Technology: Building Envelopes - Digital Transformation: Generative Processes from the Conceptual Phase to Implementation
When the aim is to implement complex geometries in a strained economy, it does not suffice to merely determine which digital tool is best suited to the task. It involves thoroughly digitizing the individual steps of the work process, from the concept to the finished product. When the CAD programs and the methodology behind them are understood as not merely a means to depicting a design, but as part of the engineering, new horizons open up. One of the outstanding innovations in computer-related work is the fact that we can now go about it in a much more interconnected, communicative manner. Various complex, unrelated disciplines, results, and adaptations can be merged in a highly complex process. New computation methods are required - and are feasible. This dynamic way of approaching tasks allows us to rethink the work process - a process that has thus far been one-dimensional. The building progress can be portrayed for any desired point in time - all information relevant to construction is accessible. Thus, there is no vertical tiering of the project progression, but instead a dynamic contemporaneousness that is simulated - with all of its different facets - for the entire timeline. In designing, architects now have nearly infinite possibilities available to them, whereby 3D programs can generate complex forms on their own. However, there is also the danger that projects are pushed to the brink by precisely these inexhaustible solutions and the fact that no logical argument has been thought through. A basic tenet of engineering holds that before acting one should always integrate a more fundamental level in the investigation - i.e. to not only examine the depiction itself, but also how the CAD programs function. This facilitates linking all relevant data and evaluating it. The FEM calculations can be coupled with CAD data: ultimately, a digital transformation occurs. The construct exists not only in the form of visual elements, but also as a set of data. In our deductive approach - moving from the whole to the detail and vice versa - all planning processes flow into a digital model, and correspondingly, a central data bank. To be able to respond to the greatest variety of input, we set standards for the data. The material supplied by the architects - ranging from simple concept sketches to generative 3D models - serves as the basis.
