See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/30874785

Disparallel Spaces: Parametric Design Experience

Conference Paper · April 2008

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1559.5688 · Source: OAI

CITATIONS READS

4 404

1 author:

Marc Aurel Schnabel

Victoria University of Wellington
212 PUBLICATIONS   883 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Biomorphic Algorithm, Generative Design, Processing, Urban Growth View project

Modrule: A Gamified Design Communication Platform View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Marc Aurel Schnabel on 20 March 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

MARC AUREL SCHNABEL

Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
[email protected]

Abstract. Disparallel Spaces was an architectural design exhibition showcasing creative

digital design techniques. It explored how the coupling of architectural design with digital
modelling and fabrication methods allows for a deeper comprehension and experience of
space and form. The participating designers proposed architectural solutions that challenged
and defied gravity, dimension, space and volume in unprecedented ways, resulting in novel
designs created with freedom of innovation, interpretation, and definition without
boundaries. The notion of non-conformity was the core of this collection of works, held
together by the idea of spatial concepts in disparallel configurations and unconventional
methods in the process of design.

Keywords. Parametric design; Fabrication; Design learning; Architecture and art.

1. Introduction

Between the months of May and July of 2007, Sydney’s Tin Sheds Gallery hosted an
architectural design exhibition. Aptly named Disparallel Spaces, the exhibition confronted
problems in architectural design from a diversity of multi-faceted and eccentric approaches,
setting the trend for novel viewpoints of innovation and spatial design, and offering a unique
opportunity to experience the digitalized future in the field of architecture (Schnabel and
Bowller, 2007). The art works were driven by creative use of computer-aided architectural
design tools, scripting, parametric design techniques and fabrication, as well as crossover
media. Fuelled by a design-studio theme Cliff-hanger, these artistic interpretations explored
how the coupling of architectural design with digital modelling and fabrication methods allows
for a deeper comprehension and experience of space and visual quality. Spatial concepts in
disparallel configurations generated through knowledgeable employment of these tools in
sophisticated and unorthodox ways formed the groundwork on which this imaginative collection
was conceived.
Each individual piece in its developing phase explored design based on parameters. In
order to construct a philosophy grounded in parametric dependencies and relationships, the
designers used digital tools that enabled them to create and express their designs. Typically,
architects employ such tools only for visualisation purposes after designs are completed in
order to feed them into subsequent construction and manufacturing processes.
There are two inherent characteristics of parametric application. The first is that all entities
start with a point in space and allow for the study of architectural conditions in a three-
dimensional environment, rather than the commonly used two-dimensional context or layering
techniques. The second elucidates the underlying concept of parametric modelling as an
abstraction, which responds to manipulations in data, variables, and their relationship to other
entities.

459
 M.A. SCHNABEL

Participants of the exhibition employed their digital media skills early in their architectural
studies to utilize and expand on their understanding and communication of various design
issues in this challenge, following a tradition of design studios where participants explore
design methods and tools beyond their original definitions and perceived limits (Schnabel et
al., 2004).
The designs were translated using a variety of manufacturing processes, from digitally
controlled milling machines and rapid prototyping to manual translation of the resulting
creation. This crucial step between virtual to physical forms engages the designer in a tangible
design process that bridges the gap between the initial idea and its realization. By presenting
the work in a gallery environment, the works were again translated into another realm where
interpretation of architectural design can transcend prevalent understanding.

2. Cliff-hanger and disparallel spaces

A building or structure can be expressed and specified in a variety of ways. Commonly,

drawings are used to describe geometric properties that can depict, explain, and guide
construction. Alternatively, performance specifications can describe observed behaviours.
Another possibility of describing properties is via relationships between entities. Spreadsheets,
for instance, specify the value of each cell as the result of calculations involving other cell
entries.
These calculations or descriptions do not have to be explicit. Responsive materials change
their properties in reaction to the conditions around them. Using this concept as a basis for
design, artists have come to create reactive sculptures and architects have begotten sentient
spaces that react to their occupants or other relevant factors.
Links to a variety of data can be established and serve to generate geometric forms using
parametric design tools. When designing spaces, it is usual to collect data of the type of
architectural qualities desired. However, little research exists examining or validating the
framework of design using parametric methods and its enhancement of the overall process
(Schnabel and Karakiewicz, 2007). The exhibition Disparallel Spaces ultimately reframes
the question of parametric methodologies, and proposes new answers that will spark a revolution
in design thinking.
Participating designers at the exhibition solved an architectural problem using applications
focusing on the parametric dependencies of spatial perception, fabrication, and form finding.
Their creation and exchange of ideas followed the cyclical design-exploration paradigm evident
in design studios (Schnabel et al., 2004). This design-cycle frames the focal design question
at its centre (Gao and Kvan, 2004), and full advantage is taken of the available building
information modelling technologies to explore it. This approach challenges the limitations set
by conventional, design-only methods. The cognitive aspects of the creative process and its
relationship to parametric design methods operate as an influential factor for understanding
the perception, framing, and creation of spatial knowledge within architectural design.
Each designer explored processes that use sets of variables and series of relations to question,
create, and define the form and function of their resulting design. By doing so, they examined
the interaction techniques at play between the design intent, framing of the design problem,
and their subsequent creation.
Moreover, Disparallel Spaces was guided by the concept of three-dimensionality in the
abstract design-studio theme Cliff-hanger. In this task, which acted as prelude to the exhibition
and hence as independent project that can fulfil all requirements of an academic exercise,
spatial issues were to be addressed differently than on typical planar sites and a variety of
architectural languages were required to be used in the design exploration. There were three
distinct stages that constituted the creative process in preparation for the exhibition: the defining
of parameters, creating of rules, and fabricating of the design.

