Revolutionizing Town Design with Parametric Technology

Junming Chen's Innovative Approach to Architectural Design and Urban Planning

The inspiration behind 'Parametric Generation' stems from the desire to use technology to enhance architectural design. Chen's project utilizes Grasshopper (GH), a parametric technology, to replace manual drawing and modeling. This approach not only ensures a unified architectural style but also significantly improves design efficiency. Furthermore, it allows for the continuation and innovation of Chuandong culture in the city.

What sets 'Parametric Generation' apart from other designs is its unique use of GH technology. This technology allows for quick generation and modification of the town, exploring the potential of parametric technology. The design also carries out a modern evolution of eastern Sichuan folk houses, making the architectural design more contemporary. The architectural and commercial space is designed to be flexibly combined, maintaining the consistency of the architectural appearance while achieving various functions.

The realization of this design involves summarizing the design principles of Chuandong Architecture and writing it as a GH program. This method ensures the automatic generation and architectural style control of the town. The technology offers two main advantages: the preservation of cultural characteristics and the unification of architectural design style. Moreover, designers can carry out detailed designs based on buildings generated by GH, achieving rich details and efficient methods.

The designed building complex covers an area of about 100,000 square meters and comprises individual buildings in the Eastern Sichuan style. These separate buildings can be combined freely, and GH generates each building. The interaction with the design is straightforward. The designer enters the required parameters in GH, such as length, width, height, the size of the eaves, and the slope of the roof, to generate the building. If modification is required, the necessary parameters are re-entered to regenerate the building.

The project, located in Chongqing, was designed in 2023. The underlying research for this design focused on the complexities of designing a small town. The town generation program was written through the Grasshopper (GH) program to realize the rapid generation and modification of the town. The result is a computer-generated town design that matches the site and continues the architectural style of eastern Sichuan.

Chen's design faced several challenges, including prolonged design cycles and inconsistent design styles due to multiple designers. To overcome these challenges, Chen proposed converting the regional culture and architectural style into executable computer programs. This approach allowed for the automatic generation of buildings and the preservation of regional culture and architectural style. The design was awarded Silver in A' Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Award in 2023, a testament to its innovative approach and technical excellence.