Timber Segmented shell in Pyrenees by MPDA BarcelonaTech

The MPDA Master’s program at UPC School concludes each year with a built project that brings together innovation, sustainability, and community engagement. 

This edition took place in Alp, a mountain town in the Catalan Pyrenees, where students and faculty fully designed, engineered,  and built a new sports pavilion as a lightweight public structure for the local community.

Developed in just four months, the project combined computational design in Grasshopper, structural analysis with Karamba3D, and digital fabrication via Cadwork to create an efficient segmented timber shell. The structure is formed by planar n-gon modules shaped as an antifunicular ribbed system, with optimized joints and a fabrication process that balanced precision, structural performance, and manufacturability. Components were produced with CNC machining at Tallfusta and LaserPenta, and pre-assembled before transport.

The final construction in Alp took place over one intensive week, during which students and faculty installed the foundation, assembled the prefabricated elements, and placed the protective membrane. Beyond the pavilion itself, the project offered a full-scale learning experience that connected advanced parametric design with real construction, leaving behind a sustainable and meaningful space for the town.

Credits

• Collaborator institution: Alp Municipality
• Students: Khalid Abbood, Bilgenur Balkiz, Mihir Bhamare, Agustina Couzier, Arvind Das, Rahel Degu, Helly Desai, Youssef Essam, Davis Gan, Sara Guessous, Pravin Kandasamy, Maciej Król, Dana Mneimneh, Jaume Monclús, Nathaly Osorio, Tomás Pérez, Sayed Sanobar, Sena Sezer, Damla Şişman, Anna Solà, Maria Tzavida, Martin Uquillas, Mehad Yasser.
• Faculty: Gerard Bertomeu, Quim Escoda, Enrique Soriano, Pep Tornabell, Rafael Hellín, Bruno García.
• Guest Professors: Almudena Majano, Antonio Lara, Matthew Tam, Simon Vorhammer
• Sponsors: Rothoblaas, Festool
• Fabrication Partners: Tallfusta, Sumeplast, Garnica, Laserpenta, Piloedre, Tecnodimension
• Software partners: Karamba3D, Cadwork
• Acknowledgments: Maria Tiana, Topografía Cerdanya, and always to Daniel Piker
• Photography: Andrés Flajszer, Arvind Das

MPDA Master’s program at UPC School

Over ten successful editions, MPDA has trained new generations of computational designers from around the world, many of whom now work at leading international design and engineering offices.

Want to enroll? The next information session will be held on April 14th at 14:00.

MPDA is a 60 ECTS one-year program, 4 months online and 5 months in person. During the program, you will learn advanced computational design tools and apply them to the design and construction of a numerically optimized, digitally fabricated building.

Pininfarina Academy - Architecture Summer School in Advanced Design & DfMA (July 6-17, 2026)

Pininfarina Academy

Architecture Summer School in Advanced Design & DfMA

Torino (Italy)

July 6-17, 2026

"Pininfarina Academy is a series of benchmark programs in the field of advanced design education. We aim to inspire and prepare the next generation of designers, with conceptual and practical tools to address the challenges of the 21st century with creativity, competence and innovative vision."

The Pininfarina Architecture Summer Course in Turin, Italy, is an exclusive two-week program for international architecture students, offering a cutting-edge educational experience in innovative design methodologies and advanced technological tools.

Participants will engage in workshops, on-site visits, and collaborative projects that emphasize Pininfarina’s core values of elegance, purity, and innovation, culminating in a final presentation to industry experts.

The course also explores the transition from automotive to architectural design while immersing students in Turin’s rich architectural heritage and fostering skills in concept design, UX definition, and spatial coordination.

Pininfarina Academy - Summer School 2025 - Experience recap...

Complete details and application...

Are you graduating this quarter? Get a Rhino license at an 80% discount!

 

Are you graduating this summer?
Get a Rhino license at an 80% discount!

If you graduate this quarter, don't lose the opportunity to purchase a Rhino permanent license with an 80% discount.

Unlike other academic software, you are encouraged to use the Rhino educational license for commercial purposes.

On top, Rhino Educational licenses:

• DO NOT expire
• DO NOT require subscriptions
• DO NOT have maintenance or support fees
  
• DO NOT have watermarks

For more information, visit www.rhino3d.com/edu
To order an educational license, visit www.rhino3d.com/sales 

 More resources for learning Rhino...
Job opportunities...

