ARCH 655 Parametric Modeling in Design

Project 1 - Parametric Modeling with AI Assistance

Due:  10/21, Wednesday, 10:00PM

Weight: 50%

You are expected to create a parametric model embedding your own design intent for your selected case study. Use AI tools to help embed your design intents into the case study and visualize the new design. Based on the new design, create the parametric model.

Your tasks include:

1. Homework assignments and all versions of the project   (15 pts)

Complete all homework assignments, and all versions prior to the final version of the project. Follow the deadlines and submission procedures for each exercise or homework. The completeness of the tutorials and all versions of the project, on time submission, and the quality of your work will count toward part of the final grade of Project 1.

2. Collect information for a case study - a curved free form (5 pts)

As an option, use The New Mathematics of Architecture, by Jane Burry and Mark Burry, published by Thames & Hudson (available at Evans Library or Annex: NA2750 .B877 2010), as one of the references to select a free form building, landscape, or structure that is both interesting to you and challenging to model. The case studies from the book are listed in the end of this web page. You may find more information about the design from other resources.

The first step is to browse the book or search the design (buildings/landscapes/structures) online, identify a a design, then to collect more information - drawings, text, photos, etc. about the design to enable you to study and model the design using Rhino/Grasshopper and their plugins. You can use existing CAD files of a building/landscape/structure if you find them useful, with the permission from the authors and appropriate credits, to get started with modeling. However, you cannot use any existing Rhino/Grasshopper models of the design.

Alternatively, you can choose your design studio projects or other buildings to model/redesign. Your choice should have similar complexity and workload as those in the book referenced above.

If you are a student in the Digital Fabrication and Product Design minor or interested in product design, you may choose other books/references for a product design case study. Examples are Product Design, Furniture Design, Jewelry Design, etc. on this page. 

3. Modify the case study with your own design intent and visualize the new design using Generative AI (15 pts)

Based on your study of the case, modify it with your own design intent and then visualize the new design using Generative AI, with the case study's images and your prompts as input, and generated images of the new design as output. In the next step of the project, a parametric model will be built based on the output.

The Generative AI tools for visualization include: Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT, Veras, etc. Video and 3D modeling AI tools may also be used in this phase, but a final major outcome of the project will be a Parametric Model that can be changed interactively and parametrically, i.e. a Rhino + Grasshopper model.

Name your AI-generated images project1_AI_image1.jpg, project1_AI_image2.jpg, etc.

Optional: You may also use RhinoMCP to generate new designs for exploring your design intent and visualizing it. In this case, you can submit additional documents such as Rhino / Grasshopper models and your chat history with AI using RhinoMCP, follow the project naming convention, project1_AI_model.3dm, project1_AI_model.gh, project1_AI-MCP_chat.pdf, etc.

4. Create parametric form (mass and skin) for the curved design (25 pts)

Using Rhino/Grasshopper NURBS curve, surface, solid, mesh etc. functions to create the form and skin of the design. Identify driving parameters and make them changeable in Grasshopper through real-time interaction.

In this process, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT to help you study and use our parametric modeling tools Rhino/Grasshopper for the project. However, the Grasshopper model definition should be created by you, instead of generated by AI. You will need to verify that each component in the definition is working as expected. Note: you are given an opportunity to experiment with RhinoMCP AI tools to explore design intents in the last phase, but not in this phase. In this phase, you are expected to strengthen your own understanding of visual programming and parametric modeling methods by doing your work. You should be able to explain the geometric relationships and how data moves through the Grasshopper definition.   

Organize the Grasshopper graph to enable quick finding of the driving parameters and easy control of them.

You are going to creatively implement your own design intent through the use of the parameters and mathematical functions that can create the design and morph the form and skin to different design options. By changing parameter values, your model should generate different design options.

Detailed design components for a building design are not necessary to be created for this project. For product design, details are needed.

Name your design model project1_form.3dm and project1_form.gh.

Note it is important to organize your Grasshopper nodes, e.g. using Group and color coding.

