Generative Design: A Boon or Blessing

Generative Design: A boon or blessing?

It is rightly said that curiosity is the mother of innovation and imagination is one big key point necessary to be considered. Literally, without imagination, no one could have actually invented/discovered anything. 

What if the person who was first to carve the square wheels into circles, that he invented/discovered something that is more efficient as compared to what already existed, never imagined about the shape?

Every Architect, Structural Engineer, and MEP Engineer needs to have an immense amount of imagination to reach his goal. In other words, if you take the imagination term out of this industry, it will eventually collapse, or reach a stagnation point. It's the brains that run the AEC industries.


As said brains(i.e. imagination power) are the most important factor, we all know that anything that can be the successor of a human brain is a brain the human has made using silicon and plastic. Yes, you are right! COMPUTER. 

Since the very first computer-aided design(CAD) software made in 1957, it has evolved drastically over six decades. From using a light pen to draw on a CRT computer monitor to using a 7.5 mm thick Ipad to capture Li-Dar data. We can't scale this change on any axes. 

Just like these changes, a noticeable change was observed in the late '60s. The term "generative designs" was getting tossed. Its origin can be arguably pointed in Gerald's L. Delon's 1970 paper "A methodology for total hospital design", or in 1st Century BC, with Vitruvius's "Ten Books On Architecture".

 What Generative Designing actually meant was a process that helped the designer or you can say the one who is imagining in selecting, enhancing, or exploring innumerable possible permutation of a solution satisfying the design goals.

In an article posted in "Medium" about Generative designs, the author said,

"It allows for a more integrated workflow between humans and computers, and as a result, both are required to undertake a series of steps that allow the process to take place. These steps can be categorized into the following stages: generate, analyze, rank, evolve, explore, integrate."

When we talk about CAD/ 3D CAD tools, we always consider planning before actually creating the model. And planning is highly based on the goals we have to achieve. But just imagine this!! You know your requirements to be achieved, you know what you are going to create but you cannot think of more than 2 design options. 
This happens because our mind has the ability of "adaptive thinking". This makes us hard to try to change even the slightest design. It restricts us to calculate and imagine the permutations of options.

But, computers behave the way we want them to!  

And there comes Artificial Intelligence in the big picture of Generative Design. 

Without including AI in this process, the computers won't even try to think, permutate, and adapt to the changes in the data input (i.e. the goals we are meant to achieve). 

Software like Fusion 360 Generative Design and Revit Generative Design have the ability to do the hard work for you. 

But on the other hand, using this concept makes us ponder that if all the thinking and imagining work will be done by computer, will it degrade the level of human imagination?

 Write us on :
bimveda@gmail.com

Follow us on :

Instagram: Bimveda

   About the author : 

Prathmesh Jadhav

( LinkedIn: Prathmesh Jadhav )