UIC Barcelona Master´s Degree in Biodigital Architecture

The UIC Barcelona Master´s Degree in Biodigital Architecture is a pioneering official recognized international program created in 2000: the first to provide systemic study with the founders of digital organicism, advanced architecture and design for our 21st century.

Registration to the 2019 edition...

Grasshopper Workshop in Mexico

Join Andres Gonzalez, RhinoFabStudio worldwide director, at Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara for a 20-hour Grasshopper workshop!

During this seminar, Andres explores primary and intermediate concepts of generative design and architectural modeling. Participants will learn about the interface, logic, data structures, and trees.

Space is limited, register now!

Date: January 21-25, 2019

Time: 3:00 pm-7:00 pm 

Place: Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara

Fee: Mex$ 3,000 Tec students or alumni - Mex$ 5,000 for the general public 

For more information and to register, please contact: alexdiaz@tec.mx or alealfaro@tec.mx

What is a RhinoFabStudio? A RhinoFabStudio™ (fabrication studio) is a small-scale digital workshop, certified by McNeel, with an array of Rhino and Rhino compatible software and computer controlled tools and training. These tools cover the various leading-edge industrial methods and materials needed to design, analyze, and fabricate almost anything.

Mindesk 2.0.3 for Parametric Immersive Design

Mindesk 2.0.3 is here! This update integrates the stable Grasshopper component plus performance and UI improvements.

We have listened to hundreds of users and their feedback from all over the world and we are thrilled to announce the improvements you will experience in this update, including:

Parametric + Immersive

With Mindesk + Grasshopper, you can use Virtual Reality to interact with and show complex parametric scripts to nontechnical clients. See it in action in this immersive daylight analysis. 

Grasshopper + VR in just 3 min tutorial


Learn how to use Grasshopper and Mindesk in 3 minutes and master your parametric design script in Virtual Reality.

Download Mindesk on food4Rhino...

Rhino User Meeting Helsinki

McNeel Europe is pleased to announce an upcoming Rhino User Meeting at Aalto University in Helsinki happening on January 24, 2019.

Come join us and learn more about state-of-the-art Digital Design and Fabrication.

Get inspiration from industry experts in different fields: Architecture, Engineering, Product Design, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Visualization, 3D Printing, Robotic Milling, Environmental Analysis, and much more!

Get the latest news about Rhino WIP, Rhino.Inside, Rhino Compute, RhinoVR, Grasshopper, and food4Rhino.

Watch presentations and get hands-on with live software demonstrations from our exhibitor partners.

Coffee breaks, lunch, and networking drinks are included within the ticket price!

Early Bird tickets until January 10, 2019, at events.mcneel.eu: €65 (then €95)

If you would like to present your projects, workflows, or research work (Rhino or Grasshopper related), please fill in this form.

Parametric Design Workshops in February 2019

LAVA Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (Berlin)

Beginner course 16h - February 9-10 and 16-17

Intermediate 8h - February 16-17

Are you interested in gaining the parametric competency to push your design skills to the next level?

Are you ready to learn an exciting and powerful tool that will take your ideas and concepts to a whole new realm?

This Parametric Design Workshop will provide you with the necessary knowledge and ability to use Grasshopper, a free visual programming plugin in Rhinoceros. The workshop will also include a hands-on parametric project.

If you already know Grasshopper and would like to boost your parametric knowledge, then you can choose Option 2.

Option 1: General Workshop for Beginners - 16 hours: Starts February 9, 2019

Option 2: Intensive Workshop for Intermediates - 8 hours: Starts February 16, 2019

More information here...

ICD - University of Stuttgart / Call for Researchers

Multiple open positions in the new Cluster of Excellence 

Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture

The University of Stuttgart will establish its new Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) in 2019. With an initial funding period of seven years, the Cluster of Excellence is the most significant and substantial grant awarded by the German Research Foundation DFG. For the very first time, a Cluster of Excellence has been awarded to the field of Architecture. It will contribute to establishing one of the biggest research centers in the field globally.

The Cluster aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies to rethink design and construction based on integration, with the goal of enabling game-changing innovation in the building sector. The Cluster represents the breadth of scientific excellence of the University of Stuttgart and the Max Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems, across architecture, structural engineering, building physics, engineering geodesy, manufacturing and system engineering, computer science and robotics, social sciences and humanities. It will be led by Prof. Achim Menges from the Institute for Computational Design and Construction.

A more comprehensive description and a movie about the Cluster is on the University of Stuttgart webpage.

ICD is now building the team for the Cluster’s research and invite applications for numerous open PhD and Postdoc positions. If you strive for excellence and are highly motivated, skilled, and interested in participating in this exciting phase of an undertaking with potentially extraordinary impact and significant visibility, please apply to one of the positions at https://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=25306

ETSAM Master’s Degree in Advanced Infographics in Madrid, Spain

Dates: January–June 2019

Place: Madrid, School of Architecture (ETSAM)

Registration period: open until 15 December 2019

MIAU4 (Postgraduate Program in Advanced Infographics UPM) applications are still open. 

