Computer Aided Design
Overview
A variety of programs can give us planning tools that a few decades age we unimaginable. These two projects use very different tools in order to use the computational power available to us today to achieve different things. One uses visual scripting to model a structure, while the other uses Unity game engine to help us visualize how a building could be used before a single brick was laid out.
The Technion provides many opportunities to learn how technology can and has improved the field of architecture, among of course many others. I have always enjoyed working with computers and seeing the multitude of ways they can be applied to modeling and planning has opened my eyes to possibilities I never know existed before starting my studies.
Parametric Tower
Code based design
Project Overview
The tower is constructed entirely with parametric code that dictates the height and shape of the structure as well as the number of panels that can vary in size. It is planned as an office building with a commercial ground floor and an underground parking garage. The code can also automatically generate sections and plans.
After it was modeled in Grasshopper and Rhino, it was imported into Revit and given textures and stairs.
Grasshopper is an add-on the the 3D modeling program Rhinoceros. It works in visual coding blocks and allows those with even minimal knowledge of how writing a code works to create complex code based designs that are governed entirely by mathematics.
Using this tool one can create many complex designs quickly and create many variations of the same core design. Not only design, but also data extraction is a huge benefit of grasshopper. It can automatically measure the dimensions and volume of a space or surface, allowing us to work with more accurate data.
In this project I build a commercial and office space tower using only code built in Grasshopper, without having built anything in 3D beforehand.
Grasshopper Course
3rd year
Mar 2021
The visual code that dictates the shape of the building. The red boxes on the right output plans and sections.
Different iterations of the same code.
A breakdown of the structure done in Revit.
Plans and sections done in Revit.
Simulations done in Revit.
Human Behavior Simulation
Using Unity game engine
Project Overview
In my fourth year of architecture studies in the Technion I took an Intelligent Environments course that explored the possibility of simulation human behavior in Unity game engine to find out how technology can effect the buildings that we build.
My Contributions
I worked on this project with two other team members: Elior Harush and Juan Marjieh. We worked together on all parts of the project.
My team and I decided to base our simulation on the We Work offices in Haifa. Based on plans provided by Haifa municipality records division, as well as photographs available on the We Work website, we recreated the space in a 3D modeling program. We then imported the model into Unity game engine and began working on our simulation.
Using the visual scripting machine in Unity (and a LOT of direction from Prof. Davide Schaumann, the teacher of this course) we simulated the behavior of a typical user of the space based on a basic narrative the "agents" were to follow, dividing them into 2 groups: those who want social interaction and those who don't.
We we decided on a KPI (Key Performance Indicator), that being the satisfaction of the workers being in their preferred social condition during their breaks times and suggested an app that can help a person get an idea of how many people are in the break areas and raise their satisfaction.
Intelligent Environments Course
4th year
Jul 2022
First we built a digital model of the ground floor of the We Work building in Haifa in Rhinoceros 7. We then imported it into Unity game engine. Finally, we populated it with "agents" that simulate human behavior.
The building has several locations with different types of activities available. We marked such places as targets for our "agents" to move between periodically.
In order to plan out how to simulate the human behavior in code, we first built a flowchart that explains the actions and decision making we wanted our "agents" to carry out.
We then used the visual scripting machine in Unity to create the code that would dictate the "agents" movements.
This video shows a simulation we ran with two types of agents. The blue ones are non-social employees while the yellow ones are social. They turn darker if their desired social condition is not met and brighter if they are.
