Shape Computation Lab


People Research Publications Courses Studio

Theater Rules 
Figure 1. Initial framework category - Parti Axes
Figure 2. Shape Machine workflow theater: 6 stages
Figure 3. Shape Machine workflow theater – Variation 2 
Figure 4. Automated theater plans in Shape Machine
Figure 5. Automated theater plans in Shape Machine
Figure 6. Automated theater plans in Shape Machine
Figure 7. Automated theater plans in Shape Machine
Figure 8. Automated theater plans in Shape Machine
Figure 9. Volumetric study of the theater on 14th St, Atlanta. (Blue)-Public; (Red)-Backstage programs; (Green)-Performance programs
Figure 10. Ground floor plan
Figure 11. Second floor plan
Figure 12. Longitudinal sections of the theater
Figure 12. Longitudinal sections of the theater
Figure 14. Interior view of the galleries
Figure 15. View of the backstage corridor looking at the private courtyard

Robert Vaivodiss
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2019

A studio study on the automation of contemporary theater plans using Shape Machine’s DrawScript programming language. The set of rules used in this study is based on an interpretation of Durand’s compositional process based on an arrangement of axes and programmatic spaces along them, in addition to compositional rules extracted from the design of the public space of the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center (Weiss/Manfredi) and the organizational grid of Avery Fisher Hall (Richard Meier). 

The plan generation starts with a simple parti indicating the spatial axes of the building. The initial DrawScript uses this parti as an input to generate a footprint with clear interior and exterior spaces and circulation axes. These spaces are indicated as long rectangular modules and small square modules at intersections and corners. In the generated plans, the overall organizing grid is set at 30 feet. The second stage step requires the designer’s input in selecting the programs for each spatial module created in the first macro. After the program is allocated, the third DrawScript macro automatically generates the space modules for the programs present in the plan. Space modules include architectural elements such as walls, doors, and windows. The designer may also select from multiple types of space modules; for example, a workshop could have four different types that include dimensional or architectural differences. The final macro generates envelope elements that modify the spaces adjacent to the exterior. Glazing elements, envelope pop-outs, exterior doors, and columns are added to complete the plan. Finally, all the construction lines are removed to clear up the drawing. 

This generative strategy outlined above can be applied in many ways to develop variations even from the same parti diagram. The rule set includes different types of the same programs and variations on architectural elements.  

Museum of Intoxication
Figure 1. Basic recursive modules of the language
Figure 2. A catalogue of museum configurations: Small 
Figure 3. A catalogue of museum configurations: Medium
Figure 4. A catalogue of museum configurations: Medium
Figure 5. A catalogue of museum configurations: Large
Figure 6. A catalogue of museum configurations: X-Large

Figure 7. Interior view of the vertical circulation

Figure 8. Interior view of the undulating exhibition walls

Figure 9. View of the exterior membrane of tbe building
Figure 10. Evocative section of the museum
Bianca Abad
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2019

The museums of intoxication are imaginary, fictional spaces that celebrate the cyclic perception of space and time within a seemingly endless traversing of sinuous spaces woven one with another merging and blending the perception of the spectator into one intoxicating experience. The language for the museums is based on a recursive treatment of a circular room at various scales and its combination with copies of itself to generate positive and negative subspaces that work as interfaces that connect the floors one to another and/or as support spaces engulfing structural and programmatic spaces. The language is rich and generate easily a series of automated iterations in Shape Machine in various scales spanning the Small, Medium, Large and X-large scale, The colors are saturated, blended, absorbing and refracting light into one synesthetic experience. The structure is polemically rendered in a futuristic manner to further amplify the perceptual aspirations of the project. 

Embassy Grammar
Figure 1. A typical sample of a production of an embassy plan along three bars / axes
Figure 2. Dissections of the geometry of possible sites into the three bars schemes
Figure 3. Various generated embassy plans by Shape Machine
Figure 4. Various generated embassy plans by Shape Machine
Figure 5. A interior view of the interior convex spaces between one of the bars and the envelope of the building

Akshaya Kapadnis
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2019

The basic party for a contemporary embassy is envisioned here as a three-bar structure comprised by three distinct but related aspects of the program of the embassy, namely, the embassy proper, the office building, and the consular building. The three bars extend and dissect the sites determining different accesses to the building by the public and the staff.  The spatial compartition of each bar follows a serial principle of arrangement and /or concatenation of programmatic spaces one after the other along the structural and the circulation axes, without privileging any symmetrical arrangement in the plan making. The spatial arrangement of the bars one to another intersect in various angles generalizing the rectangular language of Durand into a pluralistic language allowing for a variety of different intersections between the programmatic elements. All design iterations have been generated done automatically in Shape Machine following a set of thirty of so rules.

A Language Of Municipal Office Buildings
Figure 1. Basic shape generation through Shape Machine
Figure 2. Town hall type and program diagrams
Figure 3. A catalogue of municipal office buildings: Extra small - Small - Medium - Medium [Narrow]
Figure 4. A catalogue of museum configurations: Large - Extra large
Figure 5. A catalogue of museum configurations: Medium [Narrow] - Medium [Shear]
Figure 6. Plan of the final design
Figure 7. Sections of the final design
Figure 8. Sections of the final design
Sara Laudeman
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2019

Town halls and municipal office buildings have developed dramatically from where Durand left them. While this project represents a transition from Durandian town halls to a more contemporary municipal office building for both public and municipal use, three major conditions remain constant.  

