Advanced Structures and Digital Modelling

Digital tools in architecture have a powerful capability that we have only begun to experiment with; the questions to ask of them are perhaps not what they can do but what should we use them  for? To date, much of the work done in the area of computational design has been used as elaborate patterning - some have called it ‘ornament’.This representation in itself is not problematic; however, what is problematic is the lack of other meaningful uses of the digital form-generating tools and their distance from a culture of making. The main failing of our use of digital design (algorithmic or not) in architecture to this point is the inability to translate smoothly from the digital world to the physical world. This class attempts to bring us one step closer to this transition of virtual to physical by including gravity in architectural generation while not diminishing the creative form-generating process.

This course investigates the digital methods available for the generation and analysis of structural form in architecture. Students will investigate a structural principle and then take the principle and its corresponding mathematic representation to a digital model – in essence programming a representation of gravity into an architectural model. Investigations of opportunities that this might produce will be looked at. In parallel and to inform the investigation, the student will analyze the design in structural analysis software to test whether the design is effectively carrying load and which modifications to the design might perform better structurally.

Students will be provided with assistance to learn the required software.