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Parametric Modeling as a Tool of Analysis and Interpretation of Built Heritage: The Case Study of Complex Baroque Vaults
Abstract
In this chapter are developed some considerations about the heuristic potentialities of parametric digital modeling as a tool for analyzing and interpreting architectural heritage. Observed that the parametric thinking in architecture could be recognized almost from the origin, new parametric modeling software allows to verify the design criteria of the past. On the basis of previous studies on Baroque vaulted atria, this chapter develops, using parametric modeling tools, a real vocabulary of shapes and their possible combinations, suggested by the architectural literature of the time and the survey of about seventy atria in Turin. This method has been tested on the case study of the lunettes dome in the atrium of Palazzo Carignano.
... 8), si è vista, in questo contesto, un'applicazione teorica. Lo stesso approccio può, con le dovute accortezze, essere applicato per la ri-costruzione di altre volte su base quadrilatera o poligonale (ad esempio a crociera o a conca) [Bagnolo, Argiolas, Vanini 2022], così come per la composizione di sistemi voltati complessi con voltine secondarie [Spallone, Vitali, Carota 2019]. Il modello così parametrizzato in Grasshopper può essere invece utilizzato proficuamente per il confronto con nuvole di punti ed essere integrato in ambiente BIM, facilitando la modellazione del patrimonio costruito attraverso una rappresentazione geometricamente rigorosa e, ancora, per l'approfondimento dell'analisi geometrica nel confronto tra modelli digitali e architettura costruita. ...
... The same approach can, with due caution, be applied for the re-construction of other vaults on a quadrilateral or polygonal basis (e.g. groin or a conca) [Bagnolo, Argiolas, Vanini 2022], as well as for the composition of complex vaulted systems with secondary vaults [Spallone, Vitali, Carota 2019]. The model thus parameterised in Grasshopper can instead be profitably used for comparison with point clouds and be integrated into the BIM environment, facilitating the modelling of the built heritage through a geometrically rigorous representation and, again, for in-depth geometric analysis in the comparison between digital models and built architecture. ...
... Studies on the vault geometric genesis (Vitali et al. 2019) have also shown that the relationship between the type of vault and the vault geometric genesis is not alwaysunivocal. Different solids of rotation can generate the same vault shape as well as different construction techniques can be used for its realization. ...
The paper focuses on new opportunities of knowledge sharing, and comparison, thanks to the circulation and re-use of heritage HBIM models by means of Object Libraries within a Common Data Environment (CDE) and remotely-accessible Geospatial Virtual Hubs (GVH). HBIM requires a transparent controlled quality process in the model generation and its management to avoid misuses of such models once available in the cloud, freeing themselves from object libraries oriented to new buildings. The model concept in the BIM construction process is intended to be progressively enriched with details defined by the Level of Geometry (LOG) while crossing the different phases of development (LOD), from the pre-design to the scheduled maintenance during the long life cycle of buildings and management (LLCM). In this context, the digitization process—from the data acquisition until the informative models (scan-to-HBIM method)—requires adapting the definition of LOGs to the different phases characterizing the heritage preservation and management, reversing the new construction logic based on simple-to-complex informative models. Accordingly, a deeper understanding of the geometry and state of the art (as-found) should take into account the complexity and uniqueness of the elements composing the architectural heritage since the starting phases of the analysis, adopting coherent object modeling that can be simplified for different purposes as in the construction site and management over time. For those reasons, the study intends (i) to apply the well-known concept of scale to the object model generation, defining different Grades of Accuracy (GOA) related to the scales (ii) to start fixing sustainable roles to guarantee a free choice by the operators in the generation of object models, and (iii) to validate the model generative process with a transparent communication of indicators to describe the richness in terms of precision and accuracy of the geometric content here declined for masonry walls and vaults, and (iv) to identifies requirements for reliable Object Libraries.
