Intuitive structures: Applications of dynamic simulations in early design stages

Developments in digital design have brought a new design freedom into architecture. Emerging tectonic trends, combined with research into new materials and fabrication technologies, make it possible to pursue imaginative designs with new expectations of space and form. However, these innovative designs often exist exclusively as visual propositions, deprived of the deeper structural, constructional, or functional logic necessary for well-developed designs. Similarly, the proliferation of analysis software tools has helped engineers to calculate sophisticated structural models, yet this ability seldom translates back into architecture. Consequently, these two parallel developments, while promising in their individual capabilities, fall short in terms of synergizing into successful designs. To bring these two distinct components together, this paper discusses the strategies for generative design validation using dynamics-based modeling tools that realistically portray physical processes. Through the use of dynamics-based software, a promising direction for generative architectural design emerges. An architectural form not only can be analyzed based on its structural performance, but also can be derived through the process of structural simulations.