460
 DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

2.1 PARAMETRIC DESIGNING

Any object or form that constitutes our surroundings can be described in numerous ways, one
of which is through the object’s response to certain conditions. The design-studio Cliff-hanger
looked into descriptions of behaviours by means of performance specifications.
The existence of condition-responsive relationships enables parametric design tools to
formulate links between arrays of data that can then be used to generate an indefinite number
of geometric forms. These descriptive parameters and rules can be applied directly to areas of
manufacturing or design, such as in architecture, where spatial, experiential, financial, and
environmental expectations and ideals can be met. The concept of Cliff-hanger explored
these dependencies: designers illustrated their vision using parametric software and produced
large-scale designs to express their unique parametric language.

2.2 SCRIPTING

Scripting uses computer programming languages that typically remain in their original form,
are interpreted command by command, and are interchanged each time they run. ‘Script’ is
derived from the term for written dialogue in the performing arts, where actors are given
directions to perform or interpret.
Scripting languages are not technical. They define a set of rules, which are based on
parameters. Scripts or rules also make applications programmable from within, so that repetitive
tasks can be automated, potentially offering endless possibilities due to content and behaviours
that can be set up.
Using digital techniques in spatial design, the theme of Cliff-hanger addressed parameters
intrinsic to the built form of the physical gallery space: scale, gravity, materiality and site.
However, instead of using compositional methods for designing, the artists utilise a script that
takes over. The script forms its own generative properties - its own logic - like tree branching,
motion of a flock of birds, or fluidities. Sourcing any form of algorithm, parameters or
computation rules, the script is edited and controlled by the designer and applied to the
constraints of the gallery space.

2.3 FABRICATION

Another stage in the creative process is the fabrication of the digitally created designs. Recent
fabrication technologies have allowed architecture to take new directions. The combination
of computer technology with computer-controlled machinery has made it possible for any
shape, however complex or irregular, to be built. The artworks of Disparallel Spaces explored
novel avenues of architecture that lie in the transformation of virtual design conceptions to
physical objects via the use of computer-aided manufacturing.

2.4 EXHIBITION

After the design-studio Cliff-hanger was completed, the produced work could be curated to
fit an exhibition showcasing the designers’ engagement with parametric designing and
fabrication. To mark the distinctive final stage of presentation in celebrative conclusion of
design development, the exhibition was named ‘Disparallel Spaces’ (Figure 1). The event
exemplified how digital architectural design can conceptually and artistically engage with
any particular site, in this case, the Tin Sheds Gallery, where a variety of solutions to problems
in architectural design were presented from a diversity of multi-faceted and eccentric
approaches. The participating designers pushed creativity to new boundaries in definition of
their artwork and cultural contexts, setting the direction for poetic viewpoints on innovation
in architecture and spatial design.

461
 M.A. SCHNABEL

Figure 1: Tin Sheds Gallery with Disparallel Spaces

3. Parametric artworks

As the participants were able to acquire a high level of skill in the use of specific tools, they
employed them primarily as an amplifier to generate their designs. Based on their complex
and interrelating parameters, scripts, and architectural interpretation of the theme Cliff-hanger,
each design proposal emerged in its own unique exhibition setting. However, all the designs
shared the common fact that each could not have been communicated using traditional
architectural design methods or tools.
One of the many proposals was a translation of a music piece into architecture (Figure 2).
Parameters transcribed 48 virtual forms derived from the preludes and fugues of Book I of
The Well-Tempered Clavier (bwv 846-869) by J. S. Bach (1685-1750). The physical form
represented the relationship between music and architecture in the Western tradition, and its
relevance to contemporary thought and practice. In illustrating the parametric forms produced,
the exhibited artwork was a physical entity of “musical virtual space”.

