Research

Engineering an innovative architectural future

Programme brief

Hyperbody, a contemporary information technology driven research and design group at the TU Delft is at the forefront of developing novel, alternative forms of engineered architectural, interactive and urban scapes. Design-research projects conducted at Hyperbody stress upon an analytical data driven investigation into highly networked and interconnected parameters constituting contemporary social and spatial structures. Hyperbody with its focus on the development of innovatively engineered non-standard and interactive architectures creates new forms of innovative spaces addressing today’s complex socio-technical realities. Hyperbody, during the course of its design-research program inculcates exploration of inter-disciplinary spatial domains via in-house cutting-edge techniques and methods for realizing complex non-standard, digitally-driven architectures. Physical modeling techniques such as CNC milling (computer numerically controlled), laser cutting and 3d printing (rapid prototyping) in order to physically construct, analyze and at times reverse engineer such innovative designed entities is an integral part of the research program.

Hyperbody, apart from exploring contemporary modelling and manufacturing techniques, also rigorously researches upon complex generative geometries and innovative structural solutions in its quest for plausibly realizing emergent architectural and urban solutions. This research facet can appropriately be termed as 'Engineering Architecture'. Engineering Architecture puts emphasis on design aspects establishing a link between design intent and computer controlled production. Furthermore, it addresses performative aspects in architecture, which emerge from the embedded interactivity between users and buildings. A high level of inter-disciplinary research and the resultant production of novel computational design tools and techniques are thus considered quintessential for sustaining Hyperbody’s research program.

Hyperbody, as an inherent part of its research program, also researches upon the field of interaction and how it can be used as an integral design process promoting real-time collaborative design as well as for designing real-time interactive spatial constructs. Programmable buildings, an outcome of this interactive architectural research and design approach, developed at Hyperbody, the paradigm shift from animation towards simulation and real-time behavior, while understanding buildings from a lifecycle perspective (implying that economical and ecological consequences require the development of unprecedented concepts and practical applications for interactive architecture) leading to the emergence of pro-active building bodies which act and inter-act in an ever changing environment.

In addition to developing research and design prototypes, interactive installations and architectural case studies, Hyperbody, in order to effectively extend its research initiatives, developed ‘Protospace’, a vehicle for trans-disciplinary research, education, research and design. This sensorial augmented real-time multiplayer design environment has been installed on the TU Delft campus, in the iWEB pavilion. In this research laboratory for real-time collaborative design and engineering, Hyperbody extends its research possibilities for multidisciplinary architectural and urban design in a digitally-driven environment, incorporating human-computer interaction modalities for intuitive control of the system.

Hyperbody’s research program thus critically deals with orchestrating relational linkages between the informational and the material domains in an iterative manner to develop an interconnected loop between design activity and the product in real-time. This emergent condition can be termed as ‘Immediate’, a condition where conventional phased cyclic design processes are surpassed in order to envision a performative network of simultaneous operations of design, fabrication, construction and usage.

Hyperbody’s data driven inter-disciplinary research program is categorized into the following domains:

 

The knowledge base developed under these Hyperbody research domains is further enriched and shared in a truly inter-disciplinary fashion owing to Hyperbody’s inter disciplinary (academia and industry), inter faculty, and inter university associations.

For additional information, please contact research manager

DR. Nimish Biloria

Telephone: +31 (0)15 4270 3181
E-mail: nimish.biloria@gmail.com

© 2012 TU Delft

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