António Menezes Leitão

Technical University of Lisbon | UTL · Department of Computer Science and Engineeirng (DEI)

Algorithmic Design (AD) tools enable the creation of geometrically complex architectural shapes that might be challenging to manufacture. This paper presents an overview of recent design-to-fabrication processes based on AD. It reflects on how AD can help overcome fabrication limitations and enhance the connection between architectural geometry, ma...

Algorithmic Design (AD) is a promising approach that merges two distinct processes-design thinking and computational thinking. However, it requires converting design concepts into algorithmic descriptions, which not only deviates from architecture's visual nature, but also tends to result in unstructured programs that are difficult to understand. S...

Buildings are a critical element of civilization, within which we spend over around 70% of our lifetime, but also one of the main contributors to the greenhouse effect. It is therefore important to ensure their design guarantees good indoor conditions, while minimizing the environmental footprint. Among the different building elements, the facade i...

Architectural design is strongly based on visual and spatial reasoning, which is not easy to translate into algorithmic descriptions and, eventually, running programs, making it difficult for architects to use computational approaches, such as Algorithmic Design (AD). One of the most pressing problems is program comprehension. To overcome it, we pr...

Architecture has always explored the latest technological advances both in terms of building design and fabrication. Among the recently adopted computational design approaches, Algorithmic Design (AD) shows great potential for the conception, analysis, and production of architecture, due to automating repetitive and time-consuming design tasks, fac...

Two main concerns drive the architectural practice: the design and the construction of buildings. This makes the creative practice highly dependent on construction viability, most design decisions having to consider, among others, the available materials and construction techniques and the associated manufacturing costs. Nevertheless, the desire to...

Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) approaches help analyze the energy performance of urban areas and predict the impact of different retrofit strategies. However, UBEM approaches require a high level of expertise and entail time-consuming simulations. These limitations hinder their successful application in designing and planning urban areas and su...

In the last few decades, architecture has experienced paradigm shifts prompted by new computational tools. Algorithmic design (AD), a design approach based on algorithms, is one such example. However, architectural design practice is strongly based on visual and spatial reasoning, which is not easy to translate into algorithmic descriptions. Conseq...

Architecture is an ancient profession, and the means used to produce architectural entities have constantly changed to respond to new design trends and representation needs. Although for centuries this meant gradual changes in the design practice, the increasing technological development witnessed since the 60s has propelled the appearance of incre...

Generative design systems can generate a wide panoply of solutions, from which designers search for those that best suit their interests. However, without guidance, this search can be highly inefficient, and many interesting solutions may remain unexplored. This problem is mitigated with automated exploration methods. Still, the ones typically prov...

Algorithmic Design (AD) allows for the creation of form through algorithms. Its inherent flexibility encourages the exploration of a wider design space, the automation of design tasks and design optimization, considerably reducing project costs and environmental impact. Nevertheless, current AD uses representation methods that radically differ from...

Algorithmic Design (AD) is an approach that uses algorithms to represent designs. AD allows for a flexible exploration of complex designs, which helps not only the designer but also optimization methods that autonomously search for better-performing solutions. Despite its advantages, AD is still not widely used. This is owed in part to the large am...

Virtual reality has been shown to facilitate perception and navigation inside 3D models, while stimulating creativity and enhancing architect/client interaction. In this scenario, in order to better explore paths along the design space that are suggested from this interaction, it is important to support quick updates to the model while still immers...

Architectural representation encompasses the means used to describe architectural entities. This discipline has long been under constant change due to architects' ever-present desire for innovation. Algorithmic design (AD) is currently making its way into the plethora of representation methods that integrate the architect's day-to-day work tools. H...

The combination of Climate-Based Daylight Modeling simulation techniques with advanced algorithmic design approaches allows designers to analyze and optimize the annual daylight performance of sophisticated façade systems. This work investigates the ability of the 2-phase method and of a recent path-tracing algorithm available through Climate Studi...

Urbanization growth in developing countries raises concerns regarding these coun-tries' ability to consider slums, underdeveloped communities, and neighbourhoods in economic , health, and climatic goals. This research proposes a methodology that integrates algorithmic design and analysis strategies to define, study, and measure key parameters that...

