DEBB: FACADES IN MINUTES

Denvelops® and SEEDstudio have launched the first two components of their DEBB plugin specialized in the Denvelops construction system for double skin architectural facades and cladding.

The parametric tool component is used to develop various rectangular flat facades with different patterns. The 4-color component will allow you to define its color in patterns of one, two, three, or four colors. So, with these tools, you have hundreds of options to generate different facades. 

Download DEBB: FACADES IN MINUTES on food4Rhino...

Check out the new course (in Spanish) by Generative Ways. Learn how to use these new components efficiently...

#MicroWorkshop from MSH

Join MSH in their MicroWorkshop #2! 

If you are an architect, designer, or student, join this new initiative #MicroWorkshop from MSH. These computational design workshops aim to expand the possibilities in terms of algorithmic design oriented to solutions of facades and coatings possible for metal fabrication employing digital fabrication.

These monthly meetings are held by Architect Arturo De La Fuente, head of the Custom Design area at Grupo MSH. Each workshop will raise different issues around topics of modulations, materials, performance against solar incidence, and other possibilities. 

Date: Friday, December 11, 2020

Time: 9 am to 12 pm (GMT-3  Buenos Aires)

Free with prior registration! 

Register here!

Questions? Contact Arturo de la Fuente at arturo@arturodelafuente.com

What is 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.

Managing BIG facades using Rhino.Inside

In this course organized by ThinkParametric, Oliver Thomas, BIM specialist at BIG, teaches you how they are currently using Rhino.Inside at their latest projects to manage complex facade systems.

"Rhino.Inside makes the transfer of information between Rhinoceros 3D and Autodesk Revit quick, easy, and intuitive. It’s a real game-changer. Rhino.Inside is an open-source project which allows you to run Rhino and Grasshopper within other programs such as Revit. It takes literally a push of a button to get your geometry into Revit from Rhino and vice versa. The power of Rhino.Inside is its simplicity, it doesn’t take a computational design expert to master it."

Check the course program...

Sagrada Familia Nativity facade - 3D modeling from point clouds

Works carried out by Modelical for the Junta Constructora del Templo de Sagrada Familia.

You have probably heard of the basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, a project by Antoni Gaudí. Surely you are aware that it is a building begun in 1882 and that it is still being designed and built, with the latest technologies available. What you may not know is that until 2018 the Nativity façade, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had no reliable documentation describing it, either in two or three dimensions.

On the occasion of the restoration and cleaning works, a topography team was commissioned to survey the entire façade with point clouds and photogrammetry. From this work, Modelical's commission was to 3D model the whole set, both with NURBS surfaces and meshes, and extract 2D documentation of plan layouts and sections describing the facade.

Read the entire article on Modelical's blog...

Design Fair 2019 - Colombia

Rhino3DColombia invites you to join their workshops at the Design Fair 7th Edition in Medellín, Colombia. All three workshops are offered at no extra cost to the Fair's ticket. 

Workshop 1: Time and Materials Matter
Learn to use digital tools in order to optimize the use of the materials.

Date: Friday, May 31, 2019
Time: 10 AM-2 PM
Instructor: Jose Ovidio Cardona


Workshop 2: Folding Design, Projection of Forms and Construction of Surfaces
An academic space for design, digital fabrication and formal experimentation of folded surfaces.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 2019
Time: 10 AM-2 PM
Instructor: Julian Oquendo


Workshop 3: Visualization of Interactive Facades with Grasshopper and V-Ray
Learn to use visualization tools to present architectural projects models with Grasshopper.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 2019
Time: 10 AM-2 PM
Instructor: Jacobo Gonzalez

For more information please contact Andres Franco.

What is 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.

The Central Plaza Rayong

Central Plaza Rayong in Rayong, Thailand, by Synthesis Design

Situated just south of Bangkok, Central Plaza Rayong's shopping mall attracts passers-by with its bright, vibrant facade.

