Interactive design computation—a case study on quantum design paradigm

The ever-increasing complexity of design processes fosters novel design computation models to be employed in architectural research and design in order to facilitate accurate data processing and refined decision making. These computation models have enabled designers to work with complex geometry and numeric design constraints to explore a whole new design field that is impossible to explore without computation techniques. However, most current design computation models follow an automation-oriented paradigm that only deal with strictly defined problem solving and optimization, but fail in establishing an intuitive and interactive communication with designers. This lack of interaction leads to an unconscious rejection of non-parameterizable design factors, which, reduces design computation models to specific design problem solving tools instead of operating as active design partners. This paper presents a non-deterministic design computation modeling approach derived from a discussion on quantum design paradigm, which employs real-time user interaction as the co-driver to evolve user+computation driven informed design outputs. A case study of such a design computation model; QPC Toolset, developed and applied in a QuantumPointCloud workshop, will be illustrated in this paper. Expanded discussions on fabrication optimization and construction techniques from the QPC workshop will be addressed to conclude a comprehensive report.