Pininfarina Architecture Summer Course (Torino, Italy) - July 14-25, 2025

Pininfarina Architecture Summer Course
Torino, Italy
July 14-25, 2025

Sign up for the exclusive Pininfarina Architecture Summer Course, a transformative two-week journey for 12 international architecture young professionals.

This pioneering program plunges you into the heart of innovative design methodologies and cutting-edge technological tools, revolutionizing how you create and interact with architectural spaces. Immerse yourself in a dynamic learning environment that combines creativity, technology, and sustainability, setting the stage for a new generation of visionary architects.

The course offers theoretical lessons on innovative design methodologies, practical workshops on advanced software and digital tools, and networking opportunities with established industry professionals. It is structured with daily workshops, lectures, company visits, and conferences, providing a comprehensive learning experience.

Exceptionally, for the first edition, our partners and sponsors are providing us with scholarships that cover 100 percent of the summer school fees. These scholarships are designed to support talented individuals who demonstrate outstanding architectural design and innovation potential. Every candidate is warmly invited to apply for the scholarship program.

The target audience includes architecture students, interior designers, and young professionals aged 24 to 32, selected based on academic excellence, project portfolio, and motivation.

Details and application...

Workshop: Design and Parametric Fabrication by ControlMAD (Winter Edition)

Design and Parametric Fabrication

Winter edition workshop

by ControlMad

The course focused on getting knowledge in 3D modeling with Rhinoceros and Parametric Design with Grasshopper, obtaining real results by constructing a large-scale prototype as a final project thanks to digital fabrication tools.

Students not only learn how to 3D model but also implement various strategies to obtain structures of complex models, analyze, calculate, interact with the physical environment, etc., with the chance of manufacturing different models with CNC technology, like cutting lasers, milling machines, and 3D printers. The final goal is to create, design, and 3D model a cool object, prototype, or sculpture using Rhino and Grasshopper and make it real with the digital machines we have.

This X edition will be a hybrid format: Part I full online sessions. Part II (optional) can be followed online or onsite.

Hours: 100

Dates: 24 February-21 March

Part I (Online)

• 3D Modeling and Rhinoceros
• Parametric Design with Grasshopper I
• Parametric Design with Grasshopper II

Part II (Onsite or Online)

• Digital Fabrication Systems/28 Hours

Complete details and registration...

AECtech+ LA | Hackathon, Symposium, Workshops

AECtech+ LA | Hackathon, Symposium, Workshops

September 20-22, 2024
Los Angeles, CA
Register here!

Put your skills to the test and embark on an exhilarating 24-hour Hackathon!

Join Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio and USC on September 20-22 as they host the second AECtech+ Los Angeles. This in-person event will be held at USC in downtown Los Angeles and is open to students, professionals, hackers, and everyone interested in technology in the AEC space.

Kick off the weekend early on Friday with a round of Workshops taking a deep dive into new software/workflows within the AEC space. These 3-hour workshops will give you the foundations to implement these technologies at the office or in the Hackathon. Workshops include a comprehensive walkthrough of Web API calls from Grasshopper with Swiftlet by its author Sergey Pigach and an introductory crash course in AI, specifically LLM and NLP for the AEC Industry with Omid Sajedi from CORE AI.

Get inspired by a fantastic panel of presenters at the LA Symposium speaking on a diverse range of innovations within AEC, from Platforms to Processes to Projects.

• CORE studio | Thornton Tomasetti: Sophie Moore & Eesha Jain
• The University of Southern California: Dr. David Gerber
• SUMPOINT.io & Hathaway Dinwiddie: James Coleman, Brian Murray
• HYPAR: Ian Keough
• HKS: Cory Brugger
• Morphosis: Kerenza Harris
• Martin Bros. Construction: Andrew Kragness

On Saturday, immerse yourself in a hands-on learning experience at the 24-Hour Hackathon. Join fellow participants to tackle real-world industry challenges using cutting-edge technologies and computational approaches. This concentrated event will provide an opportunity for hands-on collaboration, problem-solving, and prototyping as you work against the clock to develop innovative solutions. Participants of all experience levels will be able to collaborate, learn from each other, build new relationships, and generate innovations for the AEC community.

Are you new to Hackathons? AECtech provides a unique opportunity to learn from a diverse peer group with varied domain expertise, working together towards a common goal. Need some inspiration? Check out what has been created in over ten years of AECtech hackathons.

Visit the event site to learn more, and register here to secure your spot. Space is very limited!

