulting diagrams are not formal solutions; they are simply organizational diagrams with solved adjacencies and accurate required areas. The diagrams are raw materials, meant to be manipulated sculpturally, or even squeezed into a formal container.

Technical Information
The tool was created in the Grasshopper plug-in for Rhino. Custom components, written in VB.NET, read programme data directly from Excel into Grasshopper. The tool uses the Kangaroo engine for realtime spring dynamics simulation.

Vimeo Link in HD

MS

Recently, friends at Studio Mode co- hosted a workshop with Tietz-Baccon entitled Material Intelligence. The week-long workshop capitalized on the momentum of hands-on material research through the creation of informal organizational strategies, subsequent prototypes and arriving finally at aggregate topological manifestations. Iterative testing frameworks were developed in Grasshopper and realized as tangible artifacts in prototype. Participants in the workshop not only benefited from intensive work sessions and collaborations, but also from the availability and use of digital fabrication tools, namely, a CNC 3-Axis Mill and CNC High-Force Cutter. A reception capped the event where the resultant aggregations were on display.

Studio Mode/modeLab is a Brooklyn-based design studio and research collective founded by Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos. As a studio committed to design as a form of applied research, Mode engages in practices that have a requisite and deep connection to material and the processes by which it is formed and informed.

TIETZ-BACCON is an office for Architectural Design & Digital Fabrication established in 2007 by a core group of Architects/Designers who teamed-up at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Armed with diverse skills and a deep passion for making, our office approaches each project with ambitious innovation and detailed rigor.

Photos and Workshop descriptions after the jump…

MS

Material Intelligence was a one-week intensive design and prototyping workshop held in New York City during the week of August 16-20.

Brief:

The relationship between the designed object and the forces surrounding that object are always present, perceivable, and tactile. These forces span, among others, material, fabrication, economic, cultural, as well as political domains. In this manner, the object can be thought of as simultaneously existing within a charged field of pressures while adding its own charge back into the field. Contemporary tools (digital fabrication) and technology (associative environments) provide a strategic means for navigating the multitude of forces at play, while the prototype serves as the activating link between material research and design innovation.

Methodology:

This workshop progressed through a series of focused strategies beginning with material testing, followed by the development of prototypes, and arriving at aggregations of a single topological type. Each prototype was created by simple operations, undertaken through a specific disposition, and evaluated for performative potentials. All assemblies were designed in an associative environment (Grasshopper) and iteratively tested utilizing digital fabrication equipment (CNC 3-Axis Mill and CNC High-Force Cutter). The workshop concluded with a reception that exhibited design prototypes and full scale assemblies built by participants over the course of five days.

Material Intelligence was conceived through a collaboration between Studio Mode/modeLab and Tietz-Baccon. More details and images can be found at the following links:

http://materialintelligence.nu

http://studiomode.nu/
http://www.tietz-baccon.com/

flickr set 01

flickr set 02

A really great site for information and tutorials by David Fano at SHoP Architects. Focus is meant to be a source of information for the integration of design and technology. The ambition of Design Reform is to publish tutorials and explorations in parametric modeling with softwares such 3ds Max, Revit, Maya, and Rhino.

David’s focus is developing technology strategies on various projects, primarily with parametric systems and BIM implementation. He explores BIM in the schematic and pre-schematic design phases, as well as interoperability with other programs.

Design ReForm

David Fano

Happy Modeling

MS

For the love of flesh and bone, or part to whole relationships, an interactive spatial investigation of anatomy is available for free via the visible body. One is able to hide or ghost different body systems in layers down to highly specific arteries, bones or organs.

Note: The ability exists to use OpenGL vs. DirectX depending on your graphics card.

Pretty amazing.

http://www.visiblebody.com

MS