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From CAD User AEC Magazine  Vol 22 No 5 - MAY/JUNE 2009

From termite nests to acoustically perfect concert halls, David Chadwick takes a slice out of Smart Geometry 2009, where leading architects and passionate researchers come together to look at new techniques in building design

The best way to see the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is from the seat of a push bike. Just a couple of miles outside the city, you can hire a bike from opposite Fisherman's Wharf and take a leisurely spin along the coastline, and then climb up and onto the bridge itself. That was just one of my personal highlights from this year’s Smart Geometry conference, which concerned the use of Bentley's GenerativeComponents in building design.

But the Golden Gate Bridge was far from the only impressive sight in San Francisco.. TheZCorp 450 colour 3D printer, for example, put in a star performance of its own. Hearing about and discussing the finer points of the amazing designs that can be created using GenerativeComponents is one thing - but seeing those same designs turned into 3D scale models elevates them to a whole new level.

As any child knows, you can't get the real sense of an object unless you can touch it as well as see it! As good as some of the images shown on the screen were, I was only able to really appreciate the sense of some of the designs after I had got my hands on the scale models.

SMART GEOMETRY

It's a privilege to be able to attend Smart Geometry as a journalist. It's really a place where exponents of the art of GenerativeComponents can get together to swap notes and show the direction their research is taking them. It also blends together the theoretical musings of leading architectural colleges and research institutes with the practicalities of working architects - with a dash of

tuition and problem solving thrown in for good measure.

The latter comprises a series of workshops that start out a week before the conference proper, leading up to alumni sessions on the first day of the conference, where they display the results of their efforts. The second day was more of a practical affair, with some eminently practical solutions to specific real life design problems presented during the alumni session.

A significant feature (or rather lack thereof) was the complete absence of any presentation that explained the what, how and why of GenerativeComponents. It’s clear that, having reached maturity, the software is now a living and breathing tool in regular use with many leading architects, and doesn’t really need anything more by way of introduction at an event like Smart Geometry.

METRO MECHANICS

That won’t stop me from reiterating a few GenerativeComponents facts here of course! GC is a rules-based software solution that allows users to configure a design based on parameter based algorithms. Parameters can be based on any set of features, from design rules to sustainable factors - such as sunlight requirements, prevailing wind directions, carbon usage limits etc - or can even mimic biological growth patterns.

Changing any of the parameters has an immediate effect on the design. Alternately, a series of iterations can be set up, testing each of the parameters to arrive at optimised design solutions.

The latter function was used in the first Smart Geometry presentation, which served as an apt metaphor for many of

the uses to which the software is put. Stig Anton Nielsen, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, showed how GenerativeComponents was used to design a series of Metro subway stations.

Subway stations all have common features - a couple of tracks requiring adjacent platforms, access points, concourses, escalator entry, ticket offices, etc. - all with relationships to each other, but, because of urban site differences, there are distinct design requirements for each of them. Probable passenger flow also dictated access dimensions for each site.

All components were put into the 3D model, and design iterations were set up for each station, looking at all possible alternatives. The optimised results were then fed back into Microstation, and rendered to add illumination to the model for viewing and allow scale models to be produced on the 3D printer.

Besides the use of GC to come up with a series of solutions that would otherwise have been very difficult to achieve, I found the collaboration between the clients, architects, and research department of a Fine Art Institute to come up with an optimised design to be the most heartening development from this project.

ACOUSTICS AND GEOMETRY

One session that I found particularly fascinating was by Brady Peters, looking at ways to design buildings to create ideal acoustic conditions using GenerativeComponents. In the same way that you can design a building to take maximum advantage of prevailing light conditions, so you can set up a performance related building to 'concert

Textured surfaces designed to reflect or absorb sound - designed by Brady Peters using GenerativeComponents Earl Mark plays around with unconventional materials - such as canvas and wood pitch' or, conversely, reduce sound levels where they may be pervasive.

The design is focused on the optimisation of reverberation times feeding input from the performance back into the parametric model to optimise the acoustics, using a suitable

architectural team to individual players improvising jazz in a combo - with 'geometry' as the common language fostering collaboration. The project they presented was a 700 seater stadium, with a cedar clad exterior developed by Burro Happold, around an arc-like structure

understand the craft, and using Egyptian cloth, he constructed pretensioned sails with an inbuilt bias. He is also investigating construction from Origami forms, lightweight arches and the use of fabrics on scissors structures for strength.

reverberation/time equation developed by Wallace Sabine (an early acoustics pioneer).

Sound is not a laser beam but pressure fluctuation caused by the movement of molecules. Sound waves, therefore, are cylindrical waves reflected from planar surfaces. Change the surface and the wave is altered, and breaks up. There are a number of absorber types, reflectors and diffusers that can be used to remove sounds, diffused to disperse sounds, or combined.

Complex surfaces reflect sound in many ways, either combining to produce ideal venues for concerts, such as the Musikverrein in Vienna, or neutralised in anachroid rooms, where there is no reverberation time in the room and sound is immediately absorbed by the walls. Mathematical models can experiment with the surface control, applying different types on different places on surface.

DESIGN AS A TEAM SPORT

Acoustic considerations were an essential part of the design of a new concert hall by Shane Burger Grimshaw Architects. Besides using GenerativeComponents as one of their key design tools, they liken the within the glass interior. The walls were acoustically optimised to produce 'comfort zones' and an acoustically silent concert hall. The view from the stage was impressive and the space absolutely silent - a blank and tunable canvas for the artiste!

The roof is flexible, and the configurable wall panels can bounce a multitude of frequencies - besides supporting local artworks, all of which is connected to supercomputers on the campus. The project went through 186 revisions, with models passed back and forth on a daily basis.

UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS

Earl Mark showed what can be achieved with rather unconventional materials - in this case fabrics and wood - with his animated parametric design methods. His starting point was light eco footprint, fabric-based architecture, and he showed a variety of shapes and models comprising fabric roofs and sails, and even tensioned rubberised membrane fabrics. Used in conjunction with wood, Earl is trying to recapture the natural processes of design - the type of thinking that produced the earliest sailing boats. Spending time in a sailmakers to better Why use GenerativeComponents for organic design? The original organic forms were scanned to produce a smooth surface, from which a set of parameters could be created to regenerate variations on the form, which could then be applied as geometric algorithms.

QUANTIFYING THE UNCONVENTIONAL

That leads us to the conclusion that much of GC is about quantifying the unconventional - creating mathematical certainty around the chaos of nature. Some of the other talks at Smart Geometry went much further than the above, basing designs on the logical but organically free construction of termite nests - or the branching of the veins and arteries of the human heart. All possible, of course, with GenerativeComponents. There are lots more case studies and presentations on the official website, where you can see for yourself why the tool is more than just a useful mathematical add-on for architectural software but, used effectively, a gateway to the furtherance of creative design in any discipline! www.smartgeometry.org

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