Nearly a decade ago I saw Scott Arvin's doctorate thesis prototype software (below) which experimented with logic control of space & adjacency to create dynamic bubble diagrams. He used a mechanical metaphor to describe relationships with “strengths” expressed as springs. You could automatically or manually rearrange spaces based on the rules to generate multiple plans. As retail space plans are simply the resolution of conflicting requirements, preferred adjacencies and physical constraints it caught my interest.
Recently, browsing in my file archives, I stumbled on it again and a quick trip to LinkedIn sorted out the “what ever happened to…” question. Scott introduced me to Mark Syp’s recent work creating a similar, but three dimensional, tool in Grasshopper3D. Check out the video below to see how a logical adjacency plan could develop into a conceptual model. Imagine the parametric conceptual modelling engine in Revit with this sort of relationship resolution. I’d buy it.
Architecture: Realtime Physics for Space Planning on Vimeo
Architecture: Realtime Physics for Space Planning from Marc Syp on Vimeo.
Via Grasshopper3d.com/forum via LinkedIn