MIAU Research Lines focus student´s production on cutting-edge topics at the intersection of technology and design.

MIAU is an official Instrumental Specialization Course for idealization and creative experimentation in architecture, from its generation to its representation: Project Generation + Computer Graphics + New Technologies + Production Lab. Rhinoceros, Grasshopper (and its add-ins) and VisualARQ will be used during the course progress. 

Get in touch, arrange a meeting, apply, or just say hi sending an email to hey@miauhaus.org

More info about the program here...  

Surfboards in York, Maine?

Yes, surfboards in York, Maine. And yes, Maine has sandy beaches and consistent rolling waves. And the wetsuits help.

Grain Surfboards has combined tech and handcrafting to produce a high-end surfboard. They've derived an approach from both the subtractive process of board-shaping in California and the boat-building techniques of New England.

It's a light and hollow, strong and beautiful warm-hued wooden surfboard.

Often, Grain Surfboards collaborates with foam board shapers to build their product in Grain's signature wooden construction. To do this, they need to replicate the precise shape of the existing boards.

So, reverse engineering is part of their business. Formerly, this was done with hand-drawn sketches, and it was time-consuming and challenging. They now use DotProduct handheld 3D scanners for this, working out a good workflow from the scan data to Rhino. The meshed data is converted to a NURBS surface within Rhino.

Learn about the company's start and learn a little history of surfboard making while you are at it: Bloomberg article and video.

Or you can go to Maine and build your own surfboard: YouTube WMUR NH Chronicle.

Parametric Furniture design - Cali, Colombia

Motsi Parametric Design is a company that specializes in the production of parametric furniture and lightning in Colombia. Their latest initiative has been to create a line that offers pieces with a high degree of original and organic design.  They wanted to achieve a level of innovation that escapes the typical right angles, to generate free forms inspired by nature while innovating how a table is perceived by combining the morphological beauty of Colombian nature with the technical advantages of parametric design and digital production.

With Rhino and Grasshopper they have been able to experiment with the different possibilities of segmentation and sizing of the tables. These digital tools have enabled them to separate the vectors of each serial plane, and proceed to cut them in a CNC machine.

To see more of their work follow Motsi Parametric Design on Facebook and Instagram: @motsi.design

For more information, please contact Fabian Cardona at  +57 318 4001784
or email motsi.parametric@gmail.com.

What is a RhinoFabStudio? A RhinoFabStudio™ (fabrication studio) is a small-scale digital workshop, certified by McNeel, with an array of Rhino and Rhino compatible software and computer controlled tools and training. These tools cover the various leading-edge industrial methods and materials needed to design, analyze, and fabricate almost anything.

IASS-Structural Membranes Symposium in Barcelona - October 7-10, 2019

FORM and FORCE (Barcelona, October 7-10, 2019), a joint International Conference incorporating:

IASS Symposium 2019
60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures

and

Structural Membranes 2019
8th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures


Following the customary celebration of the IASS Symposium every ten years in Spain and the Structural Membranes Conference every four years in Barcelona, the organizers have found an outstanding opportunity to merge both communities into a joint international conference that aims to provide a forum for state-of-the-art contributions and fruitful discussion in the broad fields of shell, spatial, tension and inflatable structures.

Complete info and registration...

Competition and exhibition of innovative lightweight structures: An invitation for artists, designers, engineers, and researchers

Internationally recognized and celebrated artists, designers, engineers, and researchers in cooperation with top universities from all over the world are invited to participate in a contest and exhibition of innovative lightweight structures. The structures must display a strong vision of structural design and innovation and demonstrably be the result of structural engineering focused research projects. 

The exhibition aims to show new insights into structural typologies, through the design of a pavilion. The pavilions will be exhibited in the summer of 2019 and during the joint IASS - Structural Membranes Form and Force 2019 symposium in Barcelona. During the conference the contest jury, chaired by the president of the IASS, will award a prize to the most innovative realized structure. 

The competition brief is to design an innovative lightweight pavilion, of maximum external dimensions 4x4x4m. It must be transportable and fit into six boxes each with a maximum external size of 1x0.75x0.65m and maximum weight of 32kg (total pavilion 192kg). The structure should reflect the structural engineering research of the submitting team. Each structure will be judged by examining the production techniques, materiality, level of structural innovation, constructability, transportability, architectural expression, and overall originality of the finished pavilion. The choices of materials, manufacturing methods, erection techniques, and so forth are at the entire discretion of each team. Innovative ideas and prototype methodologies that push the boundaries of construction are strongly encouraged.

Submission extended to January 20, 2019!

Complete details...

Live Webinar by Car Body Design: Introduction to Grasshopper for Car Designers - Dec 13, 2018

Announcing Car Body Design's very first live webinar on Dec 13. It will present an overview of Grasshopper for Rhino and how designers can use its parametric/procedural capabilities to enhance their creative workflow. 

