Design procedures : a computational framework for parametric design and complex shapes in architecture

Abstract

Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 1, 2006, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture: Design and Computation Through the use of computational generative procedures in the early stages of design, it is common to generate shapes of complex nature that could only be produced by the combined forces of human imagination and computer power. However the more complex the shapes are, the more difficult it becomes to establish a discourse that embodies the geometrical and spatial properties, as well as the formal attributes of a given shape. Furthermore, it has become problematic to differentiate between one complex shape and another, resulting in some abstract, cumbersome, and sometimes obscure explanation about how the shape came into being. In some cases, designers recur to complex expressions of mathematical nature that, even though they are precise descriptions of the form, do not offer any clear way to refer to them unless a person is trained in the language of mathematics. Design Procedures proposes a way of looking at designs as a procedural enterprise where complex shapes are the result of computational process in a step by step basis.

(cont.) Design Procedures in combination with appropriate descriptions of spatial attributes, can offer some light in the dialog of irregular non-Euclidean forms and their properties. This thesis presents the application of Design Procedures to three case studies: 1) The generation of the columns of the Sagrada Familia; 2) The description of non regular shapes in the rod symmetry groups, in particular of double twisted geometries; and 3) The application to a computer program for the generation of non-Euclidean complex shapes for high-rise buildings.