Using Grasshopper, the Synthesis Design designers developed the series of surfaces for the shopping building facade. The facade is a series of undulating 2D CNC plasma cut aluminum profiles. Mirrored and nested, the waves appear to shapeshift as one drives by.

A few more details...

Facades+AM Seattle, December 7th

Facades+AM Conference

Seattle, WA

December 7, 2018

The Facades+ conference series is a robust dialogue encompassing all things building skin—bridging the profession, industry, academia, operations, and ownership. Organizers have distilled the best of the Facades+ 2-day event into a quick-take morning forum with a strong local flair. 

Register here!

The rapidly developing technology of high-performance facades has emerged as the key to building integration, and central to the realization of resilient buildings and a sustainable built environment. The building skin combines attributes of appearance and performance like nothing else in architecture. There is much to discuss. 

The program includes three sessions covering issues unique to the region, including innovative building skins, future-proofing high performance facades, and the changing face of Seattle. These well-rounded, expert dialogues will inform and inspire.

Attendees include:
AIA Members
Architects
Architecture Students and Faculty
Building Envelope Specialists
Construction Professionals
Developers
Engineers
Manufacturers
Materials Specialists

Details and registration...

Introduction to UNStudio's block strategies

UNStudio has provided a two-part article to introduce various digital geometric block strategies used for UNStudio projects. The articles describe how block strategies have been used for past UNStudio projects and are still extensively used for UNStudio projects today.

Geometric blocks are not a new topic in 3D modeling, but through increasingly available parametric plugins it continues to provide an efficient means of controlling a wide range of elements. Effective block strategies can decrease costs by enabling the fabrication of many of the same components for construction. 

This study reiterates some key qualities of blocks in the context of digital design and how they can be intelligently applied. It then analyses the specific block strategies applied to the facade design of two of UNStudio’s projects.

UNStudio Block Strategies Part 1...

UNStudio Block Strategies Part 2...

ThinkParametric online class: Elefront 101 Distributed Data Models with Rhino Objects

Elefront 101 Distributed Data Models with Rhino Objects

In this online Elefront course by ThinkParametric, the instructor, Ramon van der Heijden, will walk you through the whole workflow of how Elefornt works by creating a highly detailed glassing facade system, similar to the way Elefront was used in the Morpheus Hotel by Zaha Hadid.

For more information and to start learning....

Reactive Facades Workshop - Colombia

Join Rhino3DColombia at the 6th version of VANGUARDIA 2018. This year's theme is Evolving towards Parametric Architecture. Julián Oquendo and Ovidio Cardona will be conducting a workshop on Reactive Facades.

The seminar employs the most advanced technology and software in parametric architecture, Rhino and Grasshopper. The presenters will be attempting to share an experience with attendees on how reactive facades behave in a specific case.

Dates: 
October 24, 2018 at Cali, Colombia
October 25, 2018 at Medellín, Colombia 

Place: Centro de Diseño y Construcción – IDEO
Time: 9:00am-5:00pm
Fee: Free admission (prior registration required)

Register here!

For more information please contact Rhino3DColombia.

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.

Advanced Parametric Techniques with Grasshopper, October 20-21

Advanced Parametric Techniques with Grasshopper

October 20-21, 2018

New York

Design Lucidity is offering this Grasshopper weekend workshop. Participants will be taken through an intensive series of explorations using Grasshopper to create a highly complex facade system for a skyscraper. The curriculum will build on existing case studies that will explain major constraints for systematically defining parametric facades.

Topics include:

• Skeletal modeling
• Data tree structures
• Data abstraction
• Clustering
• Performance analysis

Each participant is required to bring their own laptop computer with the required software (Rhino and Grasshopper) installed before the beginning of the course.

Details and registration...

Facades+ AM: Miami 2018

Facades+AM is returning to Miami on October 4, 2018

The Facades+ conference series is a robust dialogue encompassing all things building skin—bridging the profession, industry, academia, operations, and ownership. The best of the Facades+ 2-day event is distilled into a quick-take morning forum with a definite local flair. The program includes three sessions covering issues unique to the region, including innovative building skins, high-performance facades, and Miami’s newest projects. These well-rounded, expert dialogues will inform and inspire.

