Shanghai Tower - Trevor Hess

The Shanghai Tower Lab, while simple in its construction, brings up the interesting paradigm of limits within computational design. These limits are different than the different parameters within the script. Really, the limits are applied to the different parameters, or adjustments that can be made to the design (represented by the upper and lower bounds on the sliders). In this project, starting with a outer skin of a specific dimension, many of these limits are dependent on the setting of the other parameters. For example, to have a large base, you must increase the step size, so that the upper layers of the building do not intersect the rotated skin. Similarly, the skin can not be rotated to such a degree that it knots itself, or is thinner in the middle, than at the top. While you could refer to these as constraints, I prefer to differentiate between bounds that are imposed by the designer (constraints), and bounds that are imposed the geometry of the project (limits). Without being able to test the wind loads on the building, the grasshopper script alone can not be used to determine the optimal twist of the building. Instead, it is used to gauge the rough aesthetic constraints and geometric limits of the proposed building form.