Galaxy Soho, 2012

Parametric architecture ZHA the pioneers

Modeling in
architecture
Modeling has helped architects to
clarify their ideas, study aspects of
the design or to communicate
their ideas.
Constantly pushing material and
aesthetic boundaries, Eero
Saarinen expanded the vocabulary
of architecture to include
curvilinear and organically-
inspired forms.
He solved both the form and the
structure, coining the term
“structural expressionism”.
• Images: Eero Saarinen and his
team, working on the TWA
Terminal model.
 • The biggest model made by Saarinen
and his team in order to solve all the
interior details, prior to the construction
of TWA Terminal.
Modeling in • Imagine what he would have
architecture: accomplished with a computer design
program!
Eero Saarinen • Model’s photographs are extracted from
the book Saarinen’s Quest: A Memoir by
Richard Knight. San Francisco: Stout
Publishers, 2008.
 Precedents of complex geometric
design in Architecture
• Gaudí preferred modelling architecture over drawing it;
especially models made of chains hung from a ceiling, or
strings with small weights attached. Through experimentation
with such models, he discovered a way to use traditional
Catalan masonry techniques in new, more complex ways. A
chain suspended simply from both its ends results in a
catenary curve that naturally distributes the static load — in
this case tension — evenly between the links of the chain.
When this shape is flipped vertically and the materials become
brick or stone, then the static load — now compressive — is
similarly evenly distributed, resulting in an optimally efficient
arch.
• What Gaudí did was to apply this tension-compression analogy
to chains hanging from chains (or arches superimposed on
arches) asymmetrically, permitting him to design a much more
fluid architecture.
• Image: Holy Family Catenary Model, Antonio Gaudí.between
1898 and 1908
 Gauidí’s
sketching
method.
• Gaudí made the models of
his buildings upside-down,
then, using mirrors on the
floor, visualized his designs
downside-up. He also took
photographs of these
“wire-frame” models of
sorts and “filled” them in
with color to generate
“solid model renderings”,
so to speak. All this has
been well-documented in
publications and
exhibitions.
• What is interesting is how,
in the process, Gaudí
effectively invented a kind
of “parametric” design
process long before the
invention of the computer.
Models in Gaudi’s
Workshop

• One feature of so-called parametric design software is that it

updates a complete three-dimensional digital model of a
building every time any parameters are altered, allowing
alternatives to be studied and compared in the search for a
design that performs optimally (although to many architects
who use this software it seems that the most important
parameter is aesthetic form). Gaudí’s hanging chains do
exactly that: if a chain end-point is moved so as to enlarge or
reduce, say, the floor plan in one corner, then the shape of
the entire hanging chain model shifts and settles into a
newly optimized catenary geometry. Of course, parametric
design software does a great deal more, but at their
conceptual root both of these modeling tools — one physical
and the other digital — are analogous.
• Makes you wonder what Gaudí might have accomplished if
he had had a computer. Or conversely, how Gaudí
accomplished as much as he did without one.
 • He was the first architect to experiment with membranes.
• He is a world-renowned innovator in architecture and engineering who pioneered modern
Frei Otto(1925-2015), fabric roofs over tensile structures and also worked with other materials and building
systems such as grid shells, bamboo, and wooden lattices. He made important advances in
pioneer of tensile and the use of air as a structural material and to pneumatic theory.

membrane structures • Schumacher believes the work of Frei Otto is a precursor of Parametricism, as Frei "used
physical processes as simulations and design engines to 'find' form rather than to draw
design conventional or invented forms. The inherent lawfulness of the engaged physical processes
produced a combination of complexity, rigor and elegance that was otherwise unattainable.
 Thinking by
modeling
• Frei Otto pioneered the use of modern,
lightweight, tent-like structures for many uses.
He was attracted to them partly for their
economical and ecological values. As early as
the 1950s, he built complex models to test and
perfect tensile shapes. Throughout his career,
Otto always built physical models to determine
the optimum shape of a form and to test its
behavior. Engineers in his studio were early
adopters of computers for structural analysis
of Frei Otto’s projects, but the basic input data
for these calculations came from the physical
form-finding models. One of his books is
named ”Thinking by modeling.”
• The establishment of the Biology and Building
research group at the Technical University of
Berlin in 1961 marked the beginning of his
cooperative work between architects,
engineers, and biologists. They applied their
knowledge of tents, grid shells, and other
lightweight structures to better understand the
designs of biological structures and forms.
Parametricism in
architecture