... The alternative geometric hypotheses formulated on the design idea can be profitably evaluated by superimposing the ideal models to the survey models, quantitatively verifying the displacements between the two surfaces. The previous researches on complex vaulted systems have allowed us to structure a vocabulary of geometric forms and their possible combinatorial syntaxes (Vitali, Spallone, Carota, 2019) that find regular use in the schemes illustrated by Guarini in the plates of the Architettura Civile, in the design drawings analyzed in paragraph 2, in the realized vaulted surfaces, both in the Guarinian construction sites, both in the contemporary ones, and in the subsequent realizations. Moving on to the description of the operational phases relating to the surface modeling of the rooms that make up the case study ( Figure 14), they were carried out with AutoCAD surface modelling: the continuous comparison between the survey data and the surface vocabulary systematized in Guarini's treatises allowed to formulate hypotheses of decomposition of vaulted systems in hierarchically organized surfaces. ...
The present work focuses on the study of vaulted systems by Guarini, by virtue of the paradigmatic role that Guarini assumes in the field of studies dedicated to this topic. The research has been compared in-depth analysis aimed at connecting relevant data with archival drawings, historical studies and treatises in order to use digital representation in heuristic terms. The attempt is to delineate and explain, through the analysis of architectural artifacts, the links between theorizations, transformations of reference geometric models and buildings. The ‘Appartamento di Mezzanotte’ (northern apartment) of Palazzo Carignano was choosen as a case study, because the different vaulted rooms that compose it witness the creative inspiration by Guarini and allow to structure a study that produce interesting results in relation to the connections between theoretical studies, research and cultural heritage. The use of digital representation integrated with photo-modelling (SfM) tries to create new tools to investigate these different fields in their absolute and relationship value.
The current contribute focuses on parametric digital modelling applied to Curioni’s studies in order to in depth analyze the relationships between vaulted surfaces and Geometry. Specifically, the research focuses on the investigation, interpretation and parametric modelling of the intersection between homogeneous surface classes for the definition of punctual elements of compound vaults (groins). The aim of the work is principally analytical and lays its foundations on investigations and studies on vaulted systems present in treatises and manuals. In fact, starting from the study of the sources it was possible to extract from the different cases conceptual geometric diagrams that can be stressed by the parametric modeling. This is done to represent the main spatial quality of architecture under varying parameters. The model is thus aimed at reproducing the theoretical models underlying design concepts to enable rapid and efficient exploration of the different geometric configurations. Therefore, a simple parametric model should represent the spatial qualities of the various architectures while highlighting similarities and differences.
In two autograph plates of Architettura Civile, Guarini represents, in oblique or orthographic projection, the shape generation of vaults, even invented by him, created by the variety of combinations of "six round bodies", through cuts and intersections.
Some of the proposed models, attributable to the field of architecture of the palaces, relate to realized works (Palazzo Carignano) or just designed (Castello di Racconigi). These plates, along with the descriptive text, are subject to re-drawing conducted by the author, through the digital modeling.
In due lastre autografe dell'Architettura Civile, Guarini rappresenta, in proiezione parallela obliqua o in doppia proiezione ortogonale, la genesi formale di volte, anche di sua invenzione, nate dalla varietà di combinazioni, attraverso tagli e intersezioni, di "sei corpi tondi".
Alcuni dei modelli proposti, ascrivibili all'ambito dell'architettura dei palazzi, sono riferibili a opere realizzate (Palazzo Carignano) o solo progettate (Castello di Racconigi). Tali lastre, insieme al testo descrittivo, sono oggetto di ri-disegno condotto attraverso modellazione digitale, da parte dell'autrice.
This paper presents a description grammar approach in the context of the generation of historical architectural typologies. The specific architectural context is classical period Ottoman mosques of the architect Sinan.
Before the introduction of NURBS-based CAD software and optimisation, the design of form-resistant structures was based on the use of either experimental tools (physical form-finding) or analytical surfaces, and architects were challenged in the articulation of spaces from the intrinsic characteristics/rules of structural forms. An outstanding example of this kind is provided by the Church of Longuelo, which was built by architect Pino Pizzigoni in Italy, between 1961-1966. It was conceived as composed by two major elements – an irregular frame and a set of shells suspended to it. The entire design process was based on the calculation of the frame on which the shells have been just added as a dead load. This paper presents one possible way to redesign the church parametrically. Comparison with the original design is not performed at the final formal level, which can logi-cally differ, but around the concepts behind the project. The aim is to show how current digital design and optimisation tools are affecting the way architects design. But, at a higher level, the purpose is also to highlight where conceptual design is now taking place in the process.
The formal approach outlined in this paper uses symbolic memes as a framework for the hierarchical deconstruction of a cultural artefact, the traditional Korean pattern known as bosangwhamun, to describe the evolutionary development of such a pattern using shape grammar rules. The formal descriptions of this pattern are thus the basis for generating its variations, and the process is used to evaluate the validity of the rules and their appropriateness for the study of bosangwhamun.
Art design, especially graphic design, is an abstractive and intuitive process which is difficult to formulate apart from visualization. Shape Grammar can be a powerful tool using the elements of shapes and rules for transformations. With a rule base, the application of Shape Grammar can orient the future shape development to a promising direction. Yunnan embroidery patterns have a long history and local cultural features. They are created by villagers who lived in the country close to nature, with imaginative natural curves, shapes and colours. Most of the applications on Shape Grammar so far are based on the orthogonal lines. However, this study creates curvy patterns with different colours by analyzing the characters of the existing embroideries created by the villagers, aiming at achieving auto-generation of new patterns with the similar features. The whole process is based on a generative system with a Shape Grammar representation in two-dimensional space. The intent of this study is to show that such SG and representation can support human designers to create newer styles easily, faster and visually.
Existing housing stock must be rehabilitated to meet the new needs of dwellers in the current information society. Consequently,
Information and Communications and Automation Technologies (ICAT) must be integrated in living areas. Both shape grammar and
space syntax can be used as tools to identify and encode the principles and rules behind the adaptation of existing houses
to new requirements. The research proceeds by first identifying the dwellers’ demands and determine how the use of technology
influences them. The second step is to identify the functional, spatial, and constructive transformations performed manually
by human designers in order to infer the corresponding transformation rules and encode them into a grammar. The third step
aims to test the grammar in other dwellings that are part of the corpus of the study.
Keywordsmultifamily housing–housing rehabilitation–shape grammar–design analysis–algebra–measuring systems–transformations–space syntax–information and communication and automation technologies (ICAT)–domotics
This paper investigates the use of typological knowledge in the visual modality through a computer framework that combines multidisciplinary technologies from computer science, that is, artificial intelligence, software engineering, database system, and programming language, to help provide solutions and services to building designers. The solving of design problems frequently involves visual thinking, which has to do with the intensive use of visual knowledge like pictures, images, and other types of visual displays. The recognized power of typological knowledge in design problem solving is applied to support the exploration of a diversity of possible design solutions represented in a pictorial mode. The innovative use of computer science technologies enables a smooth link of visual typological knowledge with the design goals. Within the framework, a core technology was designed to respond to a designer's specific needs through dynamic user viewpoint generation, so that design solutions are associated with relevant (retrieved) visual typologies from the knowledge base. This has been achieved in a two-way process, in which the designer establishes an interactive dialogue with an experimental computerized framework.
Between the end of the 17th century and early eighteenth centuries Guarino Guarini and Gian Giacomo Plantery produced a revolution in the way vaulted systems for atria of palaces in Turin were conceived. ‘Star-shaped’ and ‘planterian’ vaults created a new trend that would persist for nearly sixty years. The wide-spread use and variety of planterian vaults has been the focus of a research project that began in 2012. This research, by comparing similar atria and their digital models, has made it possible to work on a multi-variable model aimed to represent the generic surface of any planterian vault whatsoever by using parameters, and consequently to draw the individual cases studied by associating the appropriate values to each parameter.
Could Parametricism 2.0 prove the final resting place for Parametricism1.0? Architect and Assistant Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Mark Foster Gage questions the underlying currency and influence of Parametricism, condemning it as a 'true red herring' of a style.
John Frazer is a pioneer and leader in the field of generative design and evolutionary computation. In the 1970s he developed the world's first microcomputer-based design systems and invented tangible interfaces. Professor at the European Graduate School, he is the author of the seminal book An Evolutionary Architecture (1995). Here he traces the history of parametric architecture and discusses how, in its second state, redefined as Parametricism 2.0, Parametricism opens up the possibilities to become more than a matter of generational technique, scripting variational geometry, and a means to addressing wider social and environmental purpose.
