My Connection with Parametric Design
My journey into parametric and generative design, especially through tools like Grasshopper, stems from a lifelong curiosity about how nature organises itself. I’ve always been captivated by self-organising systems, whether in materials, biology, or the larger ecological and cultural patterns that shape our world.
From the sculpting of sand dunes by the wind, to the rhythmic pulse of waves, the delicate morphologies of clouds, or the elegant simplicity of a soap bubble, these phenomena echo deeper patterns. Even the spiral arrangement of leaves around a stem reveals an underlying order that feels both organic and mathematical. This curiosity extends beyond nature to the built environment: to the cultural, societal, and behavioural forces that influence how we shape and inhabit space.
What ties these diverse systems together is mathematics, not as a rigid set of rules, but as a language through which we can decode complexity. Mathematics offers us an abstract, logical framework that makes these intricate processes legible and, in turn, helps us imagine and design in new, uncharted ways.
Parametric design is not about tools to generate complex shapes; it’s about relationships. It’s about uncovering and working with the underlying logic of a system. In that sense, even historical structures, pyramids, Gothic cathedrals, or Gaudí’s Sagrada Família, can be read through a parametric lens. Gaudí may not have explicitly used mathematics in the way we do today, but decades of research have revealed the generative rules behind his work. We’ve essentially reverse-engineered his architectural “DNA,” tracing back the principles he intuitively grasped.
This is why I value mathematics so highly - not as an end in itself, but as a pathway to deeper understanding. For me, Grasshopper is a tool that makes this understanding tangible. It bridges the gap between the abstract and the material, the intuitive and the rational, the natural and the constructed.
That is where the true strength of parametric design resides.
