Houscaper

Abstract

The demand for lower construction costs comes at the price of duplicating architectural designs. As a result, the misperception that modular architecture is repetitive prevails. However, the developments in computational design and MMC (modern methods of construction) can suggest a standardized manufacturing approach to provide mass customization. The research explores the computation of Modular building envelope systems using the Boolean marching cube algorithm under the premise of a ‘participatory generative design framework’ of the 'GO-Design' developed by Pirouz Nourian and Shervin Azadi [1]. In this project, (1) a set of architectural tilesets is developed that incorporates mass-customization by providing the potential for generating various configurations, and (2) a prototype of an interactive digital tool is established to enable future inhabitants to customize the configuration of their modular houses based on the predefined tileset. The algorithm is developed and applied in the Rhino & Grasshopper environment. The BMC algorithm reads the voxels' labels pertaining to each cube's vertices (a collection of 8 neighboring voxels) to load and choose the corresponding tile from a predefined tileset. The project's focus is the design of such a tileset, its engineering consistency, and architectural coherence. As an input, a voxelated massing will be the input, possibly later accompanied by a colored zoning scheme. and the output will be a modular architectural assembly. This workflow is envisaged to become a procedural component of a Configure, Price, & Quote (CPQ) system for the industrialization of mass customizable housing.