Some of the questions this conference will address are:

• How are architects incorporating regional sensibility into the apparatus of the building envelope? 
• What technologies are being tapped? 
• What processes are required to bring these to the market? 
• At the other end of the spectrum, innovation is inspired by vernacular approaches. How are these vernaculars transformed?
• And what is the role of technology and building code in effecting these transformations?
• Finally, there is a category of buildings that manifests the learning/adaptation processes of architecture itself. Facades are often rebuilt, transmuted, or even exchanged. What are the factors determining this process today?

Listen to the experts and be a part of this engaging discourse!

Register today!

Biomimicry and computational design in a facade

Gaurav Goel announced the publication of his first article in Window & Facade Magazine India.

This article talks about how biomimicry and computational design has influenced the discourse of facade design and is illustrated with one of Gaurav's design projects from a London competition.

Gaurav holds a master's degree in architecture from the University of Nottingham and a master's diploma in parametric design from Spain.  In 2016, Goel founded Parametric Curiosity, an architecture studio and social media blog for sharing digital explorations in parametric design.

Goel's research interests lie in form finding, temporary and permanent pavilion installations, form optimization, digital fabrication with CNC and 3D printing, architectural facades and other geometrical explorations using computational tools such as Rhino and Grasshopper.

You can read the article Biomimicry Inspired Facades & Computational Design on pages 58-62 in the magazine's July-August 2018 edition. 

Facades+ 2017 Conference & Workshops, April 6-7

facades+ 2017

New York City

Symposium/Conference: Thursday, April 6

Lab Workshops: Friday, April 7

Register

The goal of the Facades+ conference is to focus on the design and performance on the next generation of facades. Their aim is to provide proven insights on how to make your ideas become reality. They've brought together some of the world’s most productive building professionals and leading researchers to share insights on how facades ideas are brought to life.

Rhino-related Lab Workshop:

• Data-Driven Design with Conduit
  Nathan Miller and David Stasiuk (Proving Ground)
  Using: Rhino, Grasshopper, Conduit for Grasshopper, Excel

About the conference...
Facades+ is the leading conference on the performance and design of the building envelope. The unique crossover of attending professionals brings together a unique brain trust from the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, fabrication, development, and education. Be inspired and learn how to innovate all steps of facade implementation—from systems and materials to designs and delivery strategies.

Details and registration...

Morpheus Hotel webinar video now available

Did you miss The Morpheus Hotel - From Design to Production webinar? If you were unable to join us at the live event, we recorded it and have posted the video here.

The webinar was a collaborative presentation from the project team of The Morpheus Hotel and Tower in Macau. 

Project leads from Zaha Hadid Architects and Front Inc discussed the role of advanced computational technology from the design to the analysis, and fabrication, as well as the construction of this remarkable project due to open in 2018. 

Presenters included:

• Viviana Muscettola, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Michele Salvi, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Miron Mutyaba, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Ramon van der Heijden, Front Inc. 
• Alan Tai, Front Inc. 
• Evan Levelle, Front Inc. 

Watch the video!

Evolute Workshop - March 15-17, Vienna (Austria)

Evolute Workshop
Freeform facades, from design to production
March 15-17, 2017
Evolute GmbH office
Schwindgasse 4/10, 1040
Vienna (Austria)

Evolute GmbH invites you to attend their upcoming Evolute Workshop. Gain insights into the workflow of a typical freeform facade design project at Evolute.

From an architect's design, participants will convert a freeform facade to the production data and drawing output needed by manufacturers for production of panels.

The workshop will touch upon the following steps:

• Optimization and refinement of the panelisation pattern
• Manufacturing techniques
• Curved panel simplification
• Clustering
• Production drawings and data

Evolute will also provide an introduction to their software suite and show how to use it in the context of a real-life project. A complimentary one-year license for EvoluteTools PRO, D.LOFT, T.MAP will be offered to all the participants.

More info and registration...

