Case Study

Isenberg School of Management Innovation Hub

Original project: BIG architects

Programming Language: Julia
Algorithmic Design Tool: Khepri
Programming Environment: Jupyter

The project's most remarkable element consists of the domino effect in the façade, which results from the progressive tilting of the pillars that compose its skin. We modeled this circular shaped building in a parametric way using the Julia language and the Khepri algorithmic design tool. We followed a BIM approach throughout the process, using Khepri’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) primitives to develop the geometry presented below. The renders shown were produced in Khepri’s Game Engine backend, Unity. The project can nevertheless be generated in other backends, such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD), BIM and analysis tools. The animation shown bellow was extracted from the Rhinoceros backend.

The Isenberg project was used in the context of computational notebook research. The notebook paradigm promotes both exploration and explanation of computer programs within the same development environment, two fundamental aspects for the development of architectural designs. In the case of Algorithmic Design (AD), architects can have their sketches and explanatory texts within the same environment where the algorithmic description is being created. Furthermore, the notebook philosophy fosters incremental development, which in itself motivates a more responsive and comprehensive coding activity.

In this sense, computational notebooks could be said to represent the digital parallel of the traditional architect's sketchbook - a digital or physical format that documents the creator's ideas, a design narrative explained in a visual and understandable manner for the author and others - with the added interactiveness that comes with the digital medium. The images below present parts of the notebook produced for the Isenberg project using Jupyter.