During my time at Department of Architecture & Design, Aalborg University I did a sereis of workshops, all in the field of computational design exploring parametric and responsive design techniques.

One of the workshop series was Social Technologies, which was a 4 weeks Design workshop.

The workshop ‘Social Technologies’ explores the basic exercise in the development of dynamic architectural concepts and computer-generated geometry. The vision was to challenge the complex programs of the urban field and to explore the inherent potentials of new digital tools. Working with two main focus areas the workshop simultaneously aimed at developing advanced spatial systems for organizing and articulating new social complexities, and at utilizing and adapting different advanced digital design methods for exploring various principles of form generation and advanced production. The workshop was divided into five phases: registration and analysis, geometry generation, lighting control, synthesis, and exhibition.

In collaboration with architects, CNC-manufacturing companies, media artists,  sociologist and the Danish National Crime preventing counsil the students participating in the workshop sought to explore the ways in which advanced digital design methods can generate new alternatives for the existing anti-crime initiatives, where technology is often being used to identify guilty persons. The workshop present research in the crossing between performative formations and interactive light systems, thus enabling discussions on local culture production and social potentialities in form.

During the workshop the students were among other things introduces to: the development of dynamic architectural concepts, digital tools as Grasshopper for Rhino and RhinoScripting, the utilization of sensor technology and dynamic light control in the software vvvv, and to work with digital technologies and interactive urban environments on a conceptual level.

During the 1 month workshop the 42 students at 4th semester Architecture & Design went through 4 phases: Site and vision, Design parametric, programming response in light and finalising. The pictures show selected student work. Each person worked individual through the 3 first phases and in the final building phase the students teamed up to push 7 selected projected with greater and build 1:1 and 1:10 models.

The images present the project Art615, a winning student project, see the videos Art615: here