TELL THE PEOPLE!

Birds and many other living organisms rely on large old trees for their survival. However, these trees are rapidly disappearing from many landscapes. The regrowth of such trees takes hundreds of years, and in many disturbed landscapes, wildlife populations cannot persist without temporary human-made replacement structures. In 2022, Mirra et al. [1] conducted a study on the AI-based generation of 3D models, or visual abstractions, of large old trees. An AI agent analysed a dataset of these trees to identify features that appeal to animals and generated forms that approximated these features. The researchers also evaluated the usefulness of the AI-generated forms as artificial replacements for trees using morphological and cost criteria. Building on this research, we developed our pavilion entry for the IASS 2024 design competition. Our focus was on creating (1) a design strategy to translate the AI-generated visual abstractions into buildable tensegrities, and (2) a fabrication method that facilitates the transport, assembly, and disassembly of these structures using repurposed and biodegradable materials. We named this prototype "FloaTree". We have constructed prototype tests in Melbourne, Australia, and will build the full-scale pavilion during the annual IASS symposium in Zurich, Switzerland, in August 2024.

This paper illustrates the design and fabrication processes of the Hypar Up pavilion, which served as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate the viability of a design-to-fabrication workflow for complex yet modular architectural geometries that utilise small and planar timber offcuts geometries discretised as Planar Quadrilateral (PQ) meshes. By integrating computational design and optimisation with efficient manufacturing processes, this research highlights the technical challenges of repurposing materials with unknown characteristics, notably detailing solutions, and evaluates the efficiency of design-to-manufacturing workflows with surplus timber products, using a quantitative cost analysis of the fabrication and assembly phases. While exploring the potential of repurposing scrap wood into hypar-shaped modular construction components, this work expands on existing research on segmented shells and investigates methods and means to move beyond the use of shell structures as monolithic and static artefacts. The pavilion is intended as a 1:1 modular prototype that can be resized to accommodate different dimensions of the timber panel offcuts and potential applications to be tested in future applications, such as load-bearing walls and facade retrofitting.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research advancements is visible in many fields, from medicine to the visual arts. In architecture, Generative AI tools have enabled designers to generate large numbers of compelling images through simple textual prompts, triggering critics to focus the theoretical debate around issues of authorship and creativity of design outputs: the process goes into the background, and investigating the collaboration mechanisms between human architects and machines loses its centrality. This essay aims to restore continuity between the research conducted in AI in design of the 1990s and the current technological developments in the field by illustrating how recent applications of AI models and tools can support designers in areas other than image generation. We discuss how architects can establish and strengthen forms of collaboration with AI to develop and review design proposals, offering an approach that embraces AI as a partner rather than a replacement for human creativity.

This paper describes a novel approach to structural optimisation based on learning design strategies rather than searching for optimal solutions. In the proposed approach, an AI agent is trained through Reinforcement Learning (RL) to explore a 3D modelling environment and iteratively morph a flat NURBS surface into a doubly-curved shell structure. At each iteration of the 3D modelling process, the agent computes the maximum structural displacement through FEM analysis: it learns to select modelling actions through this feedback and progressively improves the performance of the input surface. Unlike current applications of RL in structural design, where the AI agent generates design options by recombining a predefined set of design variables, our approach aims to create structural forms through the interaction of a designer and an AI agent within a 3D modelling environment. An application illustrates that our agent can interpret a preliminary structural form defined by a designer and iteratively transform such a form to improve its structural performance. The trained agent can hence transform the geometry and improve the structural performance of any open surface that features a square footprint and is defined through a sequence of modelling commands. Preliminary results suggest that this AI agent can be used for the development of more interactive tools for structural design and optimisation.

The design of music venues, such as concert halls and open-air concert stages, requires an integrated approach in which the acoustic response of the space being created is evaluated at every stage of the process to inform its formal development and associated performance. Various software exists to assess acoustic performance: Odeon is considered by many as the industry standard standalone software for detailed and accurate acoustic analyses, whereas Pachyderm is a plugin for Grasshopper (Rhinoceros 3D), which provides architects and engineers with more rapid feedback on preliminary design ideas because of its integration with a parametric modelling environment. Although an experienced acoustic designer could rapidly learn to use any of these programs, their usefulness during conceptual design or teaching activities is limited by the computational power and time required to get acoustic performance results. In these instances, testing time is more valuable than accuracy. This paper introduces Aeolus, an acoustic modelling plugin for Grasshopper. Unlike other similar Grasshopper plugins, Aeolus allows users to control the simulation accuracy and can therefore be used to rapidly test the performance of design ideas. Aeolus can also easily be interfaced with various Grasshopper optimisation plugins. Aeolus v0.1 was publicly released on 7 March 2023, and will be the focus of a Masterclass offered at the IASS Symposium 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.

