SmartGeometry 2010
Workshop and Conference
Barcelona
March 19-24, 2010
Workshop
March 19-22, 2010
Advanced Design Exploration: Functioning Prototypes that Prove and Test Concept and Design
Each year, the SmartGeometry workshop attracts tutors and attendees from across the worlds of academia and professional practice, including many of the brightest students. The workshop hosts 150 participants for four intensive days of design and collaboration on innovative design ideas and projects. The result – some amazing prototypes!
Date and Location
The SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop takes place March 19-22, 2010, at the world-renowned Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain.
Who Should Attend
The Workshop provides a unique opportunity for building professionals, along with architectural and engineering students, to explore advanced design objectives enabled by the latest technology.
The Tutors
Twenty-five preeminent professionals from architectural practices and design institutes on the cutting edge of generative design lead the workshop. Among them are: Dr. Axel Killian, assistant professor, School of Architecture, Princeton University; Achim Menges, director of the Institute for Computational Design, Stuttgart University; Shane M. Burger, associate and head of Computational Design Unit, Grimshaw; Brady Peters, Ph.D. Fellow, CITA, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture; and Dr. Robert Woodbury, professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University.
Speaker and tutor biographies.
The Workshop Challenge: Working Prototypes
The four-day workshop carries the theme “Working Prototypes” and focuses on functioning prototypes developed to prove and test concept and design.
IAAC is the ideal venue for the SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop Challenge as it contains a fabrication lab with different machinery and equipment for digital fabrication, even on a 1:1 scale, allowing for creation of material stress, physical thinking, and mental gymnastics. This puts the physical at center stage in challenging participants to design, assemble, and test working prototypes.
The Design Studios
The workshop will be organized around 10 hands-on design studios, hubs of expertise comprised of people, knowledge, tools, materials, and machines. These studios will facilitate the development and testing of working prototypes and provide a nucleus for exploration, discussion, processes, and techniques. Each design studio embraces a wide spectrum of approaches and engages eight to 16 participants, championed by at least two tutors who are pioneers in their field.
The SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop design studios are:
- Deep Surfaces: Articulation and Fabrication of Spatial Systems from Tensioned Fabric Elements
- Nonlinear Systems Biology and Design
- Manufacturing Parametric Acoustic Surfaces
- High-Tech Design - Low-Tech Construction
- Parametrics and Physical Interactions
- Explicit Bricks
- Rapid R&D to Rapid Assembly: snap fit, push on, and so forth
- Design to Destruction
- Inflatable Fabric Envelopes
Workshop Software
Workshop participants will use GenerativeComponents – Bentley’s generative design software – as their platform. Bentley will provide GenerativeComponents to participants for use in the workshop.
Applicants unfamiliar with this software will need to complete training in advance of the Barcelona event in order to focus on design exploration during the workshop. Applicants can contact events@bentley.com for information about free GenerativeComponents downloads and training opportunities.
Participants in particular studios will also receive complimentary software and plug-ins to GenerativeComponents.
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