The Stone Architecture course aims to show the unexpressed potential of structural stone and digital stereotomy for contemporary architecture.

During the course, students will learn how to design vaulted spaces and stereotomic architecture with parametric design and computational tools. They will be able to present their projects in highly visualized formats by using the visualization techniques taught during the course.

This is an applied workshop. We will learn through involvement, so expect homework! You will work in groups of 3 to distribute the tasks and produce a complete project. Every student will need to keep a portfolio and produce videos of their work towards the final presentation. Each group will have 10 minutes to present their work on jury day. What we look forward to in your projects are:

• Research into stone structures and their characteristics
• Research into geometrical 2d and 3d lattices, model making
• Implementing first research into a parametric model using the given tools
• Informing models with reality
• Implementing learnings from the software and visualisations in your projects
• Final presentations + Crits from instructors and invited juries

Rhinoceros 7.0. The 90-day trial version can be downloaded from the website.

Autodesk 3D Studio. The 1-year educational version can be downloaded from the Autodesk website.

Twinmotion. The free academic version can be downloaded from their website.

Grasshopper add-ons:

• Ngon
• Mesh+
• LunchBox
• Pufferfish
• Weaverbird
• Leopard 
• Mesh Edit

The whole course will be divided into three parts: the first part deals with a historical introduction and evolution of stereotomic architecture; the second part is related to the three-dimensional parametric/variational modeling techniques of complex vaulted spaces; the last part is about visualization and production of pictures, videos, and VR applications to present a project. Students will be guided through the design process of a stereotomic project during the course, which will be modeled, rendered, and optimized for VR.

Week 1

0.5-hour long introduction + 1.5 hours long lecture + 2 hour Rhino GH/3D Studio lab intro

Week 2

1-hour long lecture + 1-hour Rhino GH/3D Studio Class + 2 hours design studio and live reviews

Week 3

2 hours Rhino GH Class + 2 hours design studio and live reviews

Week 4

2 hours Rhino GH Class + 2 hours design studio and live reviews

Week 5

2 hours Twinmotion Class + 2 hours design studio and live reviews

Week 6

2 hours Twinmotion Class + 2 hours design studio and live reviews

Week 7

4 hours of final presentations