Realtime Physics for Space Planning

This is a preview of a parametric conceptual design tool for architectural practice that I have been developing at NBBJ. I wanted to develop a system that allows designers to quickly organize and understand complex architectural programmes in three dimensions.

It is an advancement of the traditional bubble diagram; it solves adjacency requirements automatically and suggests planimetric and sectional relationships. The resulting diagrams are not formal solutions; they are simply organizational diagrams with solved adjacencies and accurate required areas. The diagrams are raw materials, meant to be manipulated sculpturally, or even squeezed into a formal container.


Technical Information
The tool was created in the Grasshopper plug-in for Rhino. Custom components, written in VB.NET, read programme data directly from Excel into Grasshopper. The tool uses the Kangaroo engine for realtime spring dynamics simulation.

By: Marc Syp