1. offices 

2. public space in the form of a hall, atrium, or other gathering space 

3. meeting rooms and break-out spaces.  

This project takes the systems structure of Durandian town halls as it was converted to Shape Machine and updates it. From this, a series of variations on a contemporary municipal office building is produced. A rigorous band of offices follows the envelope, while the atrium space is articulated by pushing and pulling the interstitial corridor spaces.


Market Hall Grammar
Figure 1. Transformational schema of a contemporary market hall
Figure 2. Generated market plans with 1-3 axes in Shape Machine
Figure 3. Generated market plans with 1-3 axes in Shape Machine
Figure 4. Generated market plans with 4-8 axes in Shape Machine
Figure 5. Generated market plans with 8-24 axes in Shape Machine
Figure 6. A production of a market hall plan 
Figure 7. Final plan of a triangulated market hall 
Figure 8. Axonometric view of the market hall
Figure 9. Elevation of the market hall
Figure 10. Interior view of the market hall
Figure 11. Interior view of the market hall
Yuhang Li
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2019

Marketplaces, since antiquity, are often identical with public squares themselves. In the 19th c., they were thought of as urban structures to afford wide, airy spaces, planted with trees, surrounded by porticoes, and refreshed and cleansed by numerous fountains. Similarly, they were distinguished into open air markets, typically  intended for the sale of fish, vegetables, flowers, and all livestock— merchandise attended by some degree of odor—which ought to be well aired and therefore uncovered, at least in part; and covered or enclosed markets intended for the sale of grain, wine, cloth, and so on—articles liable to be damaged by air, sun, or rain.  

This project takes on the 19th century compositional strategy as outlined by Durand in his Précis of the Lectures on Architecture and proposes a transformational grammar implemented in Shape Machine to generate contemporary market hall plans intended to accommodate specific building briefs. The axes of circulation (common axes), faithful to their Durandian origins. were generated first, and then the sub-areas were further subdivided. These generated patterns appear random, but they follow specific rules for the generation. Using this method, any given site can be triangulated and dissected in particular ways captured by the shape rules and a rich variety of different plans is produced in an automated manner structured about major and minor axes of circulation and structure.


Rapid Relief Hospital
Figure 1. Basic shape generation logic based on Dirichlet domains, step 1.
Figure 2. Basic shape generation logic based on Dirichlet domains, step 2.
Figure 2. Basic shape generation logic based on Dirichlet domains, step 2.
Figure 4. Rapid relief hospital plan generation step 2.
Figure 5. Rapid relief hospital plan version 1.
Figure 6. Rapid relief hospital plan version 2.
Figure 7. Rapid relief hospital plan version 3.
Figure 8. Rapid relief hospital plan version 4.
Figure 9. Rapid relief hospital plan version 5.
Figure 10. Rapid relief hospital final plan.
Figure 11. Rapid relief hospital axonometric.
Figure 12. Rapid relief hospital section.
Figure 13. Rendering 1.
Figure 14. Rendering 2.
Figure 15. Rendering 3.
Leah Baldochille
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2020

After months of civil unrest and increased gang violence, in August 2021 Haiti was hit by a major (M7.2) earthquake as well as a Tropical Depression two days later. Leaving behind broken communities, many Haitians began migrating north through countries like Mexico towards the United States in hopes of seeking asylum. As of October, 30,000 migrants have made it to Del Rio, Mexico in hopes for a safe way to cross into Texas. Due to the staggering number of refugees, it can take days or weeks to know the results of an asylum application, leading the refugees to camp on the banks of the river and under the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge. This refugee camp has seen high numbers of injuries, deaths, suicide attempts, and disease in the past few months and Rapid Relief Hospitals are the solution. 

Rapid Relief Hospitals are temporary, prefabricated and modular systems that are quick and easy to construct, but also incorporate biophilic design characteristics to promote an environment of comfort and healing.


A Glaciology Research Station in Antarctica
Figure 1. The language of the glaciology center.
Figure 2. Compartition of major spaces.
Figure 3. First and second floor plans of the glaciology center.
Figure 4. Section of the glaciology center.
Figure 5. Skin variation responding to minimum and maximum sunlight.
Figure 6. Exploded axonometric showing the locking of the two geometries.
Figure 7. View of the research labs.
Figure 8. Interior view of the main vertical circulation.
Figure 9. View of the research labs.
Shiyun Lucy Lin
ARCH 6049: Design and Research Studio
Instructor: Athanassios Economou
Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2021

The proposal for a glaciology center in Antarctica is posed as a direct answer to the climate change problem. Extreme conditions recorded and experienced through time-lapse media in Koyaanisqatsi and Antarctica foreground evocative, fragile, uncanny spatio-temporal patterns. The project responds to these challenges with an architectural tectonic language evoking continuity and fragility in a continuous counterpoint of straight and curved tectonic elements. The structure responds to the immediate environment with a series of animated hexagonal apertures that close and open in various time-lapses. The Glaciology research station is situated in the King George Island, Antarctica, in a direct correspondence with the rest of the research stations that are located there. The language of the plans is envisioned as a delicate set of variations on classic geometries all generated procedurally in Shape Machine for Rhino.