Parameters in the Design Process

A. Benjamin Spaeth1, Klaus Schwägerl2, Isolde Stamm3

1
Fakultät für Architektur und Stadtplanung, Casino IT, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart,
Germany, 2,3Fakultät für Architektur und Stadtplanung, IBK1, Universität Stuttgart,
Stuttgart, Germany
http://www.casino.uni-stuttgart.de, http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/ibk1
1
spaeth@casino.uni-stuttgart.de

“Ce n’est point le navire qui naît de la forge des clous et du sciage des planches.
C’est la forge des clous et du sciage des planches qui naissent de la pente vers la
mer et croissance du navire” (Saint-Exupéry, 1948).
The paper describes and analyses a course held at Stuttgart University, Germany
dealing with the application of parameters in an architectural design process
and the transformation of this process into a relational digital model. The course
is introduced with special emphasis on its tasks, aims and the implicit didactic
concept. It is also investigated if and how a design approach resulting from
the identification and determination of parameters can lead to a creation of a
unique shape. Finally the impact of the practical exercises for the final design is
evaluated.
The course’s structure is enhanced by the “Vorklasse” from Bauhaus and the
conviction that using software is taught most effectively by working on an
own specific project. At the very beginning the students get the chance to gain
experiences with parameters through preliminary practical exercises, like folding
and modelling and analysing. Then the use of the software is taught in several
compact sessions in parallel to the design process. The impact of the early
practical exercises on the subsequent design process is remarkable. Special
attention is therefore given to this aspect.
The aim of the lessons is to produce a proposal for the design task. The proposal
is then to be presented as a parametric model representing either the global
shape or a constructive detail.

Keywords: Design education; digital project; parametrical design.

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Introduction the meaning and use of parameters itself and their
impact to geometry and design has to be concerned.
Nowadays people agree thatt design software should Therefore the course is structured into 3 main parts.
be more than a proper and easy to use pencil. Digital On the one hand we will train the students in us-
models should overcome to be the simple represen- ing the software tool. On the other hand, they have
tation of geometry. The software-developers offer us the opportunity to find out what parameters are
plenty of products. The software tools are more or and how they can drive a design process. This was
less usable, and we can declare that most designers elaborated in the preface exercises. To bring these
work with digital tools in their every day practice. two points together they have to understand geo-
With the actual design software like “Autodesk metrical basics. This is the third pedagogical column
RevitTM”, “MicroStationTM Generative Components” or of the course.
“Digital Project TM”, users have the possibility to create For the final presentation the students should
digital relational models, using parameters and crite- work out a design for an event platform.
ria to define interconnections between objects. The The course was offered to two following semes-
designer describes the relational references between ters. This gives us the opportunity to compare the
objects and not the final geometrical representation. results and observations of the different courses.
Some designers dismiss this design approach. The first year group had to work with a building
Sketching and building models by hand seems to be site in the city park; the second year group had to
the ‘natural’ way to develop architecture. But Raphael, deal with the Lake of Konstanz as the building site.
Brunelleschi or Bramante established drawing and The sites are explicit very undefined so that they fol-
perspective representations of future buildings not low a work with design constraints that are related
until the renaissance (Tidafi et al., 2006). Coming from to the internal logic. Denying a specific description
other art disciplines they used the new method of of the function of the asked design, we hoped to
sketching and building models to compensate their support the development of an internal logic of the
lack of knowledge and experience. They explored their outer shape. The accentuation was laid to develop a
own new way to approach the architectural shape. formal principle of shape.
Kilian showed in his Ph.D. that parameters could The preliminary exercises were also different in
be seen as design drivers, not only as hindering re- the two years. The impact of these exercises to the
striction (Kilian, 2006). The challenge is to explore, final design is surprising and mention later in detail.
structure and validate the according constraints. The approach to the basics of geometry was dif-
Using the mentioned design software, we have fering between the two years.
to learn how to use the software, but we also have to Regarding the two different courses we try to find
investigate the use of the parameters. These points out if and why the results are substantial different.
are the motivation to offer a design studio at Stutt-
gart University exploring the possibilities of paramet- Exploring the tool
ric design software. Pedagogical goal of the course is
the introduction of the design-software “Digital Proj- For our course we choose the software Digital Proj-
ect” and to examine the meaning of parameter. ect TM from Gehry Technologies. Based on Dassaults
CATIA V5, DP (Digital Project) is adapted especially
Pedagogical strategy for the needs of architects. This means the relevant
features for the automotive industry are removed,
Introducing parametrical software to students of ar- and the surface is more convenient to architects use,
chitecture not only the use of the software but also than the original CATIA V5 surface.

