Urban scale digital twins in data-driven society: Challenging digital universalism in urban planning decision-making

The article examines the impact of the virtual public sphere on how urban spaces are experienced and conceived in our data-driven society. It places particular emphasis on urban scale digital twins, which are virtual replicas of cities that are used to simulate environments and develop scenarios in response to policy problems. The article also investigates the shift from the technical to the socio-technical perspective within the field of smart cities. Despite the aspirations of urban scale digital twins to enhance the participation of citizens in the decision-making processes relayed to urban planning strategies, the fact that they are based on a limited set of variables and processes makes them problematic. The article aims to shed light on the tension between the real and the ideal at stake during this process of abstracting sets of variables and processes in the case of urban scale digital twins.

Formal grammar methodology for digital visualization of Islamic geometric patterns

In the oriental practice of art and architecture, and among the regions under their influence, Islamic geometric patterns (IGPs) have been widely used, not only due to aesthetics and decoration but also to make it possible to cover wide flat surfaces, curved surface of domes, and perforated surfaces of window and partitions, with perfectly tessellated shapes. However, with advances in time and technology, these techniques could not connect to the new technologies and benefit from the capacities of digitalization. Recent progress in science and technology tends to open new doors to study geometrical patterns by digitalizing the old ones and developing new variations. This study looks at formal grammar and computer science to introduce a new approach to digital visualization of available IGPs, particularly, star patterns. We investigate the potentials of developing a re-writing system for simulation of IGPs to provide a flexible platform, which allows introducing IGP to CAD/CAM software without previous knowledge on their design or drawing techniques. This methodology allows designers to directly develop various scenarios of IGP applications and implement them on related CAD/CAM tools. Formal language and grammar theories, based on applied mathematics are contributing to the advancements of computer science and digital modeling. They can provide an opportunity to express relational definition and written equivalents of the geometries by using strings and symbols. It is supposed that by using the formal grammar frameworks, certain languages could be developed to visualize IGPs in a machine-friendly way, and consequently, this computational interpretation of IGPs facilitates their application and further developments, for example, regards to digital fabrication. The presented method of IGP visualization is developed as a C#-based add-on for Grasshopper in Rhino3D, one of the main modeling tools used by architects and product designers.

Building sympathy: Waiting-with digital fabrication machines as a form of architectural labor

Many digital fabrication machines have potential dangers, for example, sudden fires or projectile debris; thus, architects are generally required to supervise these machines when they employ them to make things. It is unlikely that further mechanization will ever completely eliminate such dangers since they result from unpredictable material processes. Therefore, as digital fabrication machines proliferate throughout architecture schools and practices, architects will find themselves spending increasingly more time supervising them, and waiting. In this paper, I argue that architects should then not only embrace waiting-with digital fabrication machines as a new form of architectural labor, but also begin to explore the ways in which such waiting can be productive. I begin with a critique of many architects’ impatience with digital fabrication processes. I then use the continental philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of “intuition” to discuss the productive potential of waiting-with. Finally, I use a speculative 3D printing workflow to present additional creative possibilities that can arise if architects intentionally build waiting into digital fabrication processes.

Bridging the collectives: A review of collective human–robot construction

Advancements in multi-agent, autonomous, and intelligent robotic systems over the past decades point toward new design and fabrication possibilities. Exploring how humans and robots can create and construct collectively is essential in leveraging robotic technology in the building sector. However, only by making existing knowledge from relevant technological disciplines accessible to designers can we fully exploit current construction methods and further develop them to address the challenges in architecture. To do this, we present a review paper that bridges the gap between Collective Robotic Construction (CRC) and Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) and defines a new research domain in Collective Human–Robot Construction (CHRC) in the architectural design and fabrication context.

