Inside Smartgeometry (PDF)

Smartgeometry (SG) is a key influence on the architectural
community who explore creative computational methods for the design
of buildings. An informal international network of practitioners
and researchers, the group meets annually to experiment with new
technologies and collaborate to develop digital design
techniques.

When SG was founded in 2001 by London-based architects and
friends Hugh Whitehead (Foster + Partners), J Parrish (AECOM) and
Lars Hesselgren (PLP), there was little in the way of parametric
tools for architecture. SG was founded to encourage the
development, discussion and experimentation of digital design
techniques driven by design intent rather than on construction
specifications. SG calls for a re-consideration of the design
process, where the creation of computational mechanisms become an
integral part of designing - not a task done prior to or
separate from the process. In the early years of the workshops this
need for new ways of design thinking led to the development of
Bentley¿s GenerativeComponents software. In recent years, the
ecology of these design environments has diversified to include
multiple software platforms, as well as innovative fabrication
techniques and interactive environments. SG has grown accordingly
from a handful of experts to an international network of designers
who are defining the future of design. Founded by digital pioneers,
it creates the algorithmic designers of the future.

Inside Smartgeometry can be seen as a retroactive
manifesto for SG, examining and contextualising the work of the SG
community: the digital spaces, prototypes and buildings designed
using bespoke tools created in response to architectural ideas.
From interactive crowd-sourcing tools to responsive agent-based
systems to complex digitally fabricated structures, it explores
more than a decade of advances that have been influential for
architecture. Through 23 original texts including reflections
by the founders, and key contributors such as Robert Aish, Martin
Bechthold, Mark Burry, Chris Williams and Robert Woodbury, the book
offers a critical state of the art of computational design for
architecture. Many international design and engineering firms have
participated in SG and the book includes chapters by practitioners
from offices such as CASE, Design2Production, Foster + Partners,
Grimshaw, Populous and SOM.