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 The major point to introduce the software is the analyse existing buildings. The aim was to teach the
fact, that we can represent not only static geometry students to observe architecture under defined as-
but also dynamic relations between objects. Design pects. The presentations were disappointing form
constraints can be formulated as mathematical or the point of the geometrical cognition. We learned
logical functions. This allows us to formulate geo- much about history and the architects that build the
metrical systems, which are related to adaptable house but not much about the geometrical back-
parameters. ground of the constructions or shapes. This leads us
During 5 to 7 intensive lessons the students to the thesis, that the students at the beginning are
learn the basics of the software. At the end of the not aware, that there is an important and form giv-
lesson section they know how to handle constraints ing impact of geometry to the final building. Under-
in a simple 3-dimensional model. The can establish standing the geometrical structure of a building can
formula to drive the geometry. The students could help us to understand the architecture itself.
handle the link between objects and their con-
straints. We used simple example to transport these Learning parameters
competencies.
Influenced by the Bauhaus “Vorklasse” we decided to
The basics of geometry acquire the exposure of parameters by using manual
exercises. On one hand we admired to start imme-
As mention before we used two approaches to the diately into the course work on the other hand we
basics of geometry. The first was to ask the students searched for an instrument to get into the work with
to work out a paper about different terms and defi- parameters. We divided the term “parameter” from
nitions of geometrical phenomena. The papers the digital world into the manual world. With this
were presented to the colleagues. The themes were medial interchange we hoped to explore the deeper
Nurbs, Translation Surfaces, Nodes and Structures, meaning of parameter. Parameters are not only a
Iterations and Fractals, Spline Surfaces. The students matter of the digital world. The Euclidian golden ra-
show a great competency in researching the funda- tio e.g. can be seen as a design rule that refers to a
mentals of geometrical understanding. We will see certain aesthetic understanding.
later, that this leads to structural founded results. In the course we wanted the students to find,
The second approach was intended more from formulate and apply design instructions, which can
the “architectural” site. We asked the students to be adapted by transforming the starting point or

Figure 1
Folding Instructions and
Result

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 Figure 2
Folding Manipulation
through Gravitation (increas-
ing from right to left)

the driving parameter. In literature we identify four The students jumped over tables, observed fall-
types of constraints: functional constraints, topologi- ing maple semen, turned bike wheels with LEDs.
cal constraints, geometrical constraints, quantitative Some simulated the interaction of different fluids
constraints (Kilian, 2006). pour together; others melted plastic bottles in the
The task was to use a piece of paperboard and to oven.
develop a structural object by the serial addition of The results of the analysis were documented
a certain operations (operation instruction or design in pictures, films or animations. Like the first group
instruction). To form the paperboard only cutting the second group also had to externalise the para-
and manual treatment was allowed. The use of adhe- metric points and the unchangeable values of their
sive was forbidden. On addition the students mani- observed object. Knowing from the first group that
fest their design instructions by formulating simple the transition into a design is the very difficult step
algorithms or logical coherences. With hindsight this in this approach we wanted the students to train
externalisation of the design strategy was the crucial this step by building a non-functional but structural
step. The students become aware of the implicit de- sculptural object.
cisions they normally make during a design process.
The externalisation of design decisions is the major Transition into design
point to come to a parametrical design approach, as
Kilian showed (Killian, 2006). The final and crucial step was to transport the gained
In the second course the students made a mor- insight of the preliminary practice into a design with
phological analysis of a chosen movement. This a more or less defined function. Being aware that
could be a human movement or the movement of we stroll on an abstract way and we pursue a very
an object. They also should work out the parametri- formal design approach, the design task was chosen
cal structure of the observed item. The turn to the not to be to close to a functional building than more
movement was intended to enforce the role of the on structural object in an architectural scale. The stu-
parameters. dents were asked to develop an event platform.

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Figure 3
Student jumping over a table

Figure 4
Rotating Wheel with LED.
Falling Maple Leaf

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 Figure 5
Conventional Design with
Parameterized Cladding

We wanted the students to develop an internal be manufactured directly by machines. The teams of
logic of parameters or variables to develop their de- the third group used the parameters to create an in-
sign. As the genius loci don’t provide an informative ternal logic that drives the outer shape of the design.
basis, the usual parameters like noise, urban lines, We want to discuss 3 examples.
traffic flood etc. were not very useful. The students
interpreted this step in different ways. We are able Visionary design approach
to divide these approaches into 3 groups. The ap- The students rejected the results of the preliminary
plication of parametrical structures is also different exercises and developed a design for the building
between these 3 groups. The teams of the first two site. The starting point is a vision for the “building”
groups realised a design vision. The parameters with its function and appearance. To refer to our de-
came into operation at the detail planning level. So mand, they tried afterwards to use parametric strate-
they developed parametric leading details, which gies to divide the cladding or to describe the manu-
can be adapted to the different situations and could facturing details with parametric models.
Figure 6
Division Corresponding to
Foam Formation

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Figure 7
Analysis of the Students Jump

Figure 8
Final Design based on the
Students Jump

Figure 9
Pattern for the Following
Object

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 the beginning. From the designers point of view this Figure 10
Example for Internal
approach leads to an experimental design, because Transition
there is no vision of the final design at the beginning,
but there is an internal logic the design has to fulfill.
So perhaps there are several possibilities to solve the
design task.

