#procedural architecture

[scottsanders-fun]

[procedural-generation]

Generative Design for Architecture: Autodesk MaRS Office

In 2016, Autodesk moved their Toronto office into a new space. And to design it, they turned to a generative design team.

Using a series of constraints that covered the desired qualities of the space--like the amount of daylight, preferences for adjacency, and preferred levels of noise--they evolved a vast number of possible designs for the meeting rooms and office space.

With thousands of designs to choose from, they were able to narrow the results down to the best examples of the qualities they were looking for.

It’s a good example of a practical use for generative techniques. (And, no doubt, was intentionally meant to be a good example.)

https://vimeo.com/193915345

https://www.autodeskresearch.com/projects/autodesk-mars

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/best-practice/technology/how-generative-design-turns-10000-ideas-into-one-project/10016805.article

[procedural-generation]

Space Plan Generator

Speaking of CAD and architectural uses of procgen, here’s a presentation by Shubhajit Das of research into using Autodesk Dynamo to find optimal floor plans for things like hospitals. 

As a practical problem, it’s a good candidate for algorithmic design: when  you’re designing something that needs to use the space in particular ways, like hospital beds or office departments, its much faster for the machine to suggest ways to lay out the space. Instead of trying out one or two possibilities in detail, the architects can rapidly review a huge number of plans that fit the specifications, allowing them to spend more time on the intangible, non-quantifiable parts of design.

The Space Plan Generator works off a spreadsheet of requirements, feeds it into the Dynamo visual programming, and output suggested floorplans for laying out rooms, corridors, and entire departments within the building.

You might notice some resemblance to roguelike building generators. I suspect it is because good level design and good building design have a lot of overlap. Though there’s also a bunch of stuff here worth thinking about the next time you need to write a corridor placement algorithm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujG2Kans1UA&feature=youtu.be&t=40m50s