AU 2008 - Computational Design Symposium

So, Krista and I arrived yesterday. We're now attending the inaugural "Design Computation Symposium" hosted by Robert Aish. So far we have had a a fascinating presentation by Neil Katz of SOM, showing examples of 20 years of "Computational Design" work and application to a variety of scales from skyscrapers to interior "transparent" walls made of metal or corian.

After that we've seen some hints of what is coming in Revit Structure and Robot (Structural Anaylsis) to help Architects work with engineers to better understand how to derive efficient, elegant structures to support our building designs. By using analysis and permutation to understand various possibilities meeting different criteria.

Most recently we just saw a great "demo/review" of Ecotect by Dr. Andrew Marsh and the possibilities of scripting with Ecotect to generate "realtime" parametric anaylsis to understand the impact of passive sustianable design strategies on one's building design.

So far, an eventful and interesting morning, with more to come.