起源

Origin of the Project

The Digital Evolution Lab began to take form in discussions within our Design Technology Group centered on how we can identify and properly enrich the technically inclined individuals throughout our firm.  As people are embedded in many project teams throughout our 14 global offices, we were certain there were individuals creating new workflows and tools we knew nothing about. These individuals, and their innovative ideas, cannot help us if they’re hidden in silos. They may be doing great work on specific projects, but if they had a larger platform? They could be doing great work for not only for our firm, but the AEC industry and beyond. Through these discussions, the Digital Evolution Lab was born. 

We agreed we would host a conference and hackathon in one of our office cities. Individuals would apply to attend, and those selected would compete to create new digital tools and workflows that could benefit the firm or greater AEC industry. This would allow us an opportunity to identify some of our skilled individuals and provide them with a chance to meet in person, get know one another, elevate their existing skill sets, and build their network. 

意外VS惊喜

Emergencies VS Surprise

年初爆发的新冠疫情意外打乱了本次活动的最终安排。为了响应拥抱科技的初衷，我们最终选择以虚拟线上的方式来继续此次数字进化实验室的活动。令人意想不到的是，线上方式凸显出了更多的优势，活动可容纳更多的参会人员，为合作伙伴提供更加丰富多样的的小型研讨会，同时还能灵活延长讨论时间使参与人员和活动主办方之间有更多的互动。尽管此次活动与最初的构想有所差别，但收获的效果与影响力已大大超出了我们的期望，并继续朝着我们希望的方向发展。

Earlier this year, we were in the final stages of coordinating this event when COVID-19 became our unfortunate new reality.  We discussed different options, but what made the most sense to us was to fully embrace technology and hold our Digital Evolution Lab as a virtual event. Once committed to this direction, the benefits of this virtual format proved itself an impressive alternative. It enabled us to add more attendees, offer different workshops with external partners, and extend the timeline of the event to allow for more interactions between the attendees and the event host committee. While not the event we originally envisioned, it is one that has already exceeded our expectations, and an experience we’re very much looking forward to.

Participants & Submissions

Duke Wang

申请参加实验室起源于我对参数化设计的浓厚兴趣，以及希望结识公司里有相同兴趣的同仁的初衷。在我提交的作品中，关注的重点是针对店面的价值分析，以及尝试在不同的干扰因素下模拟访客的参观路径。在这个实验中，我假设了一个特定的时刻，并分析了此时访客的视野范围—因此店面的价值可以通过在这个特定时刻店面的可视性来进行计算。除了线上培训外，我更希望能从这次活动中获取一些新的灵感。此外，我对Python之类的编程语言也很感兴趣。我相信参数化设计的最终目的是提高效率，参数化设计或许并非最优解决方式，重要的是寻求逻辑的平衡。我也很希望能够有机会提升自己的决策力。

I applied to the Lab because I have a great interest in parametric design myself and I’d like to work with the people who have the same interest in our firm. In my submission, I was focused on storefront value analysis and attempting to simulate visitors’ path among many interference factors. I focused on one specific moment and analyzed those freeze visitors’ view—therefore, the storefront value can be calculated by the possibility it can be seen at this specific moment. I hope to get some fresh, new ideas form this experience that goes beyond online tutorials. I’m also interested in learning programming language, like Python. I believe the goal for parametric design is all about efficiency. Parametric design may not always be superiors’ traditional methods, so the key point is maintaining a balance. I want to optimize the ability to make decisions. 

这个实验室吸引我的点在于我认为公司能够从整体上充分利用这次实践，通过对传统工作流程进行再思考和再设计，从而对行业产生深刻影响。我提交的作品是一组定制的指令节点（节点包），每个设计师只需用平面线条就能先建立出实体模型再建立场景模型。我希望能学到如何利用不同的编程语言创建、实施和分享不同的工具。当然，我最想学习的编程语言还是Java和C语言。

The Lab interested me because I think our company is in a great position to leverage the practice as a whole and, with that in mind, re-thinking and re-designing our workflows is key to make a meaningful impact on the industry. My submission is a set of custom nodes (packages) of instructions that allow any designer to first create a solid context model using only 2D lines and after creating this context model. I hope to learn how to use different programing languages to eventually create, implement and share different tools. I’m most looking forward to learning Java and C#.

