| INTRODUCTION

Computational Design Seminar focuses on teaching the fundamentals of visual scripting through Grasshopper while exploring the most basic concepts of computational design. From the generation of geometry as data into how to manage multiple geometrical information algorithmically, the main objective is to become proficient in algorithmic thinking in order to navigate fluently in the complexity of geometrical data.

The goal for final project of the course is to use the knowledge that’s gained in the course to design a responsive parametric façade that reacts to the environment in an existing building. Therefore, REFLECT  is a project to speculate and re-imagine the behavior of  an existing performative façade in order to achieve responsive qualities while interacting with the environment.

| BUILDING

The Media-TIC building in Barcelona is an information and communication technology hub designed to incubate, generate, exhibit and invite new ideas. The ‘performative’ elements in the Media-TIC building are found in two of the four façades, which are made of the eco-efficient material ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) cladding. These parts absorb six hours of sunlight a day.

| Image01| Media-TIC building by Enric Ruiz-Geli, existing facades of ETFE and details

| CONCEPT

As mentioned above,  Media-TIC building’s facades absorb sunlight to save energy, serving as a model for performative architecture. In that sense, this project re-imagines the performative qualities and poses the question “What if responsivity and interactivity could be achieved through reflecting the sun by having kinetic facades instead of absorbing the light?”.  In order to tackle this question and create a façade that would match the existing visual of the building, ‘hexagon’ patterns of the whole ETFE façade was kept and chosen as the initial geometry.

|Image02| Conceptual Design Process, explaining hexagonal geometry formation

| Diagram02 | Psuedocode, explaining the visual coding logic to achieve the geometry.

| Image02 | Final code, demonstrating the steps and components.

| Gif01 | Animation, demonstrating how produced kinetic façade works on the site.

| FINAL RENDERS

REFLECT  is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in Advanced Architecture in 2021 by Students: Aleyna Gültekin, Changkai Qi and faculty: David Andres León, faculty assistant: Ashkan Foroughi.