Thursday, November 28, 2013

UNL 2013 - Conceptual Design with Vasari

In parallel with the UNL Dynamo class, I taught an additional 3-session mini-course on Conceptual Design with Vasari.  The course focused on the creation of a parametric tower using massing tools, pattern-based curtain systems, adaptive components, and analysis tools.

Each student created their their own massing concept that included parameters for studying variations.  The students also learned how to model and schedule adaptive components and develop their masses.  Students also explored the analysis tools including solar and the wind tunnel.  Broadly, this short exercise attempted to position BIM as an enabler for design iteration and decision making rather than just a tool for production.

Here are some of the results of the class...!
Student:  Alireza Karbasioun
Student: Sarah Pankow
Student:  Kaveh Alagheband
Student: Elizabeth Goll

Monday, November 25, 2013

AU 2013 - Hackathons, Parties, & Design Computation


Once again, CASE is going to be out in force at Autodesk University this year.  Not only do we have a healthy selection of speakers, we're also going to be running some fun after hours events including a BIM Hackathon and Party!  Here are some CASE-related points of interest to look out for this week...  as always, if you want to meet up, feel free to reach out!

CASE Events
  • CASE BIM Hackathon
    • Where:  Rockhouse at the Venetian. Link 
    • When:  Tuesday, Dec. 3, 6:00 PM - 12:00 AM
    • RSVP Here!
  • CASE Party 2013
    • Where:  Rockhouse at the Venetian Link
    • When:  Wednesday, December 4th, 7pm - 10pm
    • RSVP Here!
AU Speakers

  • Design Computation Symposium
    • Who:  Nathan Miller / Daniel Davis
    • When:  Wednesday, Dec 4, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM– Lido 3103
    • AU Class Link
  • Better, Faster, Stronger: Rebuilding Project Collaboration with Autodesk® BIM 360™ Glue®
    • Who:  Tyler Goss
    • When:  Tuesday, Dec 3, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM– Lido 3101
    • AU Class Link
  • Advanced Techniques for Managing Building Data in Autodesk® Revit®
    • Who:  Mario Guttman
    • When:  Thursday, Dec 5, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM– Lido 3101
    • AU Class Link

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Centennial Chromagraph wins AIA Minnesota Honor Award

Centennial Chromagraph, by University of Minnesota and Variable Projects
You might remember that I co-led a Catalyst workshop this past spring at UMN's College of Design with Adam Marcus.  The goal was to develop a series of computational design and fabrication prototypes which would lead into the design and development of an installation informed by 100 years of alumni data.

Adam and the students continued the good work to develop the design ideas and came up with this brilliant sculpture made up of 8080 colored pencils.  Amazing!

The project has since gone on to win an AIA Minnesota Honor Award!

More Info
Project Credits
  • Design: Adam Marcus, Daniel Raznick
  • Fabrication & Assembly: Adam Marcus, Daniel Raznick, Jordan Barlow, Sam Daley, Kevin Groenke
  • Computational Design (Catalyst Workshop, March 2013): Nathan Miller
  • Prototyping (Catalyst Workshop, March 2013): Will Adams, Philip Bussey, Sam Daley, Matthew Enos, Derek Gallagher, Mohsen Ghanbari, Dantes Ha, Hwan Kim, Benjamin Kraft, Wei Liu, Dan Raznick, Stuart Shrimpton, Christina Smith
  • Centennial Graphic Identity: Kai Salmela
Initial Visualization of the Alumni Data

Sunday, November 17, 2013

UNL Fall 2013 - Computational Design with Dynamo

Building on the Fall CASE workshops...

This fall semester, I instructed a 3-session UNL mini-course focused on computational design techniques with Dynamo and Vasari.  The design prompt was to develop a 'stadium' form and enclosure through the experimentation with different Dynamo workflows.  

Each student devised their own Dynamo system which mixed conceptual form making, adaptive component design, and the parametric logic of Revit.  Throughout the course, students documented their geometric explorations and iterations through diagrams, screen captures, and renderings. 

Here are some of the results...!  Great work, class!
Student:  Kaveh Alagheband
Hasib Momand
Student:  Grayson Bailey
Student: Kurt Lawler
Student: Alireza Karbasioun
Student: Charles Weak

Sunday, November 10, 2013

LunchBox for Dynamo 2013.11.11

I have posted a new LunchBox package for download by Dynamo users.  The intent of the package is to provide a growing list of Dynamo nodes for commonly used computational design techniques and other helpful nodes for data management.  Some of these nodes replicate a key nodes found in Grasshopper that are not yet included in Dynamo's core.  You can find my LunchBox plug-in for Grasshopper here... 

You can access LunchBox for Dynamo by visiting the "Search for a Package" under the packages menu.  As of this release, the package includes the following nodes...  Please note that you may need to get one of the latest Daily Builds of Dynamo for these to work properly.

Domain
  • Domain Variables:  Gets the Min and Max variables from a domain.
  • Get Domain:  Gets the domain from a list of numbers.
  • Remap Numbers:  Takes a list of numbers and maps them to a new domain.
Math
  • Mass Addition:  Adds a list of numbers
  • Mass Multiplication:  Multiplies a list of numbers
Curtain Panel
  • Curtain Panel Collector:  Gets a list of Curtain Panel instances in the document by Family Name
  • Adaptive Component Collector:  Gets a list of Adaptive Components in the document by Family Name
Random
  • Random Numbers:  Produces a list of Random Numbers using a Domain, Amount, and Seed.
  • Random Split List:  Randomly split a list into two lists.
Panel Grids by Face (previously found in the XYZ Cells by Face package)
  • Quad Grid by Face
  • Staggered Grid by Face
  • Diamond Grid by Face
  • Triangle Grid by Face