Dynamic Generative Systems: Simple Parametric Strategies for Complex Architectural Objects and Spaces

Introduction

In recent decades, international architecture has used complex geometric systems and experimented widely with building form in an attempt to integrate new concepts and technological tools into spatial exploration. These design processes put forward non-linear multiplicity as an alternative to traditional design methods. The forms and spaces conceived arise out of design approaches whose results are more characteristic of the process itself (indices, distances between moments, transitions, movements, displacements) than of the adoption of compositional categories (order, type, element, superposition) or functional-rational categories (system, typology, structure).

As spatial organization increases in complexity it becomes forced and inadequate to think of and describe it in terms of the traditional systems of geometric representation (parallel projections, Monge system) inherited from the industrial revolution. Classical orthographic projections limit the formal possibilities arising from a more complex compression of space, which can no longer be summarized in simple transversal and longitudinal descriptions of form using elevations, plans and sections.

Any early incorporation of parametric design would demand a review of current design processes to include concepts and dynamic variables from relational data. Parametric design is an algorithmic mathematical technique that enables the user to alter determined characteristics of the model at any point in the process without having to recalculate other characteristics that would be affected by such changes. It thus becomes a powerful tool for developing a codified (modifiable and adaptable) system able to automatically detect and assess a family of alternatives to the proposed problem in real time and according to pre-established parameters. Its use demands a change in mentality where space and objects fit into a new way of seeing the world that focuses on efficiency and adaptability. Dynamic generative systems are a vehicle for thought that can be modified and interrelated over time. Their principles are closer to dynamic performance, contextual adaptability and interface and open processes than to the definition of simple finished objects.