ParametricArchitecture

10/17/2026

What is circularity in architecture? 🌱

For Arthur Mamou-Mani, circular architecture goes far beyond choosing sustainable materials. It’s about understanding their entire lifecycle, from where they come from to how they’re assembled, disassembled, reused, and eventually repurposed.

In Episode 76 of Designing Forward, Arthur shares how his experiences at Burning Man, where every installation must leave no trace, shaped his approach to architecture, material efficiency, and circular design.

What if we designed every building with its afterlife in mind?

🎓 Learn directly from Arthur Mamou-Mani at PAACADEMY!

Join his Eco-Parametric Architecture Workshop on November 21–22, 2026, exploring Grasshopper, computational design, circular architecture, and robotic fabrication. Head to PAACADEMY to register: https://paacademy.com/course/eco-parametric-architecture-arthur-mamou-mani

🎙️ Watch the full conversation on Designing Forward, Episode 76: https://youtu.be/bvckn38QofI

10/17/2026

Only 3 days left to enter CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined at the Early Bird rate! And the jury is taking shape. 🔥

We’re excited to welcome Mariana Cabugueira, Michel Rojkind, Arturo Tedeschi, Carlos Bañón, and Hamid Hassanzadeh to the jury of CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined, bringing together leading voices across architecture, computational design, technology, and education.

🔗 Tap the link to register: https://paacademy.com/competitions/cartesianforms-architecture-reimagined

Secure the Early Bird rate now, develop your proposal over the coming weeks, and submit your final project by December 13, 2026.

🏆 With $120,000+ in prizes & benefits, CartesianForms challenges architects, designers, and students worldwide to choose a 50 × 50 m site anywhere in the world and imagine its transformation across three generations:

2030 — INHERIT → 2055 — ALTER → 2080 — PASS ON

This isn’t just about designing a final architectural image. It’s about showing the thinking, experimentation, iterations, and decisions that shape architecture over time.

👥 Meet the announced jury:

Mariana Cabugueira — MC Studios
Michel Rojkind — Rojkind Arquitectos / SCI-Arc
Arturo Tedeschi — Computational Designer / Author of AAD
Carlos Bañón — FORMAS.AI / SUTD
Hamid Hasanzade — Parametric Architecture / PAACADEMY

🔥 And the jury isn’t complete yet, more leading names in architecture and design will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

🏆 $120,000+ in prizes & benefits
🌍 Open worldwide to students + professionals
👥 Individual entries or teams of up to 5
🐦 Early Bird Entry: October 20, 2026
🕤 Registration Deadline: December 6, 2026
📥 Final Submission: December 13, 2026

Enter now. Design next. Submit in December.

🔗 Tap the link to register: https://paacademy.com/competitions/cartesianforms-architecture-reimagined

📌 /formas Under Construction by Carlos Bañon Blazquez

10/16/2026

🏗️ What happens when a building puts everything usually hidden inside its walls on display?

Completed in 1977, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, became one of the defining works of high-tech architecture by effectively turning the building inside out.

Instead of concealing its infrastructure, the design pushes mechanical systems, circulation, and structural elements to the exterior. Its famous color-coded network makes the building’s functions visible: blue for air, green for water, yellow for electricity, and red for circulation. This strategy freed the interior from many fixed elements, creating large, flexible spaces that could adapt to changing exhibitions and programs.

Its exposed steel structure, glass surfaces, pipes, ducts, and external escalators gave the cultural center the appearance of an enormous machine inserted into historic Paris. The radical approach sparked intense criticism when it opened, with comparisons to factories and oil refineries, but it ultimately became an icon of 20th-century architecture.

Nearly five decades later, the same exposed systems that defined its identity have also faced years of weather, pollution, and aging. The Centre Pompidou has now entered a major renovation period, addressing its structure, façades, technical systems, accessibility, and environmental performance.

An architecture once designed to challenge convention is now being adapted for its next chapter.

💬Would you call the Centre Pompidou a high-tech masterpiece, or an industrial machine in the middle of Paris?

📍 Paris, France
via ArchGrap

10/16/2026

🚀 Tesla’s new Roadster just turned aerospace engineering into automotive engineering.

During its October 15 reveal, Tesla demonstrated the next-generation Roadster performing a mid-air “kickflip” over a lineup of vehicles, using SpaceX-derived cold-gas thrusters to lift, rotate, and control the car while airborne.

The experimental system stores highly compressed gas onboard and releases it through strategically positioned thrusters, allowing the Roadster to generate forces beyond what can be transferred through its tires alone. Tesla also demonstrated a fan-based suction system capable of generating enough downforce for the prototype to drive upside down.

While the demonstration suggests a radically different relationship between automotive and aerospace technologies, the most extreme Rocket configuration is not approved for public-road use. Tesla is currently targeting production of the new Roadster for 2028.

💬 Is this a glimpse into the future of mobility, or simply an extreme engineering experiment?

🎥 Tesla

10/15/2026

10/15/2026

🧬 What happens when the human body becomes the starting point for architecture?

EXOFORM by Daniel Widrig (danielwidrig) explores the intersection of computational design, sculpture, fashion, and architecture through a series of digitally designed and fabricated structures that interact with the human body.

