Question: How parametric design can be used to cooperate with the nature to achieve aesthetic and sustainable architecture
Nowadays, parametric design is used widely in the architectural industry. Different special shape can be designed using computational generation and parametric optimization, therefore, more and more irregular-shaped architecture is constructed in 21st century. However, many of those architecture is lack of consideration of environmental issue and structural issue, which increase the environmental problems and also the cost of the construction of the building without making a better life for human being which is the fundamental design initiative.
Parametric design should be used for solving the existing environmental problems and leads to a better life for human being. The research paper will be focus on how parametric design can be used to cooperate with the nature to achieve aesthetic and sustainable architecture.
In terms of parametric thinking, it is about how to formalize a design into explicit rules that are dependent on changeable parameters and thereby define not one specific object but a large family of similar but still different objects.
As grasshopper and rhino are developed, architects start to utilize them to design some shapes and geometric forms that are never done before. Parametric grasshopper script makes it easy to adapt the basic model to many different situations. Size and shape are flexible. The script partitions the basic shaper into a controllable number of foldable building components. The components can be cut out and subsequently folded from cardboard.
Special shapes and geometric forms then become their aim in their design. This makes the design having weak structural ideas and volume of spaces. Moreover designing becomes passive as many architects rely on the ability of the software to much. Similar designed building become much more popular these days, for example twisting towers, architecture with voronoi skin. Architectural design is dominated by the software.
Aesthetic issue
For the natural geometry, the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence contains the ground-principle of al formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical which finds its fullest realization.
The golden ratio – phi, which is about 1.618. It is one the most popular ratio of the nature in the world. It can be easily discovered by looking at the size or the length of something such as the human proportion, shape of a snail, shape of a flower etc. The ratio between the length and area of the two parts are usually phi. It is interesting that the ratio phi is found in many different kinds of animals and plants during their growth. Some researches show that the ratio phi is the golden ratio that reveals the beauty of a something. When the ratio comes to our eyes we feel more comfortable and pleasant that when we are seeing any other ratio.
When comes to designing architecture, we often have to organize a lot of spaces for different function. For aesthetic purpose I think the golden ratio can be widely adopted to organize spaces.
For example grids which are usually found in the plans of a building, the golden ratio can be adopted. Also it can be used to draw the geometric shape of the skin of a building.
The Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…) i.e. 1+2=3. 2+3=5, 3+5=8. Every number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. When the number in the sequence getting larger and larger, the ratio between the number and its previous number is tends to the golden ratio. The 5th source shows that when the flower grows, the golden ratio will be more obvious. With this sequence, it shows that we can not only restrict to the golden ratio at the beginning of the design stage. It provides variability that the design can gradually tend to the golden ratio during the development process.
The Fibonacci sequence is come with the golden ratio, compare to the simple golden ratio, it deals with a lot of numbers which is good to define some complex rules of a parametric design. For example the skins of the architecture that comes with a lot of repetitive shapes. The Fibonacci sequence can become a variable for those repetitive shapes to reveal the geometry of the nature.
These rules found in the nature are developed from evolution of lives. It is something that is unbeatable and long lasting. In terms of sustainable design, they are likely to be the best rules to be set as the rules for designing parametric architecture. To make the building looks good and human feel comfortable as long as possible.
Designing the skin of the architecture is one of the most popular functions in parametric software. In the article, “How To Make The Soft skin”, stated that the building skin plays an especially important role as a transition between inside and outside, between building and the urban space. The skin of the building can be independent of its structure. The relationship between structure and skin has preoccupied much architectural production since this period and remains contested today.
Environmental issue
Parametric design can be used to utilize different form of shapes in terms of environmental strategies. For example, the article “Environmental Catalysts for a Computational Urbanism” shows that how parametric designed software can be used to solve the flooding problems in either adaptive and mitagative ways. It can be used to explore the morphological changes in architectural design. Moreover, the openings of the building can building can be adjusted by parametric software, solar gain and shadow effect can then be analysed to suit both environment and aesthetic issue. In terms of shadow effect, natural geometry can also be used.
In conclusion parametric software is a powerful tool that can generate different forms and shapes. It is important to know how to use them in a logical way to deal with the fundamental design initiatives including the aesthetic issue and the environmental issue.
Review
Nature:
After looking at the sources above, it is obvious that there are different geometric patterns that exist in the nature, which include the golden ratio – phi, the Fibonacci sequence, the binary numbers, the harmonic of music, the star of tetrahedron etc. These patterns are probably the best references for designing rules for a parametric architecture. By following the rules of each pattern, it is likely that the final product will fit in the nature and have an aesthetic form of shape. In this review I would like to focus on the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequences only as I think that these two rules are suitable in designing architecture.
