Gil Akos and Ronnie Parsons from New York based Studio Mode, covered complex geometric generation in Grasshopper through list management while also tapping the potential of Weaverbird. Marc Fornes, the TEX-FAB 3.0 Keynote and veteran of 3 events, continued to inspire attendees with the potential of code through meticulous demystification. David Fano, in his first event, led novices and Revit pros through the paces of novel techniques in the BIM industry standard. Finally Travis McCarra, coding artist, began with simple modelling techniques and finished with advanced Grasshopper tutorials giving them a broad set of creative tools.

Vlad Tenu and TEX-FAB have been awarded an AIA Houston 2012 Design Award for “Divine Detail”.  Minimal Complexity was recognized by A panel of two nationally recognized architects and the editor-in-chief of a nationally respected architecture magazine met at Architecture Center Houston on Thursday, March 22 to select the best of new Houston architecture from among 127 entries. Eligibility was limited to projects completed within the last 5 years and located within the Houston metropolitan area or designed by an architect working in the Houston metropolitan area. The jury selected twenty-one projects in eight categories to receive awards. The jurors were Craig Scott, IWAMOTOSCOTT, San Francisco, Susan S. Szenasy, Editor in Chief METROPOLIS Magazine, New York, and Jon Pickard, Pickard Chilton, New Haven, Connecticut. The Awards were presented at a cocktail reception on the eleventh floor of BG Group Place on that evening. For further information visit www.aiahouston.org/designawards.

Andrew and Brad were also invited panelist in the “WHERE ARE WE NOW: ARCHIVE Looks at How Digital Probes Precipitated Contemporary Fields”. The panel was moderated by Maia Small and joined by Ashley Schaferand Michael Kubo.

Andrew Vrana is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Houston College of Architecture, Kevin Patrick McCellan is a Lecturer at the University of Texas San Antonio College of Architecture, Brad Bell is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture.

The design of the responses took the entire first day and at the end of the evening all projects were printed.   The next day the finished products were introduced into the landscape.  The project has been exhibited at the ACSA Conference and will continue on a tour of exhibition locations around the country and finally arrive at the ACADIA conference in San Francisco at the same time as the APPLIED competition exhibition and 2nd round jury.

The Workshop was organized by Greg Luhan of University of Kentucky and ACADIA.  Workshop instructors were Gil Akos, Ronnie Parsons, Andy Payne and Kyle Miller.  Other participants included Mark Cabrinha from Cal Poly, Aron Temkin from Norwich/President of ACADIA and David Celento from Penn State.

TEX-FAB *DFA organized a series of Parametric Design Workshops at Pratt
Manhattan with Architect’s Newspaper. With over 100 attendees, the workshops were sold out
and provided exposure to a range of software and tools from leaders in
the industry of computational design and education.

Andrew Vrana will moderate a roundtable discussion:

Facade Innovation:  Performance, Optimization and Integration

The ability of computational technology to inform facade design from novel geometries and enhanced environmental performance to rationalized component optimization and digital fabrication is creating new possibilities in the development of intelligent building skins.  The confluence of visible forces (structural, functional and physical) and invisible forces (cultural, political and temporal) can now be measured, managed and realized through the integration of enhanced information processing, cross-disciplinary material organization and computer assisted manufacturing ingenuity.  From a broad spectrum of expertise representing the professional, academic, applied research and engineering consultation community, the speakers participating in this discussion present a series of façade design case studies that articulate these forces of innovation in practice and lead the speculative dialogue on where this trend will head in the future.

Performative facade systems
Anna Dyson, CASE
Case Study:  Helioptix

Optimization of facade systems
Erik Verboon, Buro Happold
Case Study:  King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture

Integration of facade systems
Phillip Anzalone, Columbia University GSAPP
Case Study:  Columbia University Building Intelligence Project