Abstract

Parametric modeling design methods and software form a part of many postgraduate degree curricula as well as architecture practices nowadays. At the same time, there is little research to develop a design method, a “first contact,” which will introduce design students with no prior knowledge of parametric software to this realm of architectural design. Generative design, and the logic of transformations, is maybe the base of computational design thinking. The research presented here outlines some of the main points of the computational design thinking theory, such as the geometric transformations, the diagram, and the mapping of a cyclical feedback design process. It then directly relates to each of those through a design method proposal and with an experiment based on the connection between physical and digital modeling. The principal results of this year-long experiment are diagrams and graphs that map the design process, as well as physical, digital, and CAM models of final design studio projects produced through the first-year course on interior architecture studies in a university in the UK. In conclusion, the proposed method creates a clear conceptual frame, translating theoretical key points to design methodology key points. The innovation lies in the fact that this research is inspired by parametric design software and proposes an “analog” approach order to manipulate space, through the combination of traditional design methods, such as physical modeling, with digital modeling and CAM. This way we can have real-time multiple iterations for a design scheme, before using any parametric software, even as practitioners.