Discussion

The systematical classification of the results shows

that we can admit to Kilian (2006), that the transition
from an idea into a parametrical design model is the
crucial one. The quantitative comparison of results
characteristic shows this challenge (figure 11).
It is obvious that this is not a representative
External transition study, but in the two different courses we can detect
Referring to the outer shapes, coming from the pre- a tendency. Half of the group preferred the visionary
liminary exercises, the students tried to imitate the design approach, although the assumption was to
object’s appearance keeping alive the internal logic. find abstract design instructions to develop a shape.
This deductive concept leads to a design with has The group, who followed the external transition, can
its internal logic. This means the design instructions be declared as the optimization group. They take a
are valid at any point any time. The design is able to found shape and tried to mesh the surface or tried
react on changes to the variables in the design in- to parameterize the construction details. This group
structions as a whole system. The design grammar counted about a quarter of the total amount of the
keeps alive. group. The third group tried to develop a parameter-
ized design instruction as a starting point of the de-
Internal transition sign. The constraints were developed in advance to
In contrast to the deductive concept the inductive follow the special demands of material, geometrical
concept has its starting point in the awareness of visions or functional addictions.
a valid design instruction. The material or the con- Comparing the statistics one can see, that the
struction principles for example may force these definition and the subsequent externalization of pa-
constraints. Based on these constraints the stu- rameterized design instructions cause problems.
dents developed their results. The important point On the other hand, we also see that the sort of
on this approach was, that the final design follows the preliminary exercise has no influence on the way
the rules and requirements set by the designer from the students solved the design problem. Concerning

Figure 11
Classification Table of the
results

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that these exercises should lead to a deeper under- Thanks also for the support of Gehry Technolo-
standing of the use of parameters we can admit gies, and Cenit Desktop for their helpful answers to
that both exercises, even they are very different, are your questions.
equally helpful. For the review of the text we thank Jens Wiesner
and Hanno Ertel.
Conclusion and outlook
References
This approach claims not to be architecture. But it
was an experiment to investigate the impact of pa- Gehry Technologies, Digital ProjectTM, 2004, 12541-A,
rameters to design. We have to admit that the pre- Beatrice Street, Los Angeles, California, USA.
liminary work for a deeper understanding of param- Glymph, J., Shelden, D., et al.: 2002, A Parametric Strat-
eter plays an important part. egy for Freeform Glass Structures Using Quadrilat-
Perhaps we had disregarded the difficulties to eral Planar Facets. ACADIA 2002, Thresholds, Con-
get into the understanding of geometrical depen- ference Proceedings, Proctor, G. (Hrsg.), Pomona,
dencies. But we are convinced that we followed the USA, pp. 307-325.
right path to teach a parametrical application. An ap- Kilian, A.: Design Exploration through Bidirectional
plication like “Digital ProjectTM” is only useful if we are Modeling of Constraints. Ph.D, MIT 2006.
aware of the parameters power to the design pro- Lömker, Th., M.: Plausibilität im Planungsprozess, Um-
cess. The knowledge of geometrical dependencies bau und Umutzung als Optimierungsaufgabe, Dis-
corresponding to parameters with their impact on sertation, Infar, Universität Weimar, 2006.
architectural form finding and its construction has Saint-Exupéry de, A.: La Citadelle, posthum, 1948: Trans-
to be cultivated. As Kilian (2006) or Lömker (2006) lation: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up
showed we should investigate constraints in order the men to gather wood, divide the work and give
to find further possibilities for an extended design orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and
process. endless sea.”.
We observed the methods and results of the Schnabel, M., A.: 2006, Architectural Parametrical De-
course for a better understanding how we can bring sign, eCAADe 2006, 24,Communicating Spaces,
this type of software closer to the students. We see a Conference Proceedings, Bourdakis, V., Charitos, D.
big interest in this software, but we need new con- (edit.), Volos 2007, pp. 216-221.
cepts to teach these applications. Tidafi, T., Iordanova, I.: 2006, Experimental Approach in
an Architectural Design Studio. eCAADe 2006, 24,
Acknowledgments Communicating Spaces, Conference Proceedings,
Bourdakis, V., Charitos, D. (edit.), Volos 2007, pp.
Thanks goes to the chair of casino IT Prof. Dr.-Ing. 852-858.
Hanno Ertel and Baukonstruktion 1 Prof. Peter Cheret
for their support and inspiration and Prof. Wolfang
Knoll for his introduction into the deep fields of ge-
ometry; the reviewers of the course Nils Fischer from
Zaha Hadid architects. A big thanks goes to the stu-
dents of the Department of Architecture and Urban
Planning University Stuttgart participating enthusi-
astically this experiment. We hope we could give you
a basement for your further career.

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