Thanks to Rafael Roa for this new Smartgeometry2011_IwC video!

Rafael Roa (Lem3A http://www.lem3a.es) has pubblished this new video that describe in depth the work done in Interacting with Cities cluster in Smartgeometry 2011.
Video credits: Rafael Roa - http://www.vimeo.com/26565217 or http://www.lem3a.es

Back from Smartgeometry 2011 Copenhagen

From 28^th March to 2^nd April I had been in Copenhagen and I attended the Smartgeometry Workshop and Conference. This year the venue was the Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture hosted by the Centre for IT and Architecture (CITA) in Copenhagen.

I participated in the Interacting with the City (IwC) cluster, led by Przemek Jaworski, Flora Salim, and Martin Kaftan. The cluster have worked with a series of tangible table prototypes using Kinect and the online real time data sources as Google Maps, Twitter and weather data.

There was different setups, where the user can interact in real time with the digital model with hands gestures (single and multi touch), or physical objects on the table. The movements and gestures are captured with cameras or kinect controller that is also capable to scan the entire scene as depth data and use the resulting point cloud information to reconstruct the 3D geometry.

My group was interested in environmental and climatic responsive design and we developed the project called “Hands on Ofelia’s Beach” (Ofelia Beach is the Royal Danish Theatre's outdoor stage and lounge area on Kvæsthusmolen in central Copenhagen).

The project explores the interaction with the digital model through the use of tangible objects to experiment form and shape. The architects and designers can use a physical building blocks, made of foam or paper, to explore the effect of the design on the site in regard to the sun and wind conditions. Interactively the designer can try to find the best configuration of the blocks that can perform the best local wind conditions and the best exposure to solar radiation. 

We used Kinect as 3D geometry scanner to capture the objects on the table, and the real time data from the Copenhagen Airport weather station. The 3D point cloud from the Kinect and the wind direction and speed is used in Processing to calculate the 2D flow simulation around the objects using a Navier-Stokes algorithm (Based on code by Martin Kaftan) .

The physical model captured from Kinect with the Processing environment is continually being streamed to the digital model in Bentley GenerativeComponents (GC) giving the opportunity to record the different design stages and continue the design in a digital environment. The connection is made by UbiMash (developed by Flora Slim), which is able to export the point cloud and convert it into 3D geometry. Inside GC was possible to connect the model with Ecotect using the gc-ecotect-link to get the incident solar radiation and the incident daylight levels  of the objects on the table.  

 The connection between software was pretty fast (excluding the computation time that depends on accuracy and mesh complexity) and allows to get the analysis values directly inside GC and could be used as input to new features as shading devices or openings. The next step was to improve the design with the integration of user defined feature to develop the design further. Any changes in the physical model is computed and updates the digital one, computing new analysis and visualized back to the table giving a interactive design feedback loop.

SmartGeometry 2011 Copenhagen

Interacting with City Cluster (Przemek Jaworski, TU Wroclaw – Flora Salim, SIAL, RMIT – Martin Kaftan, Echorost)

Group 1 “Hands on Ofelia’s Beach” (Davide Madeddu, DiArch – Raul Kalvo, Estonian Academy of Arts – Jakob Bak, Danish Architecture Centre – Tore Banke, CITA)

Back from SmartGeometry 2010 @ IaaC Barcelona

My photos fromSmartGeometry 2010 @ IaaC Barcelona

I was there!!!
My workshop cluster was Deep Surfaces more info here

Article from Frame And Form <eng>

From SmartGeometry website
The SmartGeometry Group is pleased to announce that the annual SG event will take place in Barcelona 19th – 24th March 2010. The event will be the key event in the year for discussing, learning and networking about the emerging practice of digital parametrics within the AEC community.

The event will come in three parts, a Workshop (19th-22th March), a public Shop Talk (23rd March), and a public Symposium and Reception (24th March). These events follow the highly successful previous SG events in San Francisco 2009, Munich 2008, New York 2007, Cambridge/London, UK 2006 and multiple preceding events.
Annually, the SG workshop attracts an impressive group of tutors and attendees from across the world of academia, professional practice as well as many of the brightest students. The workshop is open to 100 applicants who come together for four intensive days of design and collaboration. Admission to the workshop is based on selection by the SmartGeometry Group.
The 2010 SmartGeometry Workshop is organised around the challenge ‘Working prototypes’. Working prototypes are functioning prototypes developed for the purpose of proving and testing a concept and design. In 2010 the workshop will be held in the great industrial space at the IAAC in Barcelona. This allows possibilities for fabrication on even a 1:1 scale, of creating material stress, physical thinking and mental gymnastics. This puts the physical at centre stage in challenging participants to design, assemble and test working prototypes

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SmartGeometry 2010 Barcelona

SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop Barcelona

I will be there!

Info