Geometric Computation

The Architect's Field Guide to Computation will be a concise guidebook and compendium to accompany an architectural designer working on active projects that would benefit from the judicious use of computation. The approach is guided by an idea of "practical computation", understood as a foundations-first, visually-rich, and practice-centered approach to the subject that will remain useful across cycles of software versions and changes in scripting languages. Much like other books on computational design process, The Architect's Field Guide to Computation will assist the practicing architect or the student of design in acquiring a specific set of skills and techniques essential to computing, computation and applied mathematics. However, unlike many other books that focus on timely, yet often fleeting, conventions of specific software implementations, readers of this book will develop a deeper comprehension of design computation as a subject unto itself. Pivoting from a discussion of foundational topics, a selection of "survival situations" will also be presented including contributions from some of the most innovative design firms practicing today. These situations will derive from real-world problems that veteran users regularly encounter, and their presentation will include fully working code samples - allowing readers to better face, survive, and thrive in these otherwise difficult predicaments. Through this combination of foundational topics and real-world situations, this book will provide both a skill-set and conceptual basis that will serve a range of digital design practices and architecture curricula that rely on quantitative methods and computational thinking.