Marco Traverso is an engineer and 3D designer with over 15 years of experience with Rhinoceros, as well as founder of Car Body Design. In the past 5 years he has worked on the development of workflows and tools for integrating the parametric capabilities of Grasshopper into the 3D concept design pipeline. 

In this webinar, Marco will introduce the user interface and the basic principles. He will present a practical demonstration creating a 3D automotive grille, and will show several examples of parametric design tools and their applications. 

Register to the webinar for free here...

RhinoCFD v2.0

CHAM is excited to announce the launch of RhinoCFD v2.0! This new update aims to really simplify the setup process of simulations as well as highlighting convergence parameters so users can readily determine the validity of their simulations. The upgrade is free for all current holders of a commercial or academic RhinoCFD license.

You can now use RhinoCFD interchangeably with Rhino 5 and Rhino 6 and at no extra cost.

To download and test the new version visit food4Rhino.

More information here...

ShapeDiver Basics: Texture Mapping Explained!

"Hi, my name is Edwin. I'm a Grasshopper expert at ShapeDiver and in this blog post I will show you how to improve the rendering of your Grasshopper definitions by properly mapping textures on your geometry and then applying some great looking materials. Let's get going!"

Read the tutorial here...

Next DesignMorphine Grasshopper workshops in Beirut and Vienna

DesignMorphine announced its new workshops in Beirut and Vienna:

• January 23-27, 2019, in Beirut: Vertical Variables V3.0 Workshop by DesignMorphine 
  
  Vertical Variables V3.0 will focus on the applications of parametric modeling techniques in towers and skyscrapers in collaboration with
  Designkultur. The participants will be guided in developing skills on computational design and parametric strategies which will lead to form finding and optimization through various parameters. The workshop aims to provide participants with the new paradigm of architecture and urban design processes.
  
  With this approach designers and architects overcome the imposition of a prefixed form and thus discover and create more compelling and enhanced designs. Through algorithms, participants will discover the benefits of variable connected systems to create mass customization processes to create architecture. The workshop goal is for the participants to have a final result – a skyscraper design in Beirut.
  
  
• February 20-23 in Vienna: Algorithmic Accessories V4.0 Workshop by DesignMorphine
  
  Fabrication with 21st-century machinery is increasingly becoming a vital skill for those working in all branches of design, from architecture to furniture to fashion. Some require large apparatus and some only a small-scale 3D printer.
  
  By learning how to design and how to build in the micro world, one can understand the basics of digital fabrication. So, the Algorithmic Accessories V4.0 Workshop is not only for jewelry designers but for all who are interested in pairing computational design with real-life, buildable strategies.
  
  Jewelry designing is an ancient technique that has required careful crafting and state-of-the-art machines. However, the current skill of craftsmen lies not in the ability to handle a tool, but in understanding it. By comprehending the 3D printing language and its particularities, one can develop an entirely new language of expression.
  
  During the workshop, you will create modeling and fabrication strategies for one of the smallest elements used to embellish the human body - the ring. The challenge will be to design something that is printable that takes into consideration the logic of the machine and that, of course, is aesthetically relevant in the current design paradigm.

Webinar: Grasshopper plugin for ENVI-MET

Webinar: ENVI_MET Winter Release 2018 & Grasshopper plugin for ENVI-MET.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM CET

ENVI_MET is a holistic three-dimensional non-hydrostatic model for the simulation of surface-plant-air interactions. It is very often used to simulate urban environments and to assess the effects of green architecture visions. It is designed for microscale with a typical horizontal resolution from 0.5 to 5 meters and a typical time frame of 24 to 48 hours with a time step of 1 to 5 seconds. This resolution allows analyzing small-scale interactions between individual buildings, surfaces, and plants.

For those people who use ENVI-MET for simulating the microclimate in an urban environment, Dragonfly now contains capabilities to export to ENVI-MET. This should make your ENVI-met modeling phases easier!

The developer of these new features will show you how to use them in live demos, such as:

• Modeling 3D buildings with Rhino 6 and Grasshopper to generate ENVI-MET model areas
• Using EPW file to feed simulation file
• Generating SIM file

Register at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7468441922517731842

Two new Research Associate positions for robotic wood printing at University of Kassel, Germany

The Department of Experimental and Digital Design and Construction (EDEK) at the University of Kassel is looking for two Research Associates (50% EG 13 TV-H) for a research project on computational design and robotic fabrication methods for additive manufacturing with timber. The project is linked to a research collaboration of six research groups at the University of Kassel in material science, engineering, arts, computational simulation, digital fabrication, and architecture. Tasks will include design work, material research, building prototypes in the robotic fabrication laboratory, and taking part in the general organizational activities of the department.

Please send your CV, motivation letter, and portfolio (max 10MB) to bewerbungen@uni-kassel.de, reference: 31865. English speakers are also welcome to apply.

You're welcome to contact Prof. Philipp Eversmann (+49 561-8042352, eversmann@asl.uni-kassel.de) with questions.

Application deadline is December 18, 2018