COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN I
Seminar Faculty: David Andrés León
Faculty Assistant: Ashkan Foroughi
Student Assistants: Laukik Lad & Uri Lewis Torres
Computational design lies at the core of innovation in architecture and design nowadays. Increasingly the tools that we now use to design have expanded the range of our options to design, allowing for performance and complexity, and extending beyond the three dimensional space into a virtually limitless parametric realm of different versions of the design intent upon which to choose from.
Credits: David Andres Leon
By being able to effectively set up a parametric model, navigate these options and confronting them with analytical tools that are embedded in the design process, designers are able to take better informed decisions in order to create projects that are complex and performative by whichever metrics the designer wishes to challenge them with.
For this purpose, Grasshopper has significantly become the standard for computational design, not only within academia but across many trades and disciplines that encompass the creating process, providing easy access to algorithmic thinking and a large ecosystem of plugins that provide easy access to a broad range of tools for advanced design.
Credits: Uri Lewis Torres
Faculty
David Andres Leon is the Head of Computational Design in the AAG group in IAAC and directs the MaCAD programm. He has previously worked for McNeel Europe providing support for third- party developers pushing the boundaries of interoperability and computational design globally. He is also part of the faculty of the Masters for Advanced Architecture in IAAC where he teaches in the Digital Matter studio alongside Areti Markopoulou. David also teaches programming for architects at the MPDA Masters programme of the UPC. David holds a Master of Science Degree from the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) in Universitat Stuttgart and a Masters Degree in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture from the Escola Superior de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona (Elisava).
Faculty Assistant
Ashkan Foroughi is an architect and researcher, interested in multidisciplinary and multi scalar approaches in architecture. He holds a bachelor of architecture, followed by a master of advanced interaction at (IAAC-2018) and a postgraduate degree in 3D printing architecture (IAAC-2019), where he has specialized in robotic additive manufacturing and computational design. Since then he has been involved as a computational designer and roboticist at IAAC, collaborating in an array of seminars, workshops and projects.
Student Assistants
Laukik Lad is an Architect from India, inclined towards computation in Architecture and related creative disciplines. He has worked with Studio Emergence(Mumbai, India), by two IAAC Alumni, after graduating SmartLABS(2018) by ratLABS(Delhi, India) a hybrid program on Digital Design in Architecture, setting his ground in computational design. He is currently studying the second year of MAA at IAAC, pursuing a thesis on advanced fabrication technologies.
Uri Lewis Torres is a registered architect from México, he holds a masters in Parametric Design (UPC-2018), a V-ray rendering certification (CG world-2019), and a masters in advanced architecture 01 (IAAC-2021). He has worked for many years in a sustainable architecture firm (MYU architects) where in the last years had the chance to implement computational design to the latest construction projects. Currently studying MAA02 in Barcelona, Spain.