The importance of Algorithmic Design (AD) is growing due to its advantages for the design practice: It empowers the creative process, facilitating design changes and the exploration of larger design spaces in viable time, and supports the search for better-performing solutions that satisfy environmental demands. Still, AD is a complex approach and...

Computation-based approaches are increasingly important in architecture, namely Algorithmic Design (AD), which is based on the use of algorithms to generate designs. Besides enhancing design exploration, AD helps architects deal with recurrent design changes and with the pressure to quickly obtain results. Moreover, AD supports the search for bette...

Design studios are increasingly interested in collaborative Algorithmic Design (AD) practices. However, AD uses algorithmic descriptions that are often difficult to understand and change, hindering the adoption of AD in collaborative design. We propose improving collaborative AD by adopting a programming environment that allows for (1) developing d...

The growing interest in sustainability and environmental design promoted the development of tools that respond to the architects' demand for efficient ways to evaluate building performance and optimize their designs. To optimize a design, a parametric model of that design is iteratively instantiated and evaluated by an optimization algorithm that s...

Algorithmic Design (AD) uses algorithms to describe architectural designs, producing results that are visual by nature and which greatly benefit from immersive visualization. Having this in mind, several approaches have been developed that allow architects to access and change their AD programs from Virtual Reality (VR). However, programming in VR...

Algorithmic Design (AD) uses computer programs to describe architectural models. These models are visual by nature and, thus, greatly benefit from immersive visualization. To allow architects to benefit from the advantages of Virtual Reality (VR) within an AD workflow, we propose a new design approach: Live Coding in Virtual Reality (LCVR). LCVR me...

Facade design is becoming increasingly complex, forcing architects to resort to analysis and optimization processes more often. However, these processes are time-consuming and require the coordination of multiple tools. Algorithmic Design (AD) has the potential to overcome these limitations through the use of algorithms implemented in Textual Progr...

Designing and optimizing a Façade Shading Device (FSD) involves conflicting goals related to view access, visual comfort, energy, daylighting, and thermal performance. The optimization becomes particularly challenging when the FSD entails a complex geometry facing different orientations and solar exposure levels. Current literature focuses on the o...

Urbanization growth in developing countries is an undeniable reality and translates into concerns regarding these countries' ability to include slums, underdeveloped communities, and neighborhoods in economic, health, and climatic goals. This research focuses on the development of algorithmic design and analysis strategies to compose a methodology...

The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events can be seen all around us, causing record-breaking damage. Such events, coupled with wars and social unrest, are resulting in people losing their homes at an unprecedented and growing rate, forcing them to rely on semi-permanent structures. To explore the design of these structures in extreme...

The lack of interoperability and the diversity of required documentation in the development of architectural projects often results in inefficient design processes. Integrated design approaches such as Building Information Modeling seek to tackle this problem, but still require strenuous and time-consuming manual work when it comes to design explor...

Performance-Based Design (PBD) helps architects shift towards a more environmentally-conscious design process. To take advantage of this paradigm, the performance of multiple design variants must be evaluated and compared. However, due to its repetitive and tiresome nature, architects feel discouraged to use such an approach. In this context, to pr...

Algorithmic approaches are currently being introduced in many areas of human activity and architecture is no exception. However, designing with algorithms is a foreign concept to many and the inadequacy of current programming environments creates a barrier to the generalized adoption of Algorithmic Design (AD). This research aims to provide archite...

The architectural field is currently experiencing a paradigm shift towards a more environmentally-aware design process. In this new paradigm, known as Performance-Based Design (PBD), building performance emerges as a guiding principle. Unfortunately, PBD entails several problems, for instance, building design is often associated with the simultaneo...

Although structural performance has a crucial role in the overall design, its analysis is often postponed to later design stages. This largely occurs because analysis processes are time consuming and require the use of specific models and tools. This problem is then aggravated by the number of design variations that have to be analysed until an acc...

As urbanization rapidly increases towards concerning levels, new methodologies and approaches are required to shape future cities. This research combines passive design approaches with building performance simulation in the same algorithmic description, to highlight the bidirectional impact of the building and the urban context in which it is inser...

Algorithmic Design (AD) is a design approach based on the evelopment of computer programs to describe architectural models. The programs’ outputs are digital architectural 3D models, which are visual by nature and, therefore, benefit from immersive visualization. Live Coding in Virtual Reality (LCVR) is a methodology for the interactive development...