• Parametric design is a process where you input

design “parameters” into a design tool. Those
parameters now act as constraints for your potential
structure.
• The tool processes these parameters and generates
the best possible structure using those values. Then,
the architect makes adjustments to the structure to
explore a myriad of shapes and creative options.
• Parametricism is becoming prominent on a large
scale all over the world. Architects are utilizing
technology to create more and more efficient and
magnificent structures.
• Computational design principles have the potential
to redefine the future of architecture as we know it.
• Image: Parametric waves of Reggio Emilia Station by
Santiago Calatrava
 • Parametric architecture is an architectonical style that employs
parametric design and computer programs in the process of the
Project.
• Parametric design is a design method that employs computer
programs based on geometry, algorithms and parameters that define
Rememeber: the shapes through a series of relations.
• Each geometry has a series of parameters that are defined in its
Parametric geometrical formula.
• You design a process, not a concrete result.
architecture • The results are a family of possible solutions that match the selected

and requirements.
• It is Associative: each part depends on the others based on the

parametric relations established between them in the parameters.

• Its computer programs work with mathemathical formulas, algorithms
design and parameters.
• Parametric design is a design process, not a style. To create formal
possibilities.

Mauricio Montalvo
 • Her vision redefined architecture
Zaha Hadid for the 21st Century. She
developed parametric Architecture
(1950-2016) with her use of complex geometry
and mathemathics in architecture.
first woman to • She believed in the power of
invention with advanced design,
receive the material and construction
innovation.
Pritzker Prize • Image: Heydar Aliyev Center
 Zaha Hadid and
Parametric Architecture
• Zaha Hadid founded Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)in 1980.
• Zaha and Patrik Schumacher, a partner at ZHA, pursue
Parametricism as the parametric design paradigm into all
corners of the discipline. Systematic, adaptive variation,
continuous differentiation, and dynamic, parametric figuration
concerns all design tasks from urbanism to the level of tectonic
detail, interior furnishings and the world of products.
• ZHA is a global leader in the application of Building Information
Modelling (BIM) in the design, construction and operation of
buildings to increase efficiency as well as significantly reduce
energy consumption and emissions.
• Image: Phaeno Science center 2000
BIM allows a Complex Design Process

• With most parametric tools being cloud-based,

it’s easy to transfer data from one user to another.
This provides an easier exchange of data and
allows the formation of multiple design teams.
• This affects the entire design process in
multiple ways. Most notably, with the invention
of Building Information Modeling (BIM).
• It is a system where multiple teams work
together in creating a building or other
structure. It consists of multiple levels, from
programming to construction and operation.
• This process has the potential to end repetitive
tasks and move away from traditional tools. It
allows you to automate countless tasks and
view the rest of the team’s changes in the
project.
Parametricism: A New Design Paradigm

