The digital model is tool for design and a record of the developing project. Beginning with a surface or solid model of a building envelope, adding backup and support systems, developing construction details - useful information from the design team and contractors is continually added. At the same time, we work to simplify the forms and details.

We can simplify and rationalize complicated geometries. Irregular shapes can be broken up into repeatable modules. Free-form curves and surfaces can be manipulated so they are formable from flat sheets or simpler shapes. By automating a design procedure to repeat over and over until it converges on the best result, a shape or assembly can be optimized for cost, structural efficiency, constructability, energy, or any other parameter that can be concretely defined.

In addition to geometry and computer skills, familiarity with technical issues, materials and construction methods is important to understanding how a detail might be resolved, or a unique shape rationalized. We have spent our careers designing and building complicated, innovative projects, researching new materials and processes, and collaborating with specialists to find appropriate, economical solutions to difficult design problems.