Parametric futures

Maintaining craft in architecture is an increasingly difficult task as the cost of construction continues to climb and a chronic skills shortage persists across Australia’s construction industry.  

For years, parametric design has been on the fringe of architectural design, often reserved for artistic facades and (expensive) sculptural building elements.  

But with increasing pressure on optimisation, efficiency and streamlined workflows, parametric design tools are being integrated into projects as part of optioneering processes. 

In a cost-conscious market, iterative option testing helps our team to balance efficiency with the role that beauty and function play in public spaces. 

What is parametric design in architecture?  

Put simply, parametric design uses mathematical equations to create complex and customized structures. Modelling programs apply these rules to building elements to get them to perform in a certain way.  

For example, you could write a script that added a window every two metres along a facade. Want to test what happens to the daylight levels if you increase the distance to three metres? It’s as easy as changing one number. With traditional modelling, this option testing would require a team to physically model and set out a secondary option.

CASE STUDY: The Pavilion with Mitchell Carter 

Mitchell Carter is a graduate in our Public team who specialises in digital design. He sat down with us to talk through his latest parametric script for The Pavilion.  

Can you tell us a bit about the project? 

The Pavilion is part of a tourist attraction in the Australian bush. The design concept was based on the wind currents, using rounded forms to mimic eroded landscapes. 

The eave of the building is where we found an opportunity to embed an intriguing layer of detail to heighten the experience of the Australian sun. This idea ultimately manifested as a repeating detail recessed into a concrete panel. The recess would amplify the shadow of the sun as it moved across this round, free-standing pavilion. For the sake of this conversation, let’s call it a ‘shadow recess’. 

Why did you use a parametric script?  

The script allowed us to represent the idea of flow and erosion over time, engaging more deeply with the building’s context and the subtle movements of the sun overhead. More importantly, it allowed us to test many, many options for representing that relationship and to fine-tune it to perfection within budget and time constraints.  

How does the script work? 

The main rules in this script are about distance, number of recesses and the depth of recesses. We wanted to know: 

1. How many panels does the manufacturer have to make? 
2. How many of the panels repeat, and how many are unique? 
3. What happens if we increase the number of ‘shadow recesses’? 
4. What happens if we increase the depth of the recess? 

With these major controls in place, we not only could get accurate building data out of the model for each option, but we could render the options with accurate ‘daylight’ to see the effect of removing or adding more detail.  

It’s a convincing tool to get an idea over the line as it visualises the ‘good, better, best’ approach in real time.  

Why don’t we use parametric scripting more often?  

Parametric scripting is useful for iterative design processes. Not all design needs this level of modelling work, and building a good script takes time. 

However, I use these tools all the time as a hack to speed up traditional design workflows as well as create new ones. These are ideas that have been around for a long time, but Grasshopper opens possibilities that more traditional architecture software can’t.  

See more of our digital capability here.