FOUR AMAZING GENERATIVE DESIGN OPTIONS FOR ARCHITECTS

Hi everyone! This special episode (see YouTube video below) covers Generative Design software for architects – specifically four that I have used over the past year. I explore these different options for generative design software for architects to use right now. Each one has benefits and some challenges depending on what is required.

The four Generative Design options that we’re going to look at are;

Spacemaker (now owned by Autodesk)

Site Solve

Skema

Archistar

I’m just going to run through what they look like, what they can do, how they work, some of the advantages and a couple of challenges with each one as a general introduction. This is not comprehensive but gives a flavour of what they are like.

In the future I may do more of a deep dive into these options, as well as explore alternatives as the market is expanding quickly for these types of tools. Hope you enjoy!

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SPACEMAKER

Spacemaker is an intuitive, collaborative, cloud-based AI software that empowers architects, urban planners and property developers to design high-quality site proposals. Create 3D massing models of your site and its surroundings using automatic datasets. Test your site proposals and receive accurate analyses for 100+ criteria such as noise, wind, sun and micro climate. Streamline your early-stage planning and design workflows with intuitive tools and generative design.

SITE SOLVE

Rapidly understand the potential of your site. You can draw or use the in built optimisation engine to quickly generate ideas for your site. With the inbuilt engineering insight you can have greater confidence in the buildability of your ideas. You can rapidly explore different strategies to evaluate results. Whether you want to explore your mix strategy or test different height limits or densities, Site Solve believes it can help you. You can get instant feedback on criteria such as views, overshadowing, dual aspect or North facing apartments to drive how you evolve your designs. SiteSolve’s visual platform allows you to easily showcase your ideas to your stakeholders. You can easily tweak ideas live in meetings and show you’ve explored multiple options.

SKEMA

Parametric urban design & site feasibility software. Using intuitive manual massing modelling tools and generative design techniques, Skema allows architects and urban designers to move blocks around a site plan within the actual site context and landscape with connected schedules straight into a browser. Iterate more massing options in less time with instant feedback on the proposed design regarding the project’s value and environmental impact.

Product Video here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJUf5rL9Ps

Post update (22.01.30) – Skema have been in touch to say that there have been a number of updates since I have tested this software. I would highly recommend contacting them to see the developments and also viewing the video above to explore how great the software is.

ARCHISTAR

Archistar helps property professionals complete time-consuming property research, feasibility assessment and building design work within minutes using ground breaking Artificial Intelligence. Archistar is a property platform that combines property research, feasibility assessment and building design work all in one. With Archistar’s planning, property data and building visualisations, it becomes easier to align building designs with government compliance rules. Learn and understand how planning controls directly impacts your development projects and proposed building designs, and bring more speed, certainty and transparency to the Development Approval process.

SUMMARY

In summary, it can be seen that each one of these options performs well in different ways. Each of the software do have areas of development that are required to increase the quality and flexibility of these tools. Generative design software at the early stages of use is here to stay and there are a number of options which are expanding very quickly in this area. For users, it will be really important for them to confirm exactly what they are looking for from a particular software to ensure that they choose the right one for their needs.