Question About Generative Design

Hello,

I have a question for people with experience in generative design;

Do you guys feel that it is necessary to know computer programming in order to do generative design (the specific field/application isn't important)?

I'm thinking precisely of tools like grasshopper or nodebox which could potentially be used without having computer programming experience, however I wonder how important do you think that having computer programming experience is necessary/helpful (another way to ask this question would be: do you feel that having developed 'computational thinking skills' is necessary to do generative design?).

Thanks a lot for your input, it will be much appreciated, this is for my school dissertation in CAD.

BR

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel González Abalde on April 12, 2017 at 11:56am

If your process only depends on interactions between existing objects, surely grasshopper is sufficient. If you need to create new objects, you need to code. If you only need native tools, Gh is enough. If you have to develop something new, you need to code. If you call generative design to create the process that generates multitude of results based on parameters (for me its explicit generative design), gh maybe is enough. If you call generative design to create systems that self-generate or develop by themselves in an environment (for me it's implicit generative design), then you need to code. If you want to make a facade using geometry, surely gh is enough. If you want an object to learn to design facades using geometry, you will need to code. If your process depends on a static environment, then gh may be sufficient. If you process depend on a changing environment and with uncertainty (that is, a real environment), you will need to code. And so on..

In conclusion, it depends on what you want to do, so one can not say that it is always necessary. What is clear is that if you do not know how to code, it will be very difficult for you to innovate. When you are also limited by the capabilities of a software, you are limiting the questions you ask yourself.

And just in case to clarify, that Gh is a visual programming language, and there are things that now only are possible from code perhaps later are possible in a nodal editor like Gh.

Permalink Reply by ShynnSup on April 12, 2017 at 2:02pm

What do you think are some good ways/resources to learn code and what language would you recommend considering design objectives.

Permalink Reply by Gio Contreras on April 14, 2017 at 10:16am

Dear Daniel,

Thanks for the reply, I think I get your point. The background for the question is the teaching of generative design in Industrial Design. I believe this is too valuable of an approach not to teach it to students, however I want to get a feeling for how important it would be for students to have some sense of computer programming. I guess this would be helpful but not crucial.

As ShynnSup rightly points out, I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts about languages/ways that you think would be good for novice designers to learn to code.

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