‘Parametric Urban Design’: design by algorithm vs. design by drawing
As the first organisation of METU PUD, the design workshop conducted by Dr. Olgu Çalışkan, Y. Baver Barut and Gökhan Ongun at METU Faculty of Architecture in May, 30th 2014, represents the first experiment of the program applying parametric modelling in urban design. The experimental character of the workshop basically derives from the initial research question scrutinising the fundamental differences in analogue and algorithmic design thinking in urbanism. With the participation of eighteen students in total, the workshop has been conducted in six design groups comprising both architects and planners. In order to reveal the cognitive insight of the two different modes of generative reasoning, each design group has been asked to pursue both design by drawing and that by algorithm within two-days design experiment. Following the introductory lectures by Prof. Dr. Arzu Gönenç Sorguç and Assist. Prof. Dr. İpek Gürsel Dino (respectively on computational design and the concepts of morphogenesis and emergence by design), the six design group experimented the same design task (composing large scale urban fabric) in different contexts (Rotterdam and Istanbul), by different techniques (drawing and scripting) within two working days. The outputs of the workshop have basically demonstrated the possibilities and limitations to achieve certain variations in designing urban form parametrically, as well as the underlying differences and similarities in analogue and algorithmic design by parametric modelling.
Student projects:
