Digital Tools Beyond Aesthetics

Mass Creativity & The Enablement of Emergence

1. Bla Bla (oh well…)

2. Case Study (leads nicely to subsequent point)

3. Beta.Speckle (the thing i am actually supposed to speak about)

$ whoami

2009 FTW

2008-2013 Parametric Design Tutor at Various Parametric Design Workshops

2010-2012 MSc @ TU Delft (Hyperbody)

2012-2013 Research Assistant @ ABK Stuttgart

2013-2014 Research Assistant @ TU Berlin

2013-2015 Architect @ Bogdan & Van Broeck (Brussels)

2015 now Marie Curie Researcher @ The Bartlett, UCL

two0t me your questions @idid

actually just want more followers

Emergent Creativity(Bla Bla)

William Blake

designers are part of the swarm of decision makers whose actions lead to the crystallisation

of the built environment

design != isolated creation process

design emerges from a myriad of interactions between human and non-human actors

Interactive Negotiation Tool

PPP Feasibility Study / Brussels, Belgium

Project Brief (…)

Usually, the deliverables are

historical & contextual analysis gross estimate of maximum and minimum amount of m2

a list of possible functions that can be implemented rough financial feasibility

volumetric studies based on zoning regulations

± 30 A4 pages.

Nevertheless,this approach did not work out

StakeholdersReal Estate/Developers The Vlaamse Overheid The Architects/Urbanists

Financial Feasibility Social Impact Political Relevance Architectural & Urban Constraints

Parameters

GOV

DEV ARCH

GOV

politicians

policymakers

architects

real estatedept.

banks

investors

CSR

DEV ARCH

GOV

DEV ARCH

GOV

politicians

policymakers

architects

real estatedept.

banks

investors

CSR

DEV ARCH

SHORT TERM PROFIT

COOLNESS

SOCIAL

IMPACT

QUALITY

RESIDUAL GROUND

VALUE

LONG TERM GAINS

GIN&TONIC

GET R

E-EL

ECTE

D

Gree

n en

ergy

?

Too expensive.

GOV

DEV ARCH

The stakeholders did not speak the same

language & did not share the same interests

rather than packaging a set of compromise-eroded finite solutions and delivering those

(instead of “baking” solutions)

Package the negotiation process itself into a deliverable

(let’s deliver the gh def)

GOV

politicians

policymakers

architects

real estatedept.

banks

investors

CSR

DEV ARCH

?

£

step 1: make a relevant parametric model

+not shippable to politicians

s0 much numb3rs

step 2: make it usableaccessible to all stakeholders, non-technical

and technical alike

kosten

inkomsten126.309.089

saldo42.429.429

42.429

42.429

42.429.429

42.429.429

6.309.089

kosten

inkomsten126.309.089

saldo42.429.429

6.309.089

IRR: 5% IRR EV: 12%

1. categorise & visualise parameters

2. hide inner-mechanics

3. emphasise end results

4. reveal the flow of information

Strategies

categorize and visualise parameters

categorize and emphasise parameters

+hide the inner mechanics: more than 80% of space taken up by secondary calculations that only 5% of

users understand

Emphasise the flow of information

off the chartdatabase

Parameters

IRR somewhere here

Netto Present Value

Profit

Residual ground value

• users gain a global understanding of the process • they become aware of the trade-offs involved • they appropriate the other stakeholders; point of view

Emphasise the flow of information

so much coolso happy

the inability to translate between disciplines leads to friction, dissatisfaction and

compromised results.

aesthetic & technical exploration

digital design tools currently cater to:

communication with all stakeholders (including

non-technical ones)

digital design tools should cater to:

Parametric models can go beyond aesthetic and technical exploration: they can embody a narrative and subsequently be the base of

collaborative decision making

Beta.SpeckleInnoChain / Bob Sheil / Sean Hanna / Robert Aish

A modular, open source*, universally** accessible, mobile ready*** online solution & performance space explorer

1. Speckle exports the solution & performance space you define inside Grasshopper in a special file.

2. You upload the file to future.speckle. Now it can be viewed online.

3. Users can now explore the your parametric model in their browser!

http://beta.speckle.xyz/view/3/4kAV_A76x

DesignParameters

beta.speckle: online

parametric design software

PerformanceMeasures

DesignProblem

ParametricModel

rinse & repeat

1. Define the solution space

Which parameters are important to the design? Which parameters can actually allow variation? Which are the

meaningful degrees of freedom?

2. Define the performance space

Which are the measures of performance that actually interest me? Which are the performance measures

that are of interest to my stakeholders?

TL;DR

Viewer Dashboard 1

Dashboard 2

Backend

GrasshopperExporter

DynamoExporter

MODEL API METADATAAPI

ProjectWebsite

USER API

ModelInstances

ModelUploads

UserSessions

SavedInstances

Auth0

C# Component

Node JS, Express, MongoDB

THREEJs, JQueryJavaScript Modulebased architecture

clientserver

server

designer’scomputer

RESTful API

author

app on a server (nodejs)

client client client client client

exporter

instead of delivering baked goods, why not deliver the recipe?

thank you. @idid