5. Analyses (5 pts)

Analyze selected curved surfaces in your project, in terms of geometry (dimensions, areas, curve tangents, curvatures, etc. using the Analyze/Analysis functions of Rhino and Grasshopper). Use the analyses to demonstrate your design intent.

Save your models with analyses visualization as project1_analyses.3dm and project1_analyses.gh.

6. Visualization and documentation

6.1 Screenshots and Description (7 pts)

Create a set of screenshots for the parametric model, parametric changes, and the analyses (from different views, with appropriate drawing modes). Format: JPG. Size: 1920x1080 pixels or higher. Name the screenshots as:

project1_screenshot1.jpg, project1_screenshot2.jpg, etc.

Describe your case study, design intent, AI process, modeling process, and parametric changes of the model, using text, diagrams, math equations (if any), screenshots, etc. Clear and informative description is required.

The documentation will be published on a web portfolio/blog (described below in Submission).

6.2 Project Movie (10 pts)

In addition , you are expected to create a movie (up to 4 minutes in length) by capturing your computer screen that demonstrates your AI, models, parametric design, and user interaction, with your voice over as narrative. You can use Zoom recording of shared screen and other software to make and edit the movie. Upload the movie to your portfolio/Blog (directly or through embedding Youtube, Vimeo, etc. Make sure the video quality is high).

Suggested resolution: 1920x1080 pixels. Suggested format: MP4. Clear images and sound are expected.

Here's instruction about posting videos on Blogger

Note that you need to give reference for EACH image or citation of other people's work you used in your Blog or other documents. Also please check and follow the "AI Usage Policy: Guidelines and Disclosure" in Syllabus for this project (linking to Simple Syllabus).

7. Project presentation (8 pts)

Present your project movie + Q&A. Please make sure your movie on your blog is ready to be played before we start the presentation.

8. Submission

Project 1 submission includes the following items.

8.1 Submission to canvas.tamu.edu

8.2. Submission to the Web (or Canvas) for Presentation

Setup your portfolio/Blog page using a free platform such as:

https://www.blogger.com/start (or any other blog you have already used, e.g., WordPress).

Create a web blog page containing your Project1 visualization and documentation (#6 above). Submit your portfolio/blog URL to Canvas when required. Your name and "ARCH655 Project 1" should appear on your page. 

Note: you can control your portfolio/Blog postings to be viewed by only people you invite (through Settings in Blogger or WordPress). If you choose this setting, for this course presentation only, please invite the instructor by email in advance so your presentation can be viewed by the class during the presentation. You may change your settings after the grading of the project to make your posts private or keep them public.        

The final collective student presentation page will be announced later. If applicable, check the following page and click your project1 thumbnail to confirm that the link is pointing to your portfolio/blog.

http://bim-sim.org/ARCH655/students.html

Update: your blog/online portfolio URL for the project will be included in an access-controlled spreadsheet hosted at TAMU Google drive for class presentation. The blog/online portfolio's access can be controlled by the students. If you don't use a blog/online portfolio, please indicate this in the submission, and you will be requested to submit a PDF document for your project description for the final version of the project.  

8.3 Submission of your project thumbnail to Canvas: https://canvas.tamu.edu

Create a 160x120 pixel thumbnail image based on your exterior rendering. Save it as Project1_YourFirstname_YourLastname.jpg, and upload it to https://canvas.tamu.edu (ARCH655->Content->Project1_Thumnnail).

The thumbnail will appear on an access-controlled spreadsheet linked in the following page after it is uploaded by the instructor:  http://bim-sim.org/ARCH655/students.html

Finally, check your web page and links from the link below (if applicable and to be updated)
http://bim-sim.org/ARCH655/students.html

Make sure everything works by the due time. (Thumbnails will be displayed before presentation.)

Objectives:

Understand and experience parametric modeling and AI assistance. Learn how to use Rhino/Grasshopper and their plugins to build parametric models.

Notes:

1. You can find more resources (mostly online) and learn additional techniques to help you complete this project.

2. Be creative to design the parametric models and be innovative to apply the tools to your work.

Evaluation:

Your work will be judged on its workload, challenge, richness of design thinking, technical quality, and visual quality.

