Sem 03 / Form and Space Studies
Computational and Digital Design
Tushar Rajkumar
Computational and digital design enters the understanding of spatio-formal relationships as entities that can be computationally analyzed to create form and space. This approach engages with spatial design through the concepts of shape grammar, utilizing its generative and analytical potential through the logic of site forces.
The first exercise, an operation on form, tasked students with understanding the parameters of a given geometric shape and manipulating it without altering its primary characteristics.
The first exercise, an operation on form, tasked students with understanding the parameters of a given geometric shape and manipulating it without altering its primary characteristics.
Accompanied by lectures on computation and shape grammar, students produced multiple iterations, and their attempts at its transformation.
The studio introduced digital drawing and modeling, through which students also manipulated the geometry in third dimension. With an orientation toward distilling the parameters that define or dismantle a geometry, the studio then introduced the articulation of form through "effects." This was supported by lectures and case studies that bridged these concepts to the scale of architecture and habitable space.
Four specific sites were selected for their high footfall and existing public infrastructure: Gorai Jetty, Mandapeshwar Caves, Borivali Railway Station (East), and the entrance of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The studio observed, inferred, measured, and translated site observations into sets of logic. Students developed frameworks based on pedestrian movement, shading patterns, and visual obstructions or frames, among others. This held the primary focus of the studio work, where multiple iterations led to a computational logic derived from each student’s observations, highlighting the site forces that influence and shape the environment.
Ultimately, these logics revealed the spatio-formal relationships of each site. Stemming from these observations, the studio arrived at forms that responded to these relationships—creating spaces for waiting, resting, and pause. Additional programs were integrated to enhance these spatial connections. This logic became the anchor that shaped the new spatial arrangements, formal manipulations, and tectonic strategies.
More work from the course can also be found here.