Emerging Practice Spotlight: Computational Design

Many industries have been revolutionised in the last one hundred years by constant disruptions through the advancements of technology manifested in Industry 3.0 and now Industry 4.0. Out of all industries, Architecture, Engineering and the Construction (AEC) industry, has been one of the slowest to adapt.

Traditionally, designers would rely merely on their intuition and experience to solve problems but now, using Computational Design, they can leverage an algorithm to create a holistic and more seamless experience for all parties. This is a great opportunity for the industry to catch up with faster-than-ever-evolving technology. 

Our designers no longer have to rely merely on their own experience, knowledge and laborious manual tasks, they can utilise shared digitised expertise and experience to create more opportunities – at the risk of sounding redundant – with the click of a button. 

It’s a known fact that no human brain can do what a computer does when it comes to running billions of parallel calculations. Logically and mathematically, the benefits of utilising this power during the design process are countless. For example, we can utilise environmental analysis tools to simulate real conditions and understand intricacies like the comfort level of pedestrians moving around the building on a windy day or how many hours of sunlight a Build to Rent apartment will receive during the year, which in turn, gives our clients the ability to adhere to best sustainability practices. 

For a visual thinker, there is nothing more gratifying than watching a design come to life on a screen based on intricate and thoughtful calculations. For a systems-driven designer, the automation of time intensive processes is revolutionary for efficiency and productivity. The way forward with computational design methods will help streamline many inefficiencies within the industry, and we have technology to thank. 

We can now construct and manipulate algorithms to create representations of buildings while being able to make instant and simple changes that don’t tumble it all back to square one again.

In addition, data-driven design paradigms using external and owned data helps to not only predict the current project’s design outcomes, but also assists with generating other potential designs and help us make informed decisions and know which design direction can have the optimal outcome. This is how we are growing as a business and taking our projects to new heights as we can accommodate more stakeholder requests, more quickly.

As our Managing Director and Co-Founder Anthony Merlin says, “It’s no secret that we’re a group of fast adapters at i2C, and with the evolving design space growing more into artificial intelligence and machine learning, we’re leaning on our dedicated in-house team to feed our hunger for innovation. We’re committed to investing in the technologies that free up time for our designers and improve both the value and buildability of our current and future projects.”