Case Study: Take a Seat

Daoru Wang Emerging Professional

A lot of people might not realize this, but parametric design really started with spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are a way to manage large amounts of data, and parametric design is a way to harness that data for quick calculations. Basically it’s about relationships – for example, if you build a rocket, it sounds super complicated but at the end of the day, Part A has to fit into Part B, and those shapes are made by a CNC machine. If Part A gets bigger, then Part B has to get bigger to fit. The relationships between pieces inform the design options. A person can calculate design options with pencil and paper, but if we can instead design the right formulas and use tools like Dynamo to run them quickly, we arrive at solutions much faster.

The Problem

James Johnston, a Senior Project Manager in LS3P’s Raleigh office, has an unbelievable amount of data organized into spreadsheets, and this data is very useful in many aspects of design. One day James and I were talking about his spreadsheets and how he uses them, and one example was about the parameters for auditorium design. A 22” wide seat is the one that will be comfortable for most people, but due to space constraints, a row might not accommodate only 22” seats with no gaps. Sometimes we have to fill in with 20”, 21”, 23” or 24” seats to make the geometry work. We could figure out the math with pencil and paper, but it’s a tedious process to do row by row, and there’s some trial and error involved in getting it right across a whole auditorium. It takes time and patience.

The Solution

I took the spreadsheet James created and then I started working on a formula that would help us arrive at the optimal choice, prioritizing 22” chairs and integrating other sizes as needed. I used that formula to experiment with how to get this into a 3-dimensional model. This part was tricky for me because I’m still learning Revit, but find that Dynamo has a really easy user interface and it works in Revit, so once I found the right tool it was easy to get a process that could work for pretty much any auditorium layout we need to create.

The Payoff

Thanks to the expertise James brought into his spreadsheet, I was able to write a simple script in just a couple of hours that enabled us to perform fast calculations. I then spent about two full days translating that script into Dynamo. Now, it’s a tool that anyone can use.. It’s the kind of thing that can save hours of work every time we need to run the script, and we can spend that time advancing the design. As we create these solutions, we’re uploading them on FRANK (our firm’s intranet) for easy access.

The Opportunities

This is just one of hundreds of tasks we can work on automating. I’m working on another research tool for my academic work that lets us do a really simple daylighting study – before we’ve even built a model, just by playing with 2-dimensional diagrams of walls, windows, and orientation. Anyone is welcome to try it. We’ll continue building a library of these tools on FRANK, along with short educational videos to help people understand the possibilities and explore how they might use these tools in their own projects.

Meet Daoru

Daoru Wang is an Emerging Professional in LS3P’s Raleigh office. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture from Yale University. Daoru is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University.