Robert Aish has a continuing interest in Design Computation. He contributed to RUCAPS, one of the original BIM applications and to the development and deployment of one of the first industry-scale parametric solid modelling applications, Intergraph’s Ship Building system, VDS. He was instrumental in adapting VDS to build one of the first computational design models, the Waterloo International Railway Station, designed by Grimshaw. Subsequently, Robert Aish was Director of Research at Bentley where he led the development of GenerativeComponents and Director of Software Development at Autodesk where he led the development of DesignScript (which is the core programming system within Dynamo). His research into the application of non-manifold topology to create a minimal complete representation of the material connectivity and spatial enclosure of architecture has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust. He has recently co-authored a paper (with Al Fisher and Dominic Orchard) on the future of end-user programming languages for Design Computation. This paper has been published by the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN) and the ideas in this paper will form the basis for his presentation at NXT DEV. Robert Aish studied Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art and has a PhD in Human Computer Interaction from the University of Essex.
Despite the progress made in design computation with BIM and generative components, our industry continues to grapple with fragmented workflows and proprietary data formats.
Al Fisher will provide an update on BHoM (Building and Habitats object Model), the open-source framework used by Buro Happold to support its firm-wide design computation and digital collaboration. He will present the BHoM’s unique federated object model, its emphasis on composability, extensibility, and “no black boxes” transparency, and how it is used at scale in a large engineering practice.
Robert Aish will present the progress made in the field of Design Computation and a new generation of Design Languages: the successors to Design Script and Generative Components. He will position the BHoM frameworks within that journey, and how they enable more abstract design representations, which in turn allow the creation of derivative design representations that can be more coordinated, collaborative, and composable.
As a wrap-up, Alain Waha will summarise the BHoM framework’s potential to unlock advanced AI-driven design processes and address critical industry challenges, from achieving Net Zero to industrialising construction.