Renata Castelo-Branco | INESC-ID/Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
Supported by FCT|FCCN
Renata holds a master's degree in Architecture from Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal. She also studied abroad during her master’s at the Technical University of Graz, Austria. Renata is currently working as an early-stage researcher at INESC-ID, a research and development institute in Lisbon, in the context of her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on representation methods for algorithmic design, the creation of architectural designs through algorithms, with the goal of facilitating programming-related tasks for professionals of the building industry.
Lightning Talk | TNC23, Tirana, Albania
THE ALGORITHMIC DESIGN SKETCHBOOK
When you picture an architect at work, how do you see them? Holding a pencil over a drawing board, maybe? How about the architects that designed the Morpheus Hotel in Macau; the Gherkin in London, or the Louvre in Abu Dhabi? Still imagining pencils?
Architecture, like many other art forms, frequently mirrors the technological advancements of its time, and these are just some examples of the multitude of projects that have been reflecting the increasing integration of computer science in the architectural domain. Today, architects have at their disposal tools that allow them to design, and manage, large-scale and non-conventional design solutions that would have been nearly impossible to conceive using traditional design methods. However, designing with algorithms requires programming, a concept with which practitioners often struggle. For architecture to benefit from computation at large, we still need to close the existing comprehension gap between algorithmic design programs and their behaviour, making this representation method more akin to the traditional architectural practice. The Algorithmic Design Sketchbook proposal addresses this problem by coupling algorithmic design with complementary representation methods that are adequate for designing complex architectural projects, and supporting their synchronisation with a design tool that architects feel comfortable using.
