WORKFLOW: Parametric Design in Practice

On May 31st, 2019 the AIA UK hosted Workflow: Parametric Design in Practice at WilkinsonEyre Architects (WEA) The series of short lectures outlined WilkinsonEyre’s approach to using of parametric design in the pursuit and practical execution of their creative vision.

After short introductions by Matthew Heitel, Technical Lectures Coordinator for the AIA UK, and Yasmin Al-Ani Spence, Director at WEA, the lectures started off with Connor Worth, Associate at WEA, giving an overview of the company’s work relating to parametric design, specifically focusing on the “inhabited sculpture” of the One Barangaroo building in Sydney, Australia. His talk delved into the different typologies of panelization used to create the façade, and how building diagrams used to define and install the façade glass were generated for each design iteration using Grasshopper , visual programming plugin for Rhinoceros 3D. 

Next up was Kairo Baden-Powell, Architect at WEA, introducing the Lord’s Cricket Grounds redevelopment project. He outlined the different site restraints his team had to contend with, both historical and programmatic, explained part of the design process, and outlined the process the team used Grasshopper to calculate view and the design variations for the structure of the monocoque canopy vaulting the new Compton and Edrich stands.

Fabio Roberti, BIM Manager at WEA, gave an introduction to BIM and its implementation in the architectural design process, which segued into Alexandros Betzouanis, BIM Coordinator at WEA, discussing the interlinking of scripting and BIM. Bertzouanis started his talk by describing the Dynamo scripts he used to map view angles and obstacles at Lord’s Cricket Grounds by ray tracing. Afterward, he demonstrated how to visualize Revit view dependencies with the interactive interface Power BI . Bertzouanis finished his presentation with a panelization exercise where he took a free form shape produced in Rhino, then panelled the shape in Revit using Rhino Inside - the intermediary scripting to use Rhino natively within Revit that will come with Rhino 7.

Our final speaker was René Rammazzo, Associate at WEA, who exhibited how parametric tools were used in the design process, from sketch to final product, used in the fabrication of the of the branching marble tracery wrapping the podium of One Barangaroo.

Lively conversation, networking, drinks, and canapés closed out the night.

Please join us on November 21st from 6:30 to 9pm for our next technical lecture ‘Workflow: Automated Architecture’ hosted at AKT II, White Collar Factory, 1 Old Street Yard, London, EC1Y 8AF.

Written by: Matthew Heitel, Assoc. AIA