The Design and Computation workshop is a rethoric-free scripting workshop for architects and designers that introduces the principles of geometric computation. Attendants explore the potential of the automation of two and three-dimensional geometric procedures, rule-based systems and algorithmic strategies for design generation and computer-aided manufacturing, through hands-on individual exercises and a design project developed in teams.

The workshop provides participants actual experience on programming as a tool for formal and spatial exploration. The objective is to make available to the students conceptual and technical tools that allow them to decide when and how programming could turn into an ally on the design process and fabrication of architecture or industrial design projects.

The workshop provides a basic programming knowledge in RhinoScript, a variant of the VisualBasic programming language for the 3D surface modeler Rhinoceros. At the end of the workshop the participants are able to transmit spatial ideas generated algorithmically, and are able to formulate computational solutions to their structure and assembyproblems.

The Design and Computation Workshop is a collaborative research initiative by members of the Design and Computation Group at MIT.

Robert McNeel & Associates
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima
Design & Computation Group
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
And Pablo Herrera for organizing the logistics and co-teaching the Lima and Santiago Workshops.

Universidad Nacional de Chile School of Architecture, Santiago de Chile, Chile. November 2006.

Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC). School of Architecture
Lima, Peru. January 2008.

Universidad de los Andes School of Architecture and Design
Bogotá, Colombia, January 2009

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. 2010.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design,Cambridge, MA. 2009.

Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala. 2010.

Kenfield Griffith, John Snavely, Skylar Tibbits, Taro Narahara, Yanni Loukissas.