The use of scripted parameters that define objects in architecture is generally regarded as a recent phenomenon, associated with digital design. Mario Carpo, Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural Theory and History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), describes how parametric notations are part of an enduring architectural lineage that has its roots in the theses of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, previous to printing, when the only means of disseminating the proportions and combining of elements was to describe them, writing them out by hand without the aid of illustration.
As Senior Architect to the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Mark Burry has been 'thinking parametrically' for almost his entire career. Here he describes how his longstanding role overseeing the completion of Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece has afforded unique insights into the work of a great geometer and parametric thinker. Burry places the contribution of Gaudí alongside that of Frei Otto - the other eminent 20th-century Proto-Parametricist.
The presence and uptake of the computer, so omni-influential in approaches to design and architectural representation over the last decade, has begun to have an effect on built form and design quality. The computer has a reciprocal involvement in a revolution in thinking about space and time that has created a shift from the stable and metric (Euclidian) concepts inherited from the Classical through Renaissance and Modernist world to a more dynamic, unstable and unpredictable model, more closely aligned with our understanding of natural systems of growth, form and evolution. This paper focuses on a similarly reciprocal relationship between the developing use of computer-aided architectural design (CAD) and the detailed design and construction of the greatest work of a forerunner of this contemporary shift in spatial theory in architecture, the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. For fifteen years the introduction of the computer has contributed to the realisation of the highly complex Sagrada Familia church based on the design bequeathed from Gaudí. While it has impacted on the speed, precision, research and design process, and undoubtedly the built outcome, the use of the computer has also contributed to the depth of understanding of the conceptual design system underlying Gaudí's formal expression. Conceived long before the possibility of electronic computation and still beyond the powers of conventional architectural software, the implementation of this systemic approach to design is a rich source in the quest for meaningful use of computation in design and construction today and tomorrow. It promotes experimental uses of computing in both reverse engineering the design from the original architect's gypsum plaster models and scant surviving images, and streamlining the communication and construction.
Shape grammars were invented over twenty-five years ago by Stiny and Gips. They were one of the earliest algorithmic systems for creating and understanding designs directly through computations with shapes, rather than indirectly through computations with text or symbols. Over the years, shape grammars have been explored through applications addressing a variety of design problems. The history of these applications in architecture and the arts is sketched in this paper. The roles of shape grammar applications in education and practice are outlined. New and ongoing issues concerning shape grammars in education and practice are discussed.
The combination of Space Syntax and Shape Grammar approaches to design potentially offers a rigorous way of first understanding a characteristic instance of architectural configuration (say, a set of designs by an architect or a particular building type) and then producing variations of that instance. This paper presents a method that commences with a justified plan graph-grammar-based analysis of an architectural design, and then uses a grammatical interpretation of the structure of this syntax. Using this graph as a starting point, it is then possible to develop a 3D shape grammar of the same building. In this way, both syntactical and formal information are captured as part of the sequential analysis. This combined analytical approach can support a better understanding of an architectural style and its design instances as well as the generative capability of these two computational theories - Space Syntax and Shape Grammar. The paper introduces this combined method and then demonstrates it using 10 house designs by Glenn Murcutt.
With the onset of fully fledged file-to-factory design techniques, why should architects want to restrict themselves to the prescribed limits of descriptive geometry? In this article Mark Burry looks at a specific set of geometries - doubly ruled surfaces - that have been most explicitly developed by ‘structural artists’ Antoni Gaudí, Vladimir Shukhov and Félix Candela. He asks whether the application of doubly ruled surfaces like these might help us to make a significant distinction between architecture and sculpture. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The strong relationship between theoretical background in structural thinking and practical realization in composing and designing was one of the characteristics at Hochschule fuer Gestaltung (HfG) Ulm, the Ulm School of Design. This paper examines the special relationship between mathematics, philosophy and design at HfG Ulm, illustrated by examples of the foundation courses. This design approach assumes new relevance today in reference to rule-based or parametric designing with digital tools.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00004-013-0148-6
Research into shape grammar implementation has been largely concerned with rectilinear shapes and there has been limited research into implementation on shapes composed of curves. This reflects developments of the shape grammar formalism which has been defined largely according to straight lines, planes, and associated volumes. In this paper, implementation of shape grammars on curved shapes is examined using algorithms for shape operations on shapes composed of parametric curves. These algorithms have been implemented in a shape grammar interpreter for shapes composed of quadratic Bézier curves, which is illustrated via application of a shape grammar that generates Celtic knotwork patterns. Implementing shape grammars on shapes composed of Bézier curves highlights difficulties that arise when the shape grammar formalism is applied to curved shapes, and the paper concludes with a discussion that explores these difficulties and indicates potential implications for the shape grammar formalism.
