Parametric Modeling Projects

Arch 655| Project 01: Galaxy SoHo

Neda Sadeghi

Fall 2019

Fig.01 Galaxy SoHo Facade

· Project Basic Information

Architecture: Zaha Hadid Architects

Location: Chaoyangmen, Beijing, China

Project Type: Mixed-use commercial development

Construction Year: 2009-2012

Plot Area: 46,965 m²

Built Up: 330000 m²

Max Height: 67 m

Total Floors: 18

· Project Definition

The Galaxy SOHO project in central Beijing for SOHO China is a 330000m² office, retail and entertainment complex that will become an integral part of the living city, inspired by the grand scale of Beijing. Its architecture is a composition of five continuous, flowing volumes that are set apart, fused or linked by stretched bridges. These volumes adapt to each other in all directions, generating a panoramic architecture without corners or abrupt transitions that break the fluidity of its formal composition.

Fig.02 Top View of Galaxy SoHo

· Project Concept

The Galaxy Soho building comprises four main domed structures, fused together by bridges and platforms between curving floor plates to create a fluid environment that surrounds a series of public courtyards and a larger central "canyon".

· Facilities

The mixed-use development features 18 floors, 15 above ground and 3 below ground, with retail units around the central canyon and courtyards on its four lower levels and office units occupying floors 4-15. The retail units are connected by sky bridges providing access to various levels of the building.

In addition, Galaxy SoHo’s exterior has been designed with aluminum and stone, while the interior features glass, terrazzo, stainless steel and glass reinforced gypsum.

Fig.03 Top Graphical View of Galaxy SoHo

· Modeling Process

The modeling process of SoHo Galaxy is described in this section. The model is built by applying Grasshopper Plugin in Rhino Version 6.00 with using Parametric Tools such as Kangaroo, springs etc. The modeling process can be divided into 5 sections as follow:

- Modeling The Buildings

- Creating The Shape

- Creating the Roof for each Building

- Creating the Bