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Parametric Facade Generation
ZGF Architects
This project populated 4, 10 story facades with undulating fins that emulated ripples moving across the surface of water. Multiple iterations of the design needed to be produced quickly and easily, and represented accurately in Revit, additionally the panel designs had to be optimized to limit unique panel counts, as well as documented for fabrication and assembly.
A Photoshop file was used to control the undulation of the fins, within the base image a lighter tone translated to a narrower fin, while a darker tone created a wider one.
The sharpness of the transition between the two dictated the shape of the fin profile as well. The shape generation of the fins was controlled by a custom Dynamo graph.
This graph read the photoshop file, generated and optimized the fin profiles that would represent the base image the most accurately with the fewest unique parts possible, then the fins were cataloged and drawn and tagged on sheets in Revit.
These files were also used as cut-files to build physical mockups.