Through the Interface

Using VASA with Forma - Part 3

I was sure this series was finished - as indicated in the last post which talked about both VASA’s pathfinding and visibility from a point inside Forma, after having talked about a manual approach for connecting the two tools - but I did leave the door ajar to me finding something else to talk about on this topic. Sure enough, I got thinking about the missing “big ticket” item that VASA is able to implement with relatively low effort: visibility from a direction (as opposed to from a point) which can simulate things like shadows cast by direct sunlight.... Read more →

Using VASA with Forma - Part 2

In the first post in this series we looked at an approach for exporting Forma geometry to an STL file that can be loaded into Dynamo and analysed using VASA, our Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis toolkit. The overall goal is to be able to use VASA for urban-scale analysis of the site context. (Later on I hope we’ll also be able to work with more detailed architectural geometry as the level of detail in Forma evolves.) In that post I also alluded to something that’s coming soon which will streamline the above workflow: you’ll hear more about that at... Read more →

Using VASA with Forma - Part 1

While preparing for one of my upcoming AU classes, I decided to explore how someone could use VASA - our Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis toolkit - with Forma. Right now Forma is largely focused on conceptual design - taking into account the surrounding urban context - so this thinking was largely focused on how VASA might be used at the urban scale. This is something we’ve looked at before in the context of FormIt and Dynamo. While a tighter integration is likely to be possible at some point - I’ll talk a little more about our work on a... Read more →

Preparation for AU 2023

It has been a really busy but important week for our team. We had a fantastic virtual offsite where we spent a significant amount of time using LEGO to conceptualise some of our planning for the coming year. A friend of mine was all set to become a LEGO practitioner - to assist with team-building events - before the plans were de-railed by the pandemic… independently my colleague Dagmara suggested we try “Serious Play” for this offsite and I said yes before she’d finished her sentence. We’ve made great strides for our upcoming exhibition in Toronto (formal announcement coming... Read more →