Figure 2: Peter Christensen: Spatial Polyphony, Fuge C major

Another design proposal explored the manipulation of attributes, such as surfaces, lines
and vertices, parametric scripts of scattering, cracking, weaving and flocking (Figure 3). The
installation captured the sweep and surge of a flock of birds in a physical realization of a
digital process. Perspex, steel, wire, and mathematical computation amalgamated in translation
into a visual cadence, breathing and existing, as it glided through the interior space of the
gallery. The group of designers behind this art piece constructed an exact replication of the
attributes and behaviours manifested by a flock of birds in flight, presenting integrated and
layered complexities. The parameters and scripted design rules used in the development process
provided the designers with complete control over the ‘living organisms’ they had created.

462
 DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Figure 3: N. Barbov, D. Catalano, C. Doherty, M. Earl, K. Freney, E. Seeto, K. Shuttle & K. Zhuge: Stop
Motion

One particular sculpture in the exhibition took the form of two distinctive interlocking
skins. Utilising characteristics of typical coloured pencils, the piece explored the formal and
structural properties of the hexagonal prism. It challenged the rigid, structurally efficient, and
directional form by juxtaposing it with a pair of organic, playful skins. At a conceptual level,
the piece investigated positive and negative spaces created by the skins and the interplay
between them. The seemingly obsolete pencil as tool component adopted in digital designing
received newfangled meaning that has subsequently made it indispensable (Figure 4).

Figure 4: James Garvan: Pencils

In another proposal named ‘para/site’, the designer developed a mycorrhizal relationship

with its host, the gallery space (Figure 5). The urban para/site seeks opportunities in which to
thrive, based on the needs of its architectural biology (appropriate structure, access, electricity,
sunlight, water). Once a suitable site is discovered, the para/site employs a cellular growth
pattern, creating a skeletal voronoi space frame structure. The para/site depends on its host for
survival and through its establishment forms a new architectural engagement. These new
parallel-sites are its symbiotic gift to its host. The para/site implements an intelligent cellular
growth algorithm intended to mimic precedents of growth from the natural world. The resulting
design is a function of the growth algorithm’s responsiveness to the environment in which it
finds itself.

463
 M.A. SCHNABEL

Figure 5: Paul Hohnen: para/site

Amongst the many other designs was one that explored the inherent parameters of graffiti
art. In recent years, graffiti has undergone a rapid stylistic evolution - what began as a mere
distortion of traditional planar letters has been gradually replaced by abstract, less conventional
approaches. Today, graffiti is having its boundaries pushed to the limit as artists develop
styles, which give their artwork the illusion of leaping from a two-dimensional space.
Exploration has its constraints, however, such as the physical restriction of the wall, page or
other planar surface upon which the artist’s work is set. ‘Graffiti’s Third Dimension’ (Figure
6) uses digital media to explore the representation of a two-dimensional culture in three-
dimensional space. A simple tag is taken and extruded to generate a model built by a series of
flat, stacked sections – a reminder of the tag’s planar origins. This spatial graffiti is then
placed into context with its own negative by subtracting the model’s volume from a similarly
sized rectangular prism.

Figure 6: Caroline Granjean-Thomson: Graffiti’s Third Dimension

The conventional interpretation of space is typically generated into two-dimensional

architectural drawings that intend to convey a particular spatial dimension. In one of the
designs, ‘Sense Space Synthesis’ (Figure 7) challenged this creation and perception of space,
gravity, boundary and dimension through means of digital interpretations. The principle of
this exploration aimed to tackle volume over surface, using forms with responsive characteristics
that define the concept of ever-changing spatial dimensions. This responsive form demonstrated
the relationship between senses and space in a digital representation. The idea of a sensorial
space underwent extensive experimentation through different parametric translations,
consequently expressed by an animation that sought to provide a macro and micro sense via
projection on a sphere that distorted the image by merging what was real and virtual into a
single sensorial experience.

464
 DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Figure 7: Andrew Kyon & Jennifer Lua: Sense, Space & Synthesis

In her work ‘Line, Form & Volume’, the designer explored the visual qualities and properties
manifested in the draping of a material over a form (Figure 8). By employing processes of
draping, folding and stretching, the parameters of a material’s surface were changed. A draped
material creates a series of folded ribs that become structural. ’Line, Form & Volume’ utilised
these contours to create a mould which ultimately became the positive form itself.