About Exceptional Work (10 pts)

As stated in Syllabus, a project is given 90/100 as a basis for “Satisfactory work, meet standards”. Based on project requirements, errors or missing items will cause reduction of points and exceptional work is awarded with extra points.

Examples of Exceptional Work:

Creative, sophisticated models with excellent design intent. Integrating the use of other tools, methods, algorithms, etc. in addition to what we have studied in class. Creative and responsible use of AI. Extra model files, images, and description may be submitted and integrated with the submission procedures stated above for presenting the extra work.

Additional Learning Resources

Paneling tools for creating the skins of the structures:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/panelingtools

http://wiki.mcneel.com/_media/labs/panelingtools4grasshopperprimer.pdf

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Case studies as references
**********************************

From The New Mathematics of Architecture

(available at Evans Library or Annex: NA2750 .B877 2010)

# 1.Mathematical surfaces and seriality
# Australian Wildlife Health Centre, Healesville Sanctuary, Australia / Minifie Nixon
# Beijing International Airport, Beijing, China / Foster + Partners
# Inversion modelling, Wolverhampton, UK / John Pickering
# Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Spain / Antoni Gaudí
# Main Station Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany / Ingenhoven Architects ;
# Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles / Gehry Partners
# Abu Dhabi Airport, Abu Dhabi, UAE / Kohn Pedersen Fox

# 2.Chaos, complexity, emergence
# Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia / Lab Architecture Studio
# Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
# Jyväskylä Music and Arts Centre, Jyväskylä, Finland / Ocean North
# Seroussi Pavilion, Paris / Biothing

# 3.Packing and tiling
# Battersea Power Station, London / Arup AGU
# The Water Cube, Beijing / PTW Architects
# Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo / Heneghan Peng
# The Spiral Extension, Victoria & Albert Museum, London / Daniel Libeskind
# Storey Hall, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia / Ashton Raggatt McDougall
# Spanish Pavilion, Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan / Foreign Office Architects
# Centre for Ideas, Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia / Minifie Nixon

# 4.Optimization
# British Museum Great Court, London / Foster + Partners
# Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. / Foster + Partners
# Qatar Education City Convention Centre, Doha, Qatar / Arata Isozaki
# Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Australia / Cox Architects
# Island City Central Park, Fukuoka, Japan / Toyo Ito
# The Pinnacle, London / Kohn Pedersen Fox
# Al Raha Development, Abu Dhabi / Foster + Partners
# Melbourne Recital Centre, Australia / Ashton Raggatt McDougall

# 5.Topology
# Möbius House, Het Gooi, Netherlands / UN Studio
# Arnhem Central, Arnhem, Netherlands / UN Studio
# Paramorph II, London / Decoi Architects
# Cape Schanck House, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia / Paul Morgan Architects
# Blowhouse: Life support unit, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia / Paul Morgan Architects
# Slavin House, Venice, California / Greg Lynn
# Klein Bottle House, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia / McBride Charles Ryan
# Möbius Bridge, Bristol, UK / Hakes Associates
# Villa Nurbs, Girona, Spain / Cloud 9 Architecture
# National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia / Ashton Raggatt McDougall
# Metropolitan Opera House, Taichung, Taiwan / Toyo Ito

# 6.Datascapes and multi-dimensionality
# De Draai extension, Heerhugowaard, Netherlands / Karres En Brands
# freshHtwoOexpo, Zeeland, Netherlands / NOX Architects
# Streaming House, Melbourne, Australia / Minifie Nixon
# Aegis Hyposurface, Birmingham, UK / Decoi Architects
# Spoorg, Los Angeles / SERVO
# Hotel Prestige Forest, Barcelona, Spain / Cloud 9 Architecture
# Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE / Asymptote
# Muscle ReConfigured + Interactive Wall, Delft, Netherlands / Hyperbody
# Digital Water Pavilion, Zaragoza, Spain / Carlo Ratti Associati.