Verena Vogler on Ecological Analysis Of Building Envelopes with Grasshopper
Verena Vogler is an architect and researcher with a focus on integrating computational modeling, ecosystem regeneration, and architecture who will be presenting at CDFAM in Berlin on behalf of McNeel on the EU-funded ECOLOPES project, transforming building envelopes into ECOlogical enveLOPES – “ECOLOPES”, living spaces for non-human inhabitants with computational design.
McNeel is the developer of Rhino3D and Grasshopper, which has increasingly become the backbone of computational design, research, development and adoption since its inception in 2007.
In this interview Verena shares some background on the ECOLOPES project, and her work using Grasshopper she will be discussing at CDFAM in Berlin.
Can you start by telling us about your role at McNeel and what brought you to join the company.
In 2014, I became a member of the McNeel team in Barcelona, initially serving as a part-time Rhino/ Grasshopper trainer while pursuing my doctorate at the Chair of Computer Science in Architecture at Bauhaus University Weimar in computational Artificial Coral Reef Design.
At McNeel, I am responsible for the educational course program in the EMEA region (mainly programming and third party plugin training) as well as for R&D projects funded by the European Commission.
Artificial coral reef design & underwater monitoring. © Verena Vogler.
McNeel’s ‘open’ ethos has significantly influenced computational design across architecture, product design, and engineering. This impact is largely due to the accessibility of Grasshopper’s visual programming interface, which enables users to connect with and develop a vast array of applications. Could you outline the company’s structure and explain how you and your colleagues engage with this large user community?
Robert McNeel & Associates, founded in 1980, is a privately-held, employee-owned company with headquarters in Seattle and regional offices worldwide. Compared to other software vendors, we are a small company (worldwide about 120 employees). The company structure is characterized by commitment to empowering developers, delivering technical & development support for free, leveraging reseller partnerships, and fostering a strong sense of community among our users.
This approach cultivates a culture of collaboration and innovation. The engagement with our user community is one of our highest priorities as we rely 100% on users for sales staff (marketing without advertising). The goal is to convert every potential customer into a productive user, a delighted salesperson, supporter, trainer, and/or developer.
By providing open development platforms and APIs, we aim to empower third party developers to extend the functionality of Rhino at Food4Rhino.
Some familiar faces of our McNeel team on the Rhino Forum.
This engagement has led you to work on Horizon 2020 research projects, funded by the European Commission that you will be presenting at CDFAM in Berlin. Could you describe the project and your role at McNeel within this initiative?
Since 2016, McNeel Europe has participated as an industry partner in Horizon 2020 European Projects. Our role in these projects is to build innovative software applications on top of Rhino/ Grasshopper and to test our new frameworks (e.g., Rhino.Compute, Hops and Rhino.Inside).
My background is in research and practice and I am responsible for R&D at McNeel Europe. Our latest EU-funded project called ECOLOPES seeks a paradigm shift in urban development, focusing on transforming building envelopes into ECOlogical enveLOPES – “ECOLOPES”, living spaces for non-human inhabitants.
I understand this project focuses on modifying existing structures to enhance native biodiversity at the building level. How could these practices be expanded to new structures and applied on a larger scale within urban planning?
In ECOLOPES, McNeel develops a Rhino/Grasshopper plugin that facilitates ecological analysis of building envelopes. It uses algorithms to predict the distribution of species across a 3D space and time using environmental data (e.g., light, soil depth, soil type, in the future precipitation).
The output is a dynamic species richness map at a resolution of 1m3 that provides feedback about the building’s potential for cohabitation. The integrated ecological model (program written in C++) is a species richness model (Boulangeat et al. 2014) adjusted for our purposes by ecologists from the Department of Life Science Systems at Technical University Munich and Studio Animal-Aided Design Berlin. For our simulation, we access a plant species pool with more than 19,000 species. Only site-specific species are selected for the analysis. Once the model is adapted to the regional scale, there is a potential to analyze urban districts at the city scale in the future.
BOULANGEAT, I., GEORGES, D., & THUILLER, W. (2014). FATE-HD: A spatially and temporally explicit integrated model for predicting vegetation structure and diversity at regional scale. Global Change Biology, 20, 2368–2378.
Example building envelope and species richness analysis over 22 years.
Could you describe the data structures and types you are integrating into Grasshopper, the other software it connects to, and the types of data that are outputted?
We use the JSON file format for data exchange between Rhino/ Grasshopper and the SDM. Our data in- and outputs are stored as JSON objects. The file format is supported by browsers and is cross-platform compatible. Our analysis results are visualized in Grasshopper and the ecological data is available as JSON output. Currently, the developed system connects to other software packages that can read data and 3D models exported from Rhino/ Grasshopper.
Volumetric data is gaining importance in additive manufacturing (3D printing), where surface meshes are insufficient for conveying the complexity of material properties or manufacturing data. This necessity has prompted the 3MF Consortium to develop an open volumetric extension capable of capturing and communicating data at the voxel level, or as a pure implicit function without discretization. Could you discuss the volumetric data requirements for this project and, if met, how they might influence other applications?
Our data model is a 3D voxel model in Grasshopper, so to say a parametric volumetric data model. It intricately integrates architectural, environmental, and ecological attributes into voxel cells, with data correlation facilitated by a Machine Learning (ML) model.
The ML model outputs the correlations between form, environmental conditions and ecological performance. This information can be used for design decision support, to make predictions, as well as to input probabilistic scores to machine reasoning processes.
The type and number of attributes considered can be extended or the volumetric data model can be applied to an entirely different context. By associating attributes with a position in 3D space, each voxel cell is aware of neighboring cells. Thus, volumetric data models can be useful for AI-generated 3D models.
Parametric volumetric data model storing architectural, environmental and ecological attributes.
Once this phase of the project is ‘complete,’ do you plan to continue the research? Additionally, how has this research informed other projects you and your colleagues at McNeel are working on?
We intend to offer it as a free plugin to the Rhino community of designers, landscape architects, and urban planners (Rhino Package Manager, Food4Rhino). The plugin is listed under a group of tools called “Biophilia”.
These tools support designing for life or living things. Our users can then provide feedback to jointly further develop this project with experts from ecology. Our species richness tool could be extended by including microbiota and animal species at the building and urban scale.
At McNeel, we will look into the volumetric data models developed in ECOLOPES to understand their potential to generate 3D models from attributes.
What do you hope attendees at CDFAM will take away from your presentation, and what type of engagement are you seeking with the community of designers, engineers and academics who will be participating at the event?
The work presented is the result of an experimental collaboration between disciplines. The approach of integrating ecological modeling into design aims to consciously promote biodiversity in urban areas through computational modeling. The aim is to understand how this idea about having a species richness analysis tool in Rhino/Grasshopper and an integrated volumetric data model resonates with the user community. Above all, I look forward to meeting the other speakers, and new people from different backgrounds for sharing knowledge as well as open and insightful discussions.
Thank you for this opportunity, Duann, and thanks to CDFAM!
To learn more about Verena’s work and connect with other experts in computational design at all scales, register to attend CDFAM Computational Design Symposium in Berlin May 7-8, 2024 for two days of presentations and networking.
