Parametric Thinking and Modeling for Building Design

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of parametric thinking, visual programming, and data management for applications in architectural engineering. These concepts are promoted for use in the different stages of engineering design. The course begins with an introduction to algorithms with an emphasis on geometry and generative design for buildings, covering logic operators, vectors, curves, surfaces, meshes, intersections, and transformations. It then explores data structures and management in visual programming software, including data types, list operations, and tree operations. Next, it places parametric techniques in the context of the engineering design process, exposing students to discipline-specific analysis that can be implemented parametrically to inform engineering decisions. Finally, it introduces applications of visual programming for design space exploration and transferring data to later phases in the design and delivery of buildings. The course culminates with a group project that enables students to pursue their own AE computational interests.