The course explores the potential of parametric modelling in architectural design. It aims to cultivate parametric thinking in design, the understanding of algorithmic design as a process of determining the code that organizes the parametric model and describes the architectural form, through practical experimentation in parametric modelling for architectural design.
In the course we develop parametric models for projects on architectural and urban scale, or the scale of objects. We examine early algorithmic thinking and analogue parametric models, its contemporary applications and potentials, form-finding methods, the visual code, the relation between digital models and digital fabrication (CAD/CAM), and the relation between geometry, materials and technics in algorithmic design. Concepts and technics such as topological formation, parametric differentiation, and population thinking are also analyzed. Students gradually learn to analyze the design problem and subsequently describe it through code, in order to produce a parametric model of the project in Grasshopper 3D for Rhino algorithmic editor. They have to work on a main project as requested in the course brief and deliver parametric models, drawings, and physical models at the end of the semester. The course includes parametric software seminars, lectures, practical exercises, and continuous tutoring.