Design Modelling Symposium - September 2024, University of Kassel

 

Design Modelling Symposium 2024

The Design Modelling Symposium will take place this September in Kassel, Germany. International research groups from ETH Zurich, the University of Hong Kong, Autodesk, Uni Stuttgart, the University of Innsbruck, and others will present their latest work on the four topics of Realizing Circular Design, Scaling Digital Concepts, Biomaterial Design, and Digital Construction.

This will be complemented by distinguished keynote talks from Philip F. Yuan of Tongji University Shanghai, Andrea Klinge of ZRS Architects Berlin, Corentin Fivet from EPF Lausanne, Kerstin Müller of Zirkular Basel, Anke Parson of Urban Beta Berlin, Olivier Baverel Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and Greta Tiedje of Henning Larsen Copenhagen.

See here the final schedule of the conference: Schedule DMS 2024

Two intensive days of workshops will be held on the topics of  Immersive Design Based on Human Motion by the University of Hannover, Structural Design for Reuse by Karamba / Bollinger Grohmann, Human Robot Interaction by Prof. Stefana Parasho of EPFL, Design with Mycelium Materials by EDEK University of Kassel in cooperation with the Royal Danish Academy and Form-fit spatial frames by TWE University of Kassel, knippershelbig and Strong by Form.

See here the schedule of the workshops: Schedule Workshops

It is possible to register individually for the conference or workshops, and there are also special rates for bundles and students.

Register here...

Student's contest by SABIT: Design for a better life

Our Polish reseller SABIT has organized the following contest for local students:

Design for a better life: Create a 3D model in Rhino for improving the lives of others

3D modeling can be used to create innovative solutions to improve life and address various social, medical, environmental, and technological challenges in society.

SABIT invites all students to participate in this competition, where they will have the opportunity to showcase their skills in Rhino and creativity in developing 3D models to improve the lives of others. This is a challenge to develop innovative projects that can make the world a better and more comfortable place.

Submissions deadline 24 December.

Complete details...

Timber gridshell classrooms with Grasshopper: Design, optimization and construction

The students from UPC School MPDA Master's in Parametric Design Architecture 1, which is taught online and at the ETSAV architecture school, have accomplished during the Studio 2 course the design and construction of two timber structures for hosting open-air classrooms in two different schools.

The students followed a program of continuous reviews by international experts on structural design, timber construction, computational geometry, and membrane design. The international group of students solved all the design, structural analysis, numerical fabrication, and construction processes within the Rhinoceros/Grasshopper framework, and finally built it during the face-to-face phase in Barcelona.

Amid several toolsets, the students profusely used Kangaroo 2 for the form finding, and then Kiwi!3D, Karamba3D, and Beaver for the structural analysis.

The Master Parametric Design in Architecture provides a computational design framework for the creation and optimization of lightweight structures with a low ecological footprint. The construction of the classrooms is part of the subject of development of innovation projects in which it is sought to integrate computational geometry, technological efficiency, sustainability and economic viability in real projects that can have a positive impact.

The built classrooms are designed with digital tools aiming to reduce the energy and weight of structures by means of an intensive use of geometry, and are manufactured using numerically controlled machines that allow for fast, efficient and prefabricated production.

The Zollinger open classroom, built at the CanCuní, is a lightweight gridshell of short pieces of birch plywood. The system is loosely based on the traditional Zollinger system which consists of the reciprocal transfer of loads in a short beam system. The challenge is to design and calibrate the required stiffness of a simply manufactured joint to avoid the cost and time of a bracing system.

The 3way open classroom, built at the ETSAV, is an ultra-thin gridshell of long and wide birch plywood 12mm planks. The system is based on the coupling of three families of pseudo-geodesic curves on a common surface that can be built from completely straight and planar planks without any waste. The simple 1D manufacturing technology relies solely on the exact positioning of the holes.

Students: Jorge Adrian Martorell ,Christian Merhej, Rudy Riachy , Alberto Sadun , Marc Serra , Alex Solà, Aitor Vadillo , Luis Ángel Garcia, Khalifa Alkhazriji , Ángel Barrón, Dalia Ezzeddine, Danny Vallejo , Ehsan Naguib, Weston Porter.