Clamp links: A novel type of reciprocal frame connection

Reciprocal frames (RFs) are complex structural systems based on mutual support between elements. One of the main challenges for these structures is achieving geometrical complexity with ease for assembly. This paper describes the development of a new type of connection for RF that uses a single bolt to fix a whole fan. The method used was the Research Through Design, using algorithmic modelling and virtual and physical prototyping. After the exploration of different alternatives, the connection selected was structurally evaluated with a 3D solid finite element analysis (FEM) software and a 2D bar parametric model. Finally, a full-scale pavilion was built as a proof-of-concept. A total of 47 connections were fabricated using four 3D-printed templates combined with a hand router. The construction allowed us to draw conclusions on the connection design and the assembly method, and the process as a whole can contribute to the development of new structural links and production methods.

(Computationally) designing out waste: Developing a computational design workflow for minimising construction and demolition waste in early-stage architectural design

In the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, waste is oft framed as an economic problem typically addressed in a building’s construction and demolition phase. Yet, architectural design decision-making can significantly determine construction waste outcomes. Following the logic of zero waste, this research addresses waste minimisation ‘at the source’. By resituating the problem of construction waste within the architectural design process, the research explores waste as a data and informational problem in a design system. Accordingly, this article outlines the creation of an integrated computational design decision support waste tool that employs a novel data structure combining HTML-scraped material data and historic building information modelling (BIM) data to generate waste evaluations in a browser-based 3D modelling platform. Designing an accessible construction waste tool for use by architects and designers aims to heighten awareness of the waste implications of design decisions towards challenging the systems of consumption and production that generate construction and demolition waste.

The question of access: Toward an equitable future of computational design

Digital fabrication and its cultivated spaces promise to break disciplinary boundaries and enable access to its technologies and computation for the broader public. This paper examines the trope of “access” in digital fabrication, design, and craft, and illustrates how it unfolds in these spaces and practices. An equitable future is one that builds on and creates space for multiple bodies, knowledges, and skills; allows perceptual interaction and corporeal engagement with people, materials, and tools; and employs technologies accessible to broad groups of society. By conducting comparative and transnational ethnographic studies at digital fabrication and crafting sites, and performing craft-centered computational design studies, we offer a critical description of what access looks like in an equitable future that includes digital fabrication. The study highlights the need to examine universal conceptions and study how they are operationalized in broader narratives and design pedagogy traditions.

Public parts, resocialized autonomous communal life

Commoning embodies the product of social contracts and behaviors between groups of individuals. In the case of social housing and the establishment of physical domains for life, commoning is an intersection of these contracts and the restrictions and policies that prohibit and allow them to occur within municipalities. Via a platform-based project entitled Public Parts (2020), this article will also present positions on the reification of the common through a set of design methodologies and implementations of automation. This platform seeks to subvert typical platform models to decrease ownership, increase access, and produce a new form of communal autonomous life amongst individuals that constitute the rapidly expanding freelance, work from home, and gig economies. Furthermore, this text investigates the consequences of merging domestic space with artificial intelligence by implementing machine learning to reconfigure spaces and program. The problems that arise from the deployment of machine learning algorithms involve issues of collection, usage, and ownership of data. Through the physical design of space, and a central AI which manages the platform and the automated management of space, the core objective of Public Parts is to reify the common through architecture and collectively owned data.

A review for using swarm intelligence in architectural engineering

Swarm intelligence algorithms are natural-inspired computational methods that mimic the social interaction between creatures to solve certain problems. Swarmative computational architecture (SCA) is a novel nomenclature proposed by the authors to present the use of various swarm algorithms in solving architectural problems. It includes three main aspects: form generation/adaptation, performance evaluation, and optimization. This study provides a systematic review and comparative analysis for the major publications within the review scope. The correspondence between dynamic subjects and the objective functions for the optimization process is presented. Particularly, dynamic subjects such as building formation parameters and objective functions such as occupant comfort and energy consumption. The main results and criteria are categorized into the design approach, case study, form generation/adaptation, and performance evaluation/optimization. Finally, this review presents the current trends and highlights the gaps in the use of swarm algorithms to solve architectural engineering problems.