Behind Algorithmic Geometric Patterns: A Framework for Facade Design Exploration: Fid-Bau Portal

Behind Algorithmic Geometric Patterns: A Framework for Facade Design Exploration

Caetano, Inês / Leitão, António

Architecture has always explored the latest technological advances both in terms of building design and fabrication. Among the recently adopted computational design approaches, Algorithmic Design (AD) shows great potential for the conception, analysis, and production of architecture, due to automating repetitive and time-consuming design tasks, facilitating design changes, increasing design freedom, and facilitating the search for better-performing solutions. These advantages are particularly important for the design of building facades, providing the flexibility needed to deal with the design complexity of this architectural element. However, AD is an abstract formal method that requires programming skills, which explains its still shy adoption in the field. Despite the AD tools released to smooth its learning curve, few successfully combine creative tasks with the need to respond to multiple requirements and almost none simplify the algorithmic task, forcing architects to build the necessary functionalities from scratch. This research addresses these problems by structuring an architectural-oriented theory considering the variability and context-specificity of architectural design practice and responding to its different esthetic, performance, and construction requirements. To make it useful for architects, the theory is implemented in an AD framework, whose application promises to decrease the time and effort needed to geometrically explore, analyze, and materialize new facade designs, while smoothing the transition between design stages and their different tools. In this paper, we focus on the mathematical implementation of three-dimensional unconventional facade elements, assessing the ability of the resulting formalisms to generate, transform, and materialize the produced solutions.