Figure 8: Miruna Sladescu: Line, Form & Volume

Other designers chose to explore a variety of other concepts, such as digital technologies
and their application in architectural design. One of these is ‘Erosive Fluidity’ (Figure 9),
which focused on evolutionary design - a creative process that uses the neo-Darwinian model
of evolution to solve complex ill-defined problems. The artwork’s group of designers began
by generating complexity through simple rules, resulting in unique architectural spaces. In a
subsequent stage, the underlying rules and process behind ‘Erosive Fluidity’ were used to
investigate the technique of animation and digitally controlled manufacturing to create a
responsive system within the gallery space. The resulting liquid form was endowed with an
almost life-like behaviour, weaving through the interior space, setting off and responding to
environmental events.

465
 M.A. SCHNABEL

Figure 9: B. Coorey, N. Tan, H. Beresford, and J. Thompson: Erosive Fluidity

In its entirety, the participating designers of Disparallel Spaces demonstrated a competent

level of design thinking through their individual artworks, resulting in the conception of
compound rules and dependencies that ultimately produced the artistic schemes. The designers
obtained a high level of skill and expertise in their employment of digital parametric tools
and fabrication processes, using this knowledge to design from an unprecedented parametric
approach. The art collection attested to the artists’ style of thinking and depth of understanding
required of parametric design, and determination in achieving their conceptual aim and
anticipated outcome, breaking away from conventional design trends that deal with one problem
at a time, regardless of its dependencies. The exemplified works of the Disparallel Spaces
exhibition (Figure 10) illustrates how non-linear design processes and the re-representation of
ideas can lead to architectural expressions that deviate from typical approaches in their differing
natures of design creation. Exploration of these gestalts can enhance the understanding of
spatial issues and lead to meaningful and responsive architectural descriptions in a much
greater context. Despite the fact that three-dimensional representations of an architectural
space serves only as a platform with which to aid understanding and communication of spatial
arrangement, the parametric medium acts to further encourage, enable, and enhance designers’
comprehension of complex spatial qualities via re-representations. Disparallel Spaces brings
to light the myriad of possibilities made possible through engagement of the process of
translation itself as a creative act.

Figure 10: Tin Sheds Gallery Space; L. Huan: Rain and K. Thomas: Rigid Fluidity

4. Conclusions

Tin Shed Gallery’s Disparallel Spaces addressed computational concepts of designing and
fabrication that influence recent development of architectural production. The event also
explored innovative methods of architectural expression, form finding, and communication,

466
 DISPARALLEL SPACES: PARAMETRIC DESIGN EXPERIENCE

whilst developing unconventional solutions to a proposed design problem. The coupling of

novel design creation with an art exhibition closes the gap between acquisition of skills and
the reflection of knowledge, as well as discovering methods of framing and integrating
compound design issues.
The use of digital parametric tools allowed all participants to design within an environment
based on rules and generative descriptions, amplifying their understanding of the creative
process and its learning outcomes. Each designer bridged the rift between their knowledge
and ambition, creating inspiring concepts and never-seen-before proposals. The compiling of
all projects into a single exhibition removed the artists from the context of individual ownership,
providing them with the invaluable opportunity to reflect on both their own and their colleagues’
proposals as a coherent collection of contributions towards one concept of design.
With knowledgeable employment of parametric software, the designers were able to
experience the dependencies and rules of the various artworks in a spatial aspect. Each design
could be communicated using both physical and digital models or representations. Design
data generated can then be linked in numerous ways to extract or conceive new geometric
forms and understandings. The resulting descriptions can be used directly in the manufacturing
of objects controlled either by digital or manual assembly.
Every phase and development is an essential constituent of the design process, each
addressing and expressing an important aspect of learning and the artistic experience. A holistic
discussion about design, form, function, and development is consequently established - a
significant venture not only within the architectural realm, but also in all other dialogues
involving spatial representation.

Acknowledgements

The authors express gratitude to all the participants of the Design Studio at the Faculty of
Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney, for their contributions and enthusiasm
for the Disparallel Spaces Exhibition at the Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney in 2007. Financial aids came
from Research and Development Scheme of the University of Sydney; photos were taken by Brett
Boardman and for more information about the exhibition go to www.disparallelspaces.tk.

References

Gao, S. and Kvan, T.: 2004, An Analysis of Problem Framing in Multiple Settings, in J Gero (ed) Design Computing
and Cognition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 117-134.
Schnabel, M.A. and Karakiewicz, J.: 2007, Rethinking Parameters in Urban Design, International Journal of
Architectural Computing (IJAC), MultiScience, Essex, Vol.6 (01)
Schnabel MA and Bowller N.: 2007, Disparallel Spaces, University of Sydney, Australia.
Schnabel, M.A., Kvan, T., Kuan, S.K.S. and Li, W.: 2004, 3D Crossover: Exploring - Objets Digitalise, International
Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC) 2(4): 475-490.

467

View publication stats