ADAPTIVE SKINS A PARAMETRIC DESIGN WORKSHOP
7
PROGRAM & OVERVIEW The five-day workshop program has been designed for participants with no previous experience in Grasshopper or parametric design techniques. The program introduced them to both the theoretical and technical knowledge required to explore possibilities of the new design medium. Program has been structured to teach participants not only the use of grasshopper as a generative tool, but also how to integrate it within a real design exercise. On the technical level, participants learned how to compose, edit, and generate algorithmic definitions using Grasshopper. On the design implementation level, they have been supervised and assisted to prepare the logic and structure of their own definitions, with grasshopper and with other plug-ins, and to develop them to reflect their particular design intent.
The first three days of the workshop were spent learning the fundamentals of working with grasshopper and establishing logic of definitions, build and manage parametric data structures, and develop data driven responsive geometries and envelops. In the fourth day, participants have been given a selected site in Dubai, and were asked to propose an adaptive vertical structure. The geometry of the tower and the skin were iteratively generated as a response to mapping the environmental forces on the skin. The final outcomes reflect the continuous negotiations between form and pattern’s performance and the participant’s aesthetic sensibility.