CAD Design News

CAD Design News

Generative Design Is Changing the Face of Architecture

New technology allows humans to harness computational powers for practical ends and to generate building design options that couldn’t otherwise exist. Generative design — allows humans to control intellectual forces many times more powerful than human minds to design and construct buildings that could not otherwise exist. It is not the first time, of course, that humans have harnessed vast computational powers for practical ends, but something about walking around inside the results brings home the magnitude of what is happening.

Humans are fond of impressive buildings. The 2008 Olympics, for example, probably will be remembered as much for two spectacular buildings — the Beijing National Stadium and the Beijing National Aquatics Centre — as for the many world records that were set in them. Better known as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, respectively, the buildings’ design, engineering, and construction depended heavily on generative design. By seizing the world stage so dramatically, the two buildings raised the profile of generative design (also called computational design or parametric design) and, to some extent, architecture may never go back.

GenerativeComponents is associative and parametric modeling software that can be used by architects and engineers to automate design processes and accelerate design iterations. It gives designers and engineers new ways to explore alternative building forms without manually building a detailed design model for each scenario. It also increases efficiency in managing conventional design and documentation.