QINBO'S ARCH WORKS: ARCH 653 Project 1_Parametric Design of Major Cultural Center in Albania

ARCH 653

Parametric Design of Major Cultural Center in Albania

1. Background

These buildings are designed by BIG, it is a 27,000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting of a Mosque, an Islamic Center, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.

Fig 1 Major Cultural Center in Albania

2. Analysis of the Geometry

Fig.2 The Concept of Original Building Box

The original shape of these three buildings is quadrangle boxes. One of these building was twisted from bottom to top. Other two was subtracted by a model.

Fig 3 The Transformation of the Building Shape

3. Parametric Mass Generation.

I built this mass by using a Conceptual Mass Family. I used the reference points to build the reference lines. And these reference lines could be changed by moving the position of points. I copied these reference points and lines to other levels in order to get the mass structure.

Fig 4 Reference Points

Fig 5 Four Levels of Reference Lines

By moving the reference points, I could get any shape I want. And then, use the “create form” command to build the shape.

Fig 6 The Changes of the Moving Points

Fig 7 Building Mass

I set a parameter of height. If I change the height value, the building shapes will be changed.

Fig 8 The Parametric Setting of Height

Fig 9 Height=10 ft

Fig 10 Height=20 ft

Fig 11 Height=30 ft

4. Curtain Panel:

From the following image, we could see that: the windows are not in the same row. These pattern like the chess board, but not exactly the same pattern.

Fig 12 The facade pattern

4.1, In order to build these window patterns, I selected the 1/2 step curtain pattern. And then open a window controlled by the offset parameters “F”.