Guest Editor Lionel March introduces Nexus Network Journal volume 13 number 1 (Winter 2010) dedicated to Shape and Shape Grammar.
Keywordsshape grammar–design theory
Types and Instances is the conceptual paradigm of this course for teaching design with computers to architecture students which was devised at the ETH Zurich. The course was initiated in the academic year 1990/91. Since then, it has been offered each following Winter semester up to the academic year 1995/1996. This paper discusses the essential concepts of the course and describes the tools that were created specifically for it. A reflection based on the experience of teaching the course is also included in the conclusions.
The ultimate goal of the described research is a process for mass customizing housing based on computer-aided design and production systems. The current goal is the development of an interactive system for generating solutions on the Web based on a modeling approach called discursive grammar. A discursive grammar consists of a programming grammar and a designing grammar. The programming grammar generates design briefs based on user data; the designing grammar provides the rules for generating designs in a particular style, and a set of heuristics guides the generation of designs towards a solution that matches the design brief. This paper describes the designing grammar using Siza's houses at Malagueira as a case study.
Thesis--University of California, Los Angeles. Microfilm of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1979 -- 21 cm.
Hospitals generate and store a large amount of clinical data each year, a significant portion of which is in free text format. Conventional database storage and retrieval algorithms are incapable of effectively processing free text medical data. The rich information and knowledge buried in healthcare records are unavailable for clinical decision-making. We examined a number of techniques for structuring and processing free text documents to effective and efficient for information retrieval and knowledge discovery. One critical success criterion is that the complexity of the techniques must be polynomial both in space and time for them to be able to cope with very large databases. We used conceptual graphs (CG) to capture the structure and semantic information/knowledge contained within the free text medical documents. Ordering and self-organising techniques (lattice techniques and knowledge space) were used to improve organisation of concepts from standard medical nomenclatures and large sets of free text medical documents. Pair-wise union of CG was performed to identify the common generalisation structure and a lattice structure of these CG documents. A combination of all three techniques allowed us to organise a set of 9000 discharge summaries into a generalisation hierarchy that supported efficient and rich information/knowledge retrieval.
Fortuito supra acanthi radicem: Essai de lecture contemporaine du De Architectura de Vitruve. Unpublished doctoral dissertation
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Vitruvius machinator terminator
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Modellazione parametrica per lo studio del costruito. Parametric modeling aimed to study the built environment
- F.Carota
Intuizione statica ed immaginazione formale nei reticoli spaziali delle volte gotiche nervate.
- A.Cavallari Murat
Forma urbana ed architettura nella Torino barocca: dalle premesse classiche alle conclusioni neoclassiche
- Cavallari Murat
Strutture e sequenze di spazi
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Parametricism as Style. London. Paper presented at the 11th Architecture Biennale
- P Schumacher
Il modello parametrico: uno strumento di studio e analisi. The Parametric Model: a Tool for Study and Analysis
- M.Vitali
Gian Giacomo Plantery, architetto barocco.
- A.Cavallari Murat
Indicazioni tradizionali di “commodus, firmitas, venustas”. In Politecnico di Torino, Istituto di architettura tecnica
- Cavallari Murat
An Incoplete Manifesto for Growth
- B Mau
Ricerca matematica in architettura e urbanistica
- L Moretti
Forma come struttura. Spazio, giugno-luglio
- L.Moretti
Le forme nello spazio di Luigi Moretti
- M.Mulazzani