International experts: Julian Lienhard , Bending-active, STR.ucture / Universität Kassel, Dragos Naicu, timber gridshells, Anna Bauer, Structural analysis, Kiwi!3D / TUM, Ángel Antequera, Load cases and Wind, CODA /Modularem, Alberto Pugnale, Timber construction, University Melbourne, Almudena Majano, Timber engineering, ETSAM, Antonio Lara, Timber Engineering, ETSAM, Ton Miserachs, Membrane patterning, TP Arquitectura i construcció textil

Academic direction: Gerard Bertomeu, Pep Tornabell, Ramon Sastre, Enrique Soriano (partners at CODA and teachers at Barcelonatech and UPC School)

Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Can Cuní and to ETSAV UPC Architecture school for their support and workshops, Somnis a mida, Camping el Llac, Serge Ferrari for sponsoring the material, Gabarró Hermanos (timber logistics using UPM plywood), Manxa Bricolatge (Hardware), and always thankful to Daniel Piker for the use of Kangaroo.

Photo Credit: Andres Flajszer 

Bridging Data Science and Architectural Practice (by KPF and IAAC)

Bentall Centre’s Computational Design model in KPF’s Scout web platform

David Andres Leon (Head of Computational Design IAAC) and Brandon Pachuca (Urban Data Scientist + Web Developer at KPF) have been kind enough to share their latest article Bridging Data Science and Architectural Practice - Emergent applications of cloud computing in practice and academia.

A great intro to RhinoCommon, Grasshopper, Rhino.Inside, Rhino Compute and Hops:

"Architecture and computer science are becoming increasingly intertwined. The data science industry found a promising niche to leverage big data, machine learning, and web development to create viable products to automate workflows and bring new insights to market. Architecture can benefit from these trends, adapting product and web development to support advanced simulation and visualization practices."

Read the entire article...

Re-Emerge Pavilion, a collaboration between AA [EmTech] and Hassell

Photography: Studio NAARO

Architectural Association (AA) Emergent Technologies & Design (EmTech) Post-Graduate Programme and Hassell in London have collaborated to create a new pavilion in Bedford Square.

EmTech Post-Graduate Programme at the Architectural Association has a long history in designing and creating structures and pavilions. This year’s pavilion is titled Re-Emerge and is the first time since the pandemic that the students could closely work together, fabricate and assemble a full-scale structure.

For this collaboration, Hassell gave the students the challenge to keep the project's carbon footprint to an absolute minimum and therefore only use reclaimed timber.

Xavier De Kestelier, Head of Design at Hassell, said, “The students really took on the challenge with both hands and decided early on to build the pavilion out of timber from reclaimed wooden pallets.”

The Re-Emerge pavilion explores new design and construction technologies that repurpose materials that have completed their first life cycle towards innovative structural formations. The project addresses themes of generative design, material computation, large-scale fabrication and assembly technologies, emphasizing the pavilion's ecological impact from the early phases of the design process onwards.

Re-emerge revives the tradition of building on Bedford Square as a collaboration between an academic programme at the AA and partners from the world of practice to test ideas at scale and imagine new possibilities.

Dr. Elif Erdine, Director of the EmTech Program, said, "This collaboration with Hassell demonstrates a successful illustration of how academia and practice can come together to discover novel solutions to complex spatial and material problems. With the support of our other sponsors, BuroHappold Engineering and One Click LCA, EmTech and Hassell explored new design and construction technologies for repurposing timber."

She added, "As designers, architects, and engineers, we share the responsibility to maintain a mindful approach towards our environment while designing and building. Our mutual insight into how construction waste can be a useful resource has originated this research into repurposing timber for an outdoor structure that is lightweight, emphasizing the project’s ecological impact from the early phases of the design process."

Complete details about the Re-Emerge Pavilion...

The EMTECH (Emergent Technologies and Design Programme) is a post-professional graduate degree at the Architectural Association open to graduates in architecture and engineering who wish to develop skills and pursue knowledge in architectural design science located in new production paradigms. EMTECH investigates new synergies of architecture and ecology through the critical intersection of computational design and fabrication. 

EMTECH Graduate programme 2022-23 registration now open...

Enscape Educational program

Enscape’s real-time rendering features can help students to achieve so much more in their design projects. From creating lifelike design experiences to supporting effective diagnosis and experimentation, the tool gives you the ability to speed up your design process and envision better designs.

With Enscape and its Rhino plugin, you can integrate real-time rendering and VR into your workflow, helping to improve and speed up the entire design process significantly.

Enscape offers free educational licenses to both students and classrooms. To learn more about Enscape and obtain your free real-time rendering license, visit the Enscape Educational website.

And see the amazing projects done by students using Rhino and Enscape!

Give your design workflow a boost with real-time rendering!