We now have the ability to design systems with unlimited specificity using modern manufacturing techniques. Tools like Grasshopper, Lunchbox, and Ladybug allow us to create parameterized spaces that adapt to the surrounding environment without requiring expensive, power-hungry movement systems or manually tuned pieces that degrade over time. We can develop infinitely customizable approaches that creatively react to the surrounding environment using site forces around a piece of architecture.

This technique can create building shapes, facade systems, program layouts, and more. By utilizing computational techniques as a tool for sustainable development, we can better understand the various effects that different building systems will have and how even minor changes can have significant effects.

This workshop called “Environment-Reactive Computation (with Ladybug)” aims to develop quick sketch designs that use methods that can be infinitely scalable via list structure, then apply our approach to a sizable theoretical building with surrounding context to create a system that can adapt to environmental and other contextual factors like program and panel height. We will review a few panel design options and how to implement modular and responsive factors to these panels. Using specific list structure techniques and grasshopper plugins like Ladybug, attendees not only learn how to create reactive systems for a single variable but also for a multivariate design system that can be tweaked to develop unique environmental responses.

• Teach the basics of Ladybug and dive better into list structure. 
• With the basics of list structure, the goal is that participants can take these techniques and apply them to real-world projects.
• Create a distinctive and customized design that stands out.
• Students will learn more about the mathematics behind some of these concepts, like the sigmoid function, and understand the power of Grasshopper.
• The future of architecture is sustainable design; techniques to simulate the environment computationally will only become more democratized.
•  This workshop will teach attendees how to use and integrate these tools creatively with other parametric design tools.

• Suggested/Extras:

• Mesh+ Plugin – Useful for manipulating meshes.
• Lumion – Student and Faculty version is free, with a 14-day free trial.

• Total sessions: 2 Sessions
• PAACADEMY will provide a certificate of attendance.