Inspired by anatomical systems, the collection features intricate geometries resembling exoskeletons, branching bones, and organic frameworks. Developed through computational modeling and digital fabrication, these sculptural forms extend around the body, transforming human proportions while moving between wearable objects, furniture, and spatial structures.

From body-scale sculptures to furniture-like installations, EXOFORM demonstrates how a shared computational design language can operate across different scales. Through the interaction of geometry, movement, and human anatomy, the project challenges conventional definitions of what can be worn, occupied, or experienced as architecture.

💬 Would you consider these creations fashion, sculpture, or architecture?

🖇Credits:

Sculpture Artist – Daniel Widrig danielwidrig
Creative Direction & Styling – Anastasiia Gerasymova Anastasiia Gerasymova
Photography – Morrigan Rawson Morrigan Rawson
Model – Nosty Line Lola Geurie
MUA – Natsu Tomonaga NATSU TOMONAGA
Styling assistant – Ki Tan Ḳi ᜅ
Wearing: danielwidrig Oscillæ Ying Ou Erika Kaija Katie Forsyth emily PANCONESI é p i f e n ē jewelry Not Your Fault | NYF Спідня білизна | Lingerie

10/15/2026

🌳 What if urban design adapted to trees instead of removing them?

In Shiraz, Iran, the Red Ribbon project transforms an ordinary pedestrian walkway by allowing its existing pine trees to shape the intervention. Instead of treating the trees as obstacles, the design works around them, creating a continuous landscape that brings together circulation, seating, and nature.

A ribbon of red Azarshahr stone rises from the pavement and curves around the tree trunks, forming organic benches before returning to the ground. Tactile guidance strips improve accessibility for visually impaired pedestrians, while shaded seating creates places to pause and gather along the walkway.

Through a relatively small intervention, the project demonstrates how public space can respond to what already exists. By preserving the trees and designing around their presence, Red Ribbon turns a simple sidewalk into a more accessible and people-centered urban landscape.

💬 How do you think cities can better integrate existing nature into everyday urban spaces?

🖊️ Design: Sedighe Eskandarpour | Architect
👥 Design Team: پريسا شرافتي & mahsa
📸 Photography: Sedighe Eskandarpour | Architect & Sadra Noori

10/14/2026

📐Architecture vs. Engineering: The Vision and the Structure Behind It

The Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), with structural engineering by AKT II (Tyréns AKT), is defined by a continuous fluid envelope that rises from the surrounding landscape, folds into walls and roofs, and returns toward the ground. Behind that seamless white surface, however, is an intricate structural system engineered to translate the building’s complex geometry into a buildable reality.

🏗️ Construction images expose the dense steel space frame beneath the envelope, wrapping around concrete cores and conventional floor structures while adapting to dramatic curves, spans, and changes in geometry. The contrast between the finished architecture and its hidden framework shows just how much structural complexity can sit behind an apparently effortless form.

Which do you find more fascinating: the finished architecture or the engineering behind it?

🌐 Heydar Aliyev Center - Baku, Azerbaijan
🖊 Architect: ZHA
🏗️ Engineering: Tyréns AKT

10/14/2026

Do you really understand Grasshopper, or do you just know how to use it?

Arthur Mamou-Mani believes that mastering computational design goes far beyond connecting components. Understanding the mathematics, geometry, data structures, and logic behind Grasshopper is what allows architects to move from simply using software to developing intelligent design systems.

In Episode 76 of Designing Forward, Arthur discusses why these fundamentals matter and how they connect to robotic fabrication, 3D printing, and real-world architectural practice.

🚀 Learn Grasshopper directly from Arthur Mamou-Mani!

Join his Eco-Parametric Architecture Workshop at PAACADEMY, happening November 21–22, 2026.

🔗 ⁠Register for the workshop: https://paacademy.com/course/eco-parametric-architecture-arthur-mamou-mani

🎙️ Watch the full conversation on Designing Forward, Episode 76: https://youtu.be/bvckn38QofI?is=ITUMXH_2ByiHUSrC

10/14/2026

🔥 Do you really understand Grasshopper, or do you just know how to use it?

For Arthur Mamou-Mani, computational design goes far beyond connecting components. Understanding the mathematics, geometry, data structures, and logic behind Grasshopper is what allows designers to build systems that can move from digital experimentation to real-world fabrication.

🎙️ In Episode 76 of Designing Forward, Arthur joins Hamid Hasanzadeh to discuss this approach to computational design, alongside robotic fabrication, 3D printing, circular construction, AI, and the future of architectural practice: https://youtu.be/bvckn38QofI?is=MWeNekqqRuoY1NG-

🔗 Register for the Eco-Parametric Architecture workshop with Arthur Mamou-Mani through the link below: https://paacademy.com/course/eco-parametric-architecture-arthur-mamou-mani

In the two-day live Eco-Parametric Architecture workshop, you’ll use Rhino 8, Grasshopper, and RunChat to develop a modular architectural system through a modularize → path → print → reuse workflow.

You’ll explore parametric systems, fabrication constraints, robotic 3D printing, toolpath generation and G-code, assembly and disassembly strategies, circular material thinking, and AI-assisted computational workflows.

📑 Topic: Eco-Parametric Architecture
📅 Date: November 21–22, 2026
🕓 Time: 14:00–19:00 GMT
🧑🏼‍🎓 Total Seats: 50
🛒 15% Discount for Pro Members

Mamou-Mani Architects, fab.pub