First of all, the golden ratio – phi, which is about 1.618. It is one the most popular ratio of the nature in the world. It can be easily discovered by looking at the size or the length of something such as the human proportion, shape of a snail, shape of a flower etc. The ratio between the length and area of the two parts are usually phi. It is interesting that the ratio phi is found in many different kinds of animals and plants during their growth. Some researches show that the ratio phi is the golden ratio that reveals the beauty of a something. When the ratio comes to our eyes we feel more comfortable and pleasant that when we are seeing any other ratio.
When comes to designing architecture, we often have to organize a lot of spaces for different function. For aesthetic purpose I think the golden ratio can be widely adopted to organize spaces. For example grids which are usually found in the plans of a building, the golden ratio can be adopted. Also it can be used to draw the geometric shape of the skin of a building.
The Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…) i.e. 1+2=3. 2+3=5, 3+5=8. Every number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. When the number in the sequence getting larger and larger, the ratio between the number and its previous number is tends to the golden ratio. The 5th source shows that when the flower grows, the golden ratio will be more obvious. With this sequence, it shows that we can not only restrict to the golden ratio at the beginning of the design stage. It provides variability that the design can gradually tend to the golden ratio during the development process.
The Fibonacci sequence is come with the golden ratio, compare to the simple golden ratio, it deals with a lot of numbers which is good to define some complex rules of a parametric design. For example the skins of the architecture that comes with a lot of repetitive shapes. The Fibonacci sequence can become a variable for those repetitive shapes to reveal the geometry of the nature.
These rules found in the nature are developed from evolution of lives. It is something that is unbeatable and long lasting. In terms of sustainable design, they are likely to be the best rules to be set as the rules for designing parametric architecture. To make the building looks good and human feel comfortable as long as possible.
In conclusion, there are lots of interesting geometric shapes in the nature of the world. Most of them come with the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence. They can be adopted for parametric design in architecture to make aesthetic form and shapes to match with the nature perfectly. Therefore, it is worth to explore more about them when designing the form and shape of an object.
Parametric:
In the 20th century of the world, parametric design in architecture becomes more and more popular due to the rapid development of the technology. There are more and more software developed for analyzing and generating different forms of the geometric shapes that can hardly done solely by human hands. Therefore, nowadays architects start utilizing this software in different ways. The phenomenon brings a great confliction to the built environment industry.
In terms of parametric thinking, it is about how to formalize a design into explicit rules that are dependent on changeable parameters and thereby define not one specific object but a large family of similar but still different objects.
As grasshopper and rhino are developed, architects start to utilize them to design some shapes and geometric forms that are never done before. Parametric grasshopper script makes it easy to adapt the basic model to many different situations. Size and shape are flexible. The script partitions the basic shaper into a controllable number of foldable building components. The components can be cut out and subsequently folded from cardboard.
Special shapes and geometric forms then become their aim in their design. This makes the design having weak structural ideas and volume of spaces. Moreover designing becomes passive as many architects rely on the ability of the software to much. Similar designed building become much more popular these days, for example twisting towers, architecture with voronoi skin. Architectural design is dominated by the software.
However, there are many good ways to utilize it for computational generation and parametric optimization. They can be used to utilize different form of shapes in terms of environmental strategies. For example, the article “Environmental Catalysts for a Computational Urbanism” shows that how parametric designed software can be used to solve the flooding problems in either adaptive and mitagative ways. It can be used to explore the morphological changes in architectural design. Moreover, the openings of the building can building can be adjusted by parametric software, solar gain and shadow effect can then be analyzed to suit both environment and aesthetic issue.
Designing the skin of the architecture is one of the most popular functions in parametric software. In the article, “How To Make The Soft skin”, stated that the building skin plays an especially important role as a transition between inside and outside, between building and the urban space. The skin of the building can be independent of its structure. The relationship between structure and skin has preoccupied much architectural production since this period and remains contested today.
By considering the environmental issue and the skin of the architecture plus the natural geometry which can be used to form aesthetic and comfortable spaces, it is likely that we can design a good and sustainable architecture. This is probably the future direction of the industry.
In conclusion, parametric design covered many aspect of designing process, however, it should not only based on special spaces, environmental issue and the skin of the building are more important consideration during the design process as they are the fundamental issue of the design. Parametric design influences the whole industry’s future direction. I hope the technology can be used in a more suitable way which makes our world better rather than looking more ”special” . I would like to explore more in these issues by using the parametric software.
References
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