• Patrik Schumacher has worked with Zaha

Hadid since 1988. He presented the
Parametricist manifesto in 2008.
Parametricism emerges from the creative
exploitation of parametric design systems in
the course of articulating increasingly
complex social processes and institutions.
(Schumacher, 2009) The term
'Parametricism' implies that all elements of
architecture are becoming parametrically
malleable and thus adaptive to each other
and to the context.
• “We are now working with inherently
variable, adaptive forms that aggregate into
continuously differentiated fields or
systems. Multiple systems are correlated
with each other and with the environment.”
Five agendas seek to inject new aspects into
the parametric paradigm: Parametric inter-
articulation of subsystems, parametric
accentuation, parametric figuration,
parametric responsiveness and parametric
urbanism. (Yougjin Lee,2015)
• Image: Galaxy Soho, 2012 by ZHA
Nordapark Railway
Stations(2004-2007)
ZHA
• A unique architecture
language of fluidity
inspired by natural ice
formations, for stations
along Innsbruck’s northern
chain of mountains.
• Lighweight roof structures.
The design adapts to every
specific location, changing
de constraints and
parameters in the same
formula.
How has Parametric Design changed Architecture?
It Combines Aesthetics with Efficiency
• For a long time, the laws of nature limited the
architect’s imagination. It took so much time
to turn a visually captivating building into an
efficient structure. It took a lot of trial and
error, time, and effort of many. We have
already seen the work of pioneers in
modeling complex geometries, Gaudí, Eero
Saarinen and Frei Otto.
• Computer design has allowed architects to
quickly solve their design problems by dealing
with complex geometry and structure design.
• Engineers and architects are solving complex
structure and spatial issues employing
parametric design tools faster then ever, with
the highest efficiency and even with energy
efficiency considerations.
• Image: Modeling of the Hanzou Olymic Sports
Center, by NBBJ
 • To design a fantastica and
Parametric complex structural cover for a
design can be linear terminal.
employed as a • Reggio Emilia Station
tool Mediopadana. Santiago
Calatrava.
Reggio Emilia Station
Mediopadana.
Santiago Calatrava.

• This is a building with a

parametric structure. The inside
train station building has a
conventional design, as you
might appreciate in the section.
The parametric design tool was
employed to create the roofing
structure that gives the building
its identity.
Parametric design accelerates
design Ideas with different
approaches
• When you input particular parameters into the design
tool, it will employ these rules in possible designs.
This allows you to find the best possible solution for
every corner of your potential structure
• You can input the parameters inside the model of the
structure into the design tool and then work with the
multiple design ideas. Just as sketching but a lot faster
and with the right scale and data.
• In this image , the architect worked with a yatch
interior, where the available space is minimum
because of the structure’s shape and machinery
needs. He mentioned that the approach taken was to
conduct an agent simulation to determine the most
natural movement flow through the empty boat. Then
the geometry was optimized to maximize the view
shed while maximizing storage space.
• Image: Customized yatch parametric interior design,
by Lucas Utzig.
MORPHOSIS ARCHITECT, Thom
Mayne41 Cooper Square(2009)

• Designed by architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis, is

a nine-story, 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m2)
academic center that houses the Albert Nerken
School of Engineering with additional spaces for the
humanities, art, and architecture departments in the
newest addition to Cooper Union's campus
in Cooper Square, Manhattan, New York City; there
is also an exhibition gallery and auditorium for
public programs and retail space on the ground
level.
• The design was a response to the client’s needs of
expansion, parking and income generated by
retailed space.
• The building has a LEED sustainability certification.
41 Cooper Square

• Mayne designed the building from the inside out,

starting with a central atrium, referred to as a vertical
piazza. Classrooms, offices, studios, and laboratories
surround the vertical atrium and are connected by three
separate staircases. The grand staircase, which
welcomes students and visitors, starts from the ground
floor and terminates at the fourth. Two secondary
staircases cross the atrium like bridges and connect the
fourth to sixth and seventh to ninth floors. To move
from the sixth to seventh floor, one must use the fire
stairs. The discontinuity of the staircases was intended
to promote physical activity and to increase meeting
opportunities.
 • The atrium plays the role of the public square in the building where
MORPHOSIS social interaction can occur. Its form was created by carving out
program space and circulation paths and is contained and accentuated
ARCHITECT, Thom in a steel lattice envelope that reaches the full height of the building.
Mayne Parametric design was employed in the whole building, thus it is an
example of parametric architecture.