Beyond Simulation: Designing For Uncertainty And Robust Solutions

Simulation is an increasingly essential tool in the design of our environment, but any model is only as good as the initial assumptions on which it is built. This paper aims to outline some of the limits and potential dangers of reliance on simulation, and suggests how to make our models, and our buildings, more robust with respect to the uncertainty we face in design. It argues that the single analyses provided by most simulations display too precise and too narrow a result to be maximally useful in design, and instead a broader description is required, as might be provided by many differing simulations. Increased computing power now allows this in many areas.

Author: Sean Hanna
Author: Lars Hesselgren
Author:Victor Gonzalez
Author:Ignacio Vargas

Publication: Proceedings: Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design at the 2010 Spring Simulation Multiconference

Year: 2010

Topological Self-Organisation: Using A Particle-Spring System Simulation To Generate Structural Space-Filling Lattices

The problem being addressed relates to the filling of a certain volume with a structural space frame network lattice consisting of a given number of nodes. A method is proposed that comprises a generative algorithm including a physical dynamic simulation of particle-spring system. The algorithm is able to arrange nodes in space and establish connections among them through local rules of self-organisation, thus producing space frame topologies.

Author: Sean Hanna
Author: A Kanellos

Publication: Proceedings of the 26th eCAADe Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe 2008

Year: 2008