Delivery methods of Higher Education classes have been scrutinised globally during the COVID-19 pandemic as academics and students were forced to shift rapidly to online delivery modes. In a post-COVID-19 scenario innovative teaching and learning approaches are required to rethink how large student cohorts can be educated online and on campus in a meaningful way, thereby reenvisioning the traditional lecture and its wider class context. This paper reports on the approach taken by the authors who restructured and redesigned an existing second-year undergraduate subject in an Australian architecture faculty. They collaborated with specialist learning designers to develop a blended mode of large-class delivery that simultaneously addresses their students' desire to engage with subject content flexibly and asynchronously, whilst benefitting from in-person interaction in the classroom. The new subject was subsequently delivered for the first time at the point of writing this paper.

This book reviews Dante Bini’s inventions and designs, focusing on his form-resistant Binishell and other pneumatic construction systems. Dante Bini’s double profile of architect and builder underpins the narrative of the entire book. It is used to analyse the evolution of the early reinforced-concrete Binishell patent into a variety of automated construction systems based on the use of air. Dante Bini has always been quite proactive in promoting his work and disseminating the results of his experimentations and achievements via journal articles, conference presentations and public talks; promotional brochures in multiple languages were also prepared to export and license his patents in various countries, from Italy to the Americas and Australia. Despite this, a rigorous study of Dante Bini’s work is still unavailable, and the relevance of this figure to contemporary architecture has yet to be discussed comprehensively. This book fills in this gap and arrives at the right time: during the last two decades, there has been an exponential interest in shell and spatial structures, particularly concerning the use of complex geometries and innovative construction techniques.

This book will be of interest to academics in architectural design, theory and construction history, and practitioners and students interested in expanding their knowledge in the design and construction of shell and spatial structures.

This paper presents the different steps of the journey that led to the development and implementation of a design ePortfolio as part of the “Architecture Major” of the “Bachelor of Design” (BDes) at The University of Melbourne, Australia. This design ePortfolio was developed over two years through interviews, focus groups with students, and the development of exercises and assignment guidelines. The implementation took place in different phases, starting with the introduction of four thematic exercises in the Capstone Architecture Design Studio of the BDes, and then, more broadly, at the curriculum level, with similar activities that prepared the students to already start developing a reflective journal from the first year of their studies.
The objective of this research has been to explore the potential of integrating a design ePortfolio with traditional design portfolios on the curricular activities of an undergraduate architecture degree to prioritise the students’ reflections on their personal qualities, growth, career trajectory and goals, as well as on the relationship between curricular and extracurricular activities rather than those of a conventional design portfolio, which tend to be focused more on showcasing skills and competencies. The results of this two-year project illustrate the potential of such a teaching/learning tool to link the personal and professional interests and achievements of students holistically, therefore highlighting the relationship between curricular and extracurricular activities, as well as indirect connections between design studios and seminar-based subjects, that is, history and architectural technology subjects.
So far, our design ePortfolio has been successfully used to encourage architecture students to reframe problems through a different lens and, as a key to creativity, to distinguish themselves from the homogeneity of students the university produces through its degree structure and modes of operation. The significance of this teaching and learning project lies in the identification of patterns in the curricular and extracurricular experiences of students that helps them define their identity, goals, and purpose. For this reason, this research has the potential of being linked to the University’s “Student Life” project, which is related to academic advice, personal growth, mentorship and the well-being of students.

Practitioners across domains—from architectural design (Zari, 2010; Ha and Lu, 2020), medical interventions (Chen et al., 2021), and robotics (Coyle et al., 2018; Ahmed et al., 2022) to materials science (Wegst et al., 2015)—are increasingly drawing inspiration from biology to address a wide range of challenges. This is perhaps unsurprising because life on earth represents over 3.8 billion years of evolution, whereby natural selection ruthlessly purges design failures. Despite the growth and promise of biomimetic and bioinspired approaches, the analogy to biological form or function is often superficial or largely figurative. This Research Topic was born from the topic editors' shared belief that to capitalize on insights from biology, we need to move beyond figurative referencing toward functional analogy informed by accurate biological knowledge. For this reason, we advocate a biologically-informed (or bio-informed) approach that captures key properties of living organisms and systems, such as sustainability, multifunctionality and self-assembly.

The articles collected in this interdisciplinary Research Topic illustrate the strengths of a bio-informed approach to design processes and applications. Ultimately, the goal is to demonstrate how simple concepts can be abstracted from highly complex and inter-connected biological materials, structures and processes to be applied or manufactured at scale.

A bio-informed approach requires deep collaboration between biologists and practitioners in other fields. To gauge the current extent of engagement with biologists in biomimetic and bioinspired research,Ng et al. surveyed the literature over 30 years (1990–2020) to reveal that only 41% of research papers published in the field included an author affiliated to a biology-related department, and most of them focus on a limited range of popular model species. The authors show the value of capitalizing on biological diversity and understanding the ecological and evolutionary context of the biological models. They also highlight that interdisciplinary engagement is a two-way street—for example, application of engineering approaches can improve biological understanding just as biology can offer new engineering solutions.