The Morpheus Hotel: From Design to Production Webinar

Webinar: The Morpheus Hotel - From Design to Production

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

3:00 PM-4:30 PM PST

Register here.

Join us for a collaborative presentation from the project team of The Morpheus Hotel and Tower in Macau. 

Project leads from Zaha Hadid Architects and Front Inc, a façade production consultant, will discuss the role of advanced computational technology from the design to the analysis, and fabrication, as well as the construction of this remarkable project, due to open in 2018. 

This event is for anyone interested in the challenges of building one of the world’s most complex buildings and façade systems. 

The panel of presenters are:

• Viviana Muscettola, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Michele Salvi, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Miron Mutyaba, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Ramon van der Heijden, Front Inc. 
• Alan Tai, Front Inc. 
• Evan Levelle, Front Inc. 

Presenters will join the webinar from London, Hong Kong, and Seattle. Space is limited. Register early to reserve your place. 

Sign up today!

A presentation including Q&A will take approximately 90 minutes. Questions will be addressed at the end. 

Note: If you're unable to attend, a video of the webinar will be available here on Friday, February 10, 2017. 

Media Sponsor

Facades+ Miami - Symposium and Workshops

Don't miss Facades+ in Miami, January 26-27, 2017!

Thursday, January 26 - Symposium

The Facades+ conference focuses on the design and performance of the next generation of facades. It provides proven insights on how to make your ideas become reality and brings together some of the world’s most productive building professionals and leading researchers from architecture, engineering, construction, fabrication, development, and education. They will share insights on how facades ideas come to life. Check out the agenda that includes opening keynote speaker Shohei Shigematsu from OMA, afternoon keynotes Z Smith and Jose Alvarez from Eskew+Dumez+Ripple!


Friday, January 27 - Workshops

Join McNeel Miami's RhinoFabStudio for a workshop in Data Drive Skins - using Rhino's plugin Grasshopper to build form generators by instructor Andres Gonzalez. 

For more information on the Workshop visit this link. 

Don't miss the opportunity of these Early Birds prices and to earn up to 16 AIA CEU credits! Register now!

Remember to join us at www.RhinoFabStudio.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.

Great Amber Concert Hall, Liepaja, Latvia

Just another architectural jewel... Completed last fall, this is the Great Amber Concert Hall in Liepaja, Latvia.

A new cultural center and landmark for Liepaja, it was designed by Graz architect Volker Giencke.

A facade of sparkling amber-colored glass encloses a concert hall for more than 1,000 visitors, plus rehearsal rooms, chamber hall, ballet studio, and experimental stage.

The software used: Rhino, AutoCAD, Scia, and Nemetschek.

Featured in Platform Architecture and Design...

SFMOMA Expansion opening May 14th

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's (SFMOMA) building expansion is opening May 14, 2016.

Oslo-based Snohetta designed this 10-story building for SFMOMA. And local Kreysler & Associates fabricated the contoured and rippled facade.

The project is ground-breaking is several ways. Unconventional and innovative methods were used for the fabrication. The composite panels are a fire-resistant design and ultra-light. And the facade panels are now the largest architectural application of composites technology in the United States.

Each composite facade panel is different, so Kreysler & Associates relied heavily on digital fabrication with Rhino and Grasshopper to mold the unique shapes.

Kreysler specializes in composites and digital fabrication. They often work with artists and architects on large sculptural works, acoustic surfaces, facade panels, and replicas of historic building elements for restoration projects.

"Leading up to this project, our in-house R&D pertaining to fire resistant composites has opened the door to more widespread use of these materials in the future. The whole process has relied heavily on our facility with software -- in our case Rhino -- for early conversations with the designers all the way through construction coordination, in-house fabrication, production tracking, and quality control."

"Rhino is like our 'digital pocket knife'. It's intuitive, inexpensive, adaptable, and has a huge community of users for support and developing custom tools. Nearly every project we do sees Rhino at one point or another." - Comments from Bill Kreysler, in an interview in NOVEDGE blog.

Construction details...