[ Intention ]
How fast the procedure of thought visualization can be?
Visualization is a critical step of the representation of creative thinking and design strategies. From an architectural canopy to an urban scale masterplan, the complexity composed by scale, spatial articulation, materiality, structure et cetera elongated the processing time of design visualization of projects. Under this circumstance, designers will only be able to test out a limit number of iterations among the processes. From 2d hand sketches to the attempts on 3d modeling software, there is not yet a solution to achieve a balance among speed, accuracy and efficiency in visual strategies. While multiple design iterations and configurations on geometric forms are usually necessary on the way evaluating the ‘one and only’ final proposal, the efficiency in the production of visual experience is needed. Our intention is to develop a new and systematic workflow that is capable to deliver a quick glimpse of the design outcomes with a flexibility for manipulation in iterations (while the increase in iterations will not consume additional time). The design imagery we are constructing will be composed with a catalog of architectural components – façade, basic structural components and more that facilitate a fast visual outcome to help efficiently selecting a best proposal to develop further.
[ Audience ]
Even though a fast visual outcome does not equivalent to a well thought-through design as design itself is a comprehensive procedure affected by multiple tangible and intangible factors beyond imagery, the program we are intended to develop is going to facilitate designers (and maybe the client) to visualize their creative imagination and sketches in the early schematic design phase beyond the raw massing approaches for easy comparison and communication. Our catalog will contain a series of visual components that often referred to by designers, mainly the façade elements, to be able to adapt to multiple massing configurations for a complete visual experience.
[ Methodology ]
The primary input will be the massing, which are the three-dimensional sketches. Similar to the 3d modeling environment where we differentiate building blocks with settings in different layers, the types of volumes will be differentiated with RGB color codes according to the functional uses and building types. A series of façade from the preset catalog will be applied to volumes corresponding to the color codes. The façade options will be able to apply along the designated massing on either flat or curved surfaces; either wide or narrow surfaces; either long or short surfaces with preset modules. While the visual presentation is delivering through the color codes, multiple parameters will also be taken into consideration to achieve a balance in compatibility with the physical context, for instance, the façade shading schemes according to the sunlight angles, as well as the structural options according to the wind analysis. The manipulation among visual outcomes will be simplified to a series of rearrangements and reconfigurations, integrated with controlled duplicability and randomness. The outcome will be not only a series of iterations for visual representation, but also optimized geometries compatible with the environmental factors.
Year:
November - December 2020
Institution:
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Introduction to Computational Design
Instructor:
Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez
Collaboration:
Xiangning Guo, Yanwei Yang