Synthesis, Algorithmically-Designed Facades

With the advent of machine automation and industrial efficiency, facade design lost its artistic, hand-crafted touch. In an effort to reintroduce a sense of artistry to facade design, EDG devised a way to bring discovery and iteration to the built environment. Armed with software expertise, EDG developed the Synthesis program – striking an innovative balance between man and machine.

This computer-aided design software presents users—architects, their clients, or both—with a catalogue of shapes to serve as a launching pad. As style, color, density, pattern, and even window placement are selected, the user can see, in real time, near-limitless variations of the initial design. With the digital pull of an on-screen slide, all the elements of the building animate, allowing the user to find the perfect confluence of factors for the final design.

Parametric design optimizes the design, allowing window locations to be developed in synchronous coordination with the panel design and interiors. As the system learns from governing rule sets with inputs ranging from building codes and occupancy, location and orientation, along with dozens of other parameters – automation will increasingly perform the onerous tasks of the process, resulting in a streamlined methodology, with more consistent output.

Inevitably, the resulting freedom holds the potential to unleash creativity in a way that hasn’t been possible yet in our lifetimes. With the combination of 3D printing and concrete casting (Modern Ornamental), custom designs can be printed onsite, if desired, and on demand, which will revolutionize industry approach to facades.

Optimized Truss Design

Inspired by optimized trusses originating from structural engineering research, the EDG team explored methods to produce highly unique, load-efficient facades in high-rise towers. By fusing architectural design with structural engineering principles, EDG developed a new approach to creating aesthetically-dynamic façades.

Algorithmic modeling references patterns found in nature – evoking cellular leaf, webbing, and coral motifs. The resulting truss designs are simultaneously geometric and organic, structured yet unrepetitive. And importantly, the concepts are deeply appealing to the biophilic predisposition of humans.

These facades usher in a new era of exterior building design that challenges uniformity. The Optimized Truss tower propels the discipline of architecture forward, towards customized mass production that engages state-of-art design technologies and building manufacturing techniques.