公司拥有众多技术型人才，在世界各地也不乏有趣的项目，我经常能听到同事们谈论他们遇到的一些有意思的项目或解决方案，但对这些内容的更加详细及深入的信息却知之甚少。所以这封关于实验室的邮件对于我来说更像是一种号召，让我与其他优秀的设计师和专家们一起分享我们的成果并相互学习。我提交的作品是一组关于室内滑道的简单建模工具。对我们来说，室内滑道本质上其实是9公顷大楼内的室外环境。因此，我们需要把很多种编程元素融合在一起。例如，我们有上下左右穿梭、穿越森林的过山车，我们会根据设计需求，在过山车的周围以及森林和悬索桥之间,还分布主滑道、登山吊椅和J-bar。但这些都还仅仅是我们需要设计的部分元素。因此，我们必须对所有元素进行三维建模，确保其正常运行的同时，还要确保其最终效果和设计愿景的一致性。

基于此，我们也需要对很多滑道进行反复建模。由于这些滑道会惯性遵循一些简单的设计规则，于是我做了一些小工具来加快滑道建模的迭代过程。这些工具让我们能够专注于设计本身，探索多样的设计契机，而不是把时间浪费在反复建模的过程中。更重要的是，视觉呈现更有利于业主简单直观的评估设计，我们可以利用VR技术让业主进入他们的项目中亲身体验。总之，我们很享受这个设计过程，VR的效果也得到了业主积极的反馈。我很开心能够学到新技能，和同事们一起探索验证的过程也很享受。但是我最期待的是参加机器学习研讨会——如果能通过学习机器来助力我们的设计，那就太棒了。

Our company has many talented people and interesting projects everywhere-- I can always hear my colleagues talked about some super interesting project or solution they saw, but I can never get in-depth info about those achievements. So, when the email of this Lab showed up, it was a calling for me to meet other advanced computational designers/specialists within our company, to share what we have done, and to learn from each other. My submission is just a collection of simple modeling tools for some rides in an indoor ski slope. For us, the design of the indoor ski slope is essentially an outdoor environment within 9a huge building. For that, we have many kinds of programmatic elements we need to put together. For example, we have sort of roller coasters that go up and down, left and right, and thorough the woods. And there are also suspended bridges which are above the roller coasters, next to them, and below it-- depending on the design as well as in between the woods. On top of that, they are next to the main ski slopes, the chairlift, and the J-bar. Those are just part of the elements we need to design. So, we must model everything in 3D to make sure things work and the visual result of the design meets the vision. 

For that reason, many rides will have to be modeled multiple times. Since those rides typically follow simple design rules, I made those little tools to speed up the iteration process of those rides. Those tools allow us to concentrate on the design and explore various design opportunities instead of tedious and repetitive modeling process. More importantly, the visual result allows the client to see and evaluate the design with ease. Lastly, we can use VR to bring the client into their facility to experience. Anyway, we enjoyed the design process as well as the VR ourselves. And luckily the client’s comments from those presentation are quite positive as well. I am incredibly excited to be learning new tools and testing the potential of them with likeminded peers. I am most looking forward to The Machine Learning workshop-- it excites me that we can use Machine Learning to improve our design. 

我觉得和公司的同事一起探讨关于未来的建筑设计流程是非常有趣的一件事。我提交方案的灵感正是来自于和同事探讨的过程，我们从生成式设计的用处和目的切入，来考虑是否真的需要在计算机中复制一位经验丰富的建筑师的知识与能力，来帮助设计师提高他们画图时的思考能力。从这一角度切入，我提交了一个可以将建筑基地草图自动转换成满足特定程序要求的三维Rhino模型。同时我对DEL团队组织的研讨会非常感兴趣，他们涉及的主题和技术都是我一直希望学习的，比如学习通过GitHub或其他工具来更好的设计。我很享受与有不同背景与经验的人交流、共事的过程，在大多数人眼中数字化设计不仅是解决一系列繁琐设计的方式，同时也是特定的设计美学。而我也很期待看到这场纯粹关于可能性探索尝试的结果。

I thought it would be fun to come together with other individuals within the firm and collaborate on something related to the future of the process of architectural design. My submission is a script that takes a sketch of a building site plan and automatically converts it into a 3-d Rhino massing that meets the specific program requirements indicated beforehand. The idea for the script came about partly from discussions I had with others about the usefulness and intention behind generative design, the difficulty and if there really is a need in duplicating in a computer an experienced architect’s knowledge and ability to see the big picture, and finding ways that scripting tools we within the firm already have access to can aid the designer and his natural abilities of thinking through drawing.I am very excited about the workshops the DEL team has put together, since they address subjects and skills I’ve wanted to learn for a long time, like collaboration through GitHub and machine learning. I’m also excited to work and talk to people across the firm who see digital design as much more than a way to create a certain design aesthetic typically associated with parametric design or automating tedious tasks. I’m especially excited to get the chance to collaborate with people with different experiences and backgrounds that I never worked with before and explore skills and tools we just learned in a setting that is purely about experimentation and possibilities. I’m looking forward to seeing what the result will be.