Computation-based approaches in design have emerged in the last decades and rapidly became popular among architects and other designers. Design professionals and researchers adopted different terminologies to address these approaches. However, some terms are used ambiguously and inconsistently, and different terms are commonly used to express the s...

Architecture has always embraced innovative ideas, materials, and techniques. Contemporary architecture is no exception. The emerging computation-based design approaches, known as Computational Design (CD), differ significantly from the previous ones since they ground the design representation in its computational logic instead of its geometric asp...

As many other areas of human activity, the architectural design process has been recently shaken by Virtual Reality (VR), as it offers new ways to experience and communicate architectural space. In this paper we propose Live Coding in Virtual Reality (LCVR), a design approach that allows architects to benefit from the advantages of VR within an alg...

Nowadays, there is a widespread awareness towards environmental issues. This is already visible in architecture by the increasing number of analysis tools that evaluate different performance criteria. However, the application of these tools is usually restricted to the final design stages, conditioning the implementation of design changes. Performa...

The use of generative design is a current challenge to designers, architects, and urbanists, as most graduation curriculums for these professionals do not include algorithmic thinking. however, the use of algorithms is frequently the best option for the conception of complex parametric projects as it is necessary to assemble many different shapes t...

Architecture has always followed and adopted technological breakthroughs of other areas. As a case in point, in the last decades, the field of computation changed the face of architectural practice. Considering the recent breakthroughs of Machine Learning (ML), it is expectable to see architecture adopting ML-based approaches. However, it is not ye...

With the recent technological developments, particularly, the integration of computational design approaches in architecture, the traditional art techniques became increasingly important in the field. This includes weaving techniques, which have a promising application in architectural screens and façade designs. Nevertheless, the adoption of weavi...

Architecture has always followed and adopted technological breakthroughs of other areas. As a case in point, in the last decades, the field of computation changed the face of architectural practice. Considering the recent breakthroughs of Machine Learning (ML), it is expectable to see architecture adopting ML-based approaches. However, it is not ye...

Good visualization mechanisms offer architects, and their clients, a better grasp of how their designs are going to turn out when built, and the experience one might have inside the constructions. This also helps the architect orient the design in a more informed manner. However, typically used modeling tools do not offer satisfactory visualization...

Building performance simulation tools have the potential for aiding the decision-making process in early design stages of an architectural project. As traditional simulation tools are based on a static design and adaptive façades encompass an envisioned movement of construction elements, there is a lack of supporting tools and workflows that can co...

Sustainability and economic factors are driving architectural practice towards more efficient designs. The application of optimization to the design process becomes essential to reduce the environmental footprint of buildings, as well as to reduce their costs. Building design requirements tend to be conflicting, involving the optimization of multip...

Algorithmic Design is an approach that uses algorithms to generate designs. These algorithms are built using either a Visual Programming Language (VPL) or a Textual Programming Language (TPL). In architecture, there is a clear propensity to the use of VPLs, e.g., Grasshopper or Dynamo, over the use of TPLs, e.g., Python or AutoLisp. In addition to...

Algorithmic BIM (A-BIM) is a design paradigm that merges the potentialities of both Algorithmic Design (AD) and Building Information Modelling (BIM). This paper describes how the A-BIM approach was integrated into the design workflow of two traditional design studios, to develop a set of parametric facades for a residential building, from which we...

The focus on efficiency has grown over recent years, and nowadays it is critical that buildings have a good performance regarding different criteria. This need prompts the usage of algorithmic approaches, analysis tools, and optimization algorithms, to find the best performing variation of a design. There are many optimization algorithms and not al...

Stringent requirements of efficiency and sustainability lead to the demand for buildings that have good performance regarding different criteria, such as cost, lighting, thermal, and structural, among others. Optimization can be used to ensure that such requirements are met. In order to optimize a design, it is necessary to generate different varia...

Algorithmic design processes have enormous potential for architecture. Even though some large design offices have already incorporated such processes in their workflow, so far, these have not been seriously considered by the large majority of traditional small-scale studios. Nevertheless, as the integration of algorithmic techniques inside architec...

Digitally-generated visualizations, such as renders or movies, are, nowadays, commonly used as representation methods for architectural creations. This occurs not only in final stages of the process, with the goal of selling the product’s image, but also in midst creation process to express concepts and ideas. Presently, the spread of parametric an...

Atualmente, o processo de desenvolvimento de um projeto de arquitetura conta com um leque de ferramentas usadas por cada uma das partes envolvidas para desenvolver a sua especialidade. A combinação de todas elas num mesmo projeto obriga à partilha e conversão de dados entre os vários sistemas de informação, processo que nem sempre é bem-sucedido. D...

This paper presents a multipurpose chair grammar and its implementation in the design tool ChairDNA . This tool is oriented for the exploration of design alternatives in the early concept phase of the chair design process. This work addresses two shortcomings within the research area of shape grammars (SGs), namely, the lack of implementation of SG...

Recently, building envelopes have been exhibiting complex shapes and patterns, a trend supported by current digital technologies. Likewise, the design exploration of these envelopes has been combined with analysis and optimization processes, with the aim of achieving better performing solutions. Nevertheless, the exploration of architectural skins...

This paper compares two different macroscopic light-redirecting fenestration systems (LRFS) using Radiance’s three-phase method. The goal is to assess the potential of simplified daylight metrics that are less computationally expensive, such as Daylight Factor (DF), in the optimization of LRFS. This work compares a highly specular LRFS optimized fo...

Algorithmic design allows architects to design using a programming-based approach. Current algo-rithmic design environments are based on existing computer-aided design applications or building information modeling applications, such as AutoCAD, Rhinoceros 3D, or Revit, which, due to their complexity, fail to give architects the immediate feedback t...

In the past, there has been a rapid evolution in computational tools to represent and analyze architectural designs. Analysis tools can be used in all stages of the design process, but they are often only used in the final stages, where it might be too late to impact the design. This is due to the considerable time and effort typically needed to pr...

The increasing number of crowd disasters has awakened the need to evaluate the evacuation performance of buildings. However, the information available in building design guidance documents is insufficient to efficiently address safety requirements and official metrics do not take into consideration crucial factors for the success of emergency evacu...

Many great architectural endeavors today engage in a multi software approach, as each specialty involved needs a different software, and different task required from the architect, such as 3D modeling, analysis or rendering, also benefit from the use of different tools. Combining them in the same process is not always a successful endeavor. A more...

Nowadays, practitioners are embracing the BIM paradigm, as it allows a faster development of models using pre-modeled elements and automates time-consuming tasks such as the production of technical documents. Nevertheless, CAD tools still provide greater freedom in form creation, which is better suited for the early and exploratory stages of the pr...

Estimating a building's performance is part of the engineering and architecture discipline. Nowadays, this estimation is done using analysis tools. In many cases, these analysis tools require specialized building models that are simplifications of the actual models. Unfortunately , the adaptations that need to be done to an existing model are tires...

Algorithmic BIM combines BIM and Generative Design (GD), merging the potentialities of both approaches. In this paper we describe the design process of a set of parametric facades developed using Algorithmic-BIM, and how this approach was integrated into the design workflow of two architectural studios. We demonstrate how the integration of GD toge...

Algorithmic-based Building Information Modelling (A-BIM) allows the development of BIM models through algorithms. In a collaborative environment, A-BIM requires management strategies to deal with concurrent development of architectural projects. However, despite there being several tools that support this type of collaborative work, they are not ap...

Estimating a building’s performance is part of the engineering and architecture discipline. Nowadays, this estimation is done using analysis tools. In many cases, these analysis tools require specialized building models that are simplifications of the actual models. Unfortunately, the adaptations that need to be done to an existing model are tireso...

O Projeto Algorítmico (PA) é uma abordagem de design baseada em programação em que, ao invés de ser criado o modelo 3D do design pretendido, é criado um programa que gera o modelo 3D do design pretendido. Esta abordagem permite trazer grandes vantagens a todo o processo de design e de construção, incluindo, por exemplo, a produção de geometrias com...

Architecture has always followed the times and their innovations and, currently, an architecture based on digital technologies has been emerging and has increasingly explored architectural facades. In this paper we use DrAFT, a computational framework for the generation and exploration of facade designs, to explore a set of different examples of bu...