School of Architecture Offers Computational Design Workshop, a First in This Region

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Imagine skyscrapers that spiral into clouds and office towers that harvest breezes and daylight to cut energy costs. The University of Arkansas School of Architecture will show design professionals and students how to make these ideas concrete in a workshop titled “TransFORM Architecture” that will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 4—5, in Willard J. Walker Hall on the University of Arkansas campus.

The workshop will offer students hands-on experience with Bentley’s GenerativeComponents, a powerful new software tool that enables architects and engineers to experiment with innovative forms, materials and assemblies. GenerativeComponents facilitates innovation by supporting the quick exploration of a broad range of design alternatives, which can then be analyzed for energy efficiency.

“We want to help architects understand that they have the ability to manipulate software to make what they want,” said Brad Workman, who holds the School of Architecture’s Twenty-First Century Chair in Integrated Practice. “Computational design enables architects to torque, twist and mold buildings, testing all along to see how much they can warp form while retaining sound structure,” he added.

Cosponsored by Bentley Systems Inc., TransFORM Architecture is modeled on the SmartGeometry workshops that have taken place in cities such as London, Toronto and Munich and on east and west coast campuses in the United States.

“There have been computational design workshops at Georgia Tech, MIT and UCLA — none of them anywhere close to this part of the country,” Workman said.

Expert users of GenerativeComponents and other high-end parametric design systems will lead the workshop:

• >Marty Doscher, information technology director at Morphosis, an architecture firm led by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Thom Mayne

• Volker Mueller, formerly design technology manager with NBBJ architecture firm, recently named research director for computational design with Bentley

The workshop is open to architects, designers, researchers, students and faculty members; an application is required. The workshop is free and is limited to 25 participants who have submitted design ideas that they wish to explore.

 “The tutors will step participants through a series of exercises, then turn them loose on their own projects,” Workman said.

For more information and to download the application, visit http://architecture.uark.edu/407.php.

A 1978 graduate of the School of Architecture, Brad Workman has helped design, develop and pioneer building information modeling for software firm Bentley Systems Inc., where he currently serves as vice president of building and plant solutions. In his new role as Twenty-First Century Chair in Integrated Practice, Workman is working with school leaders and faculty to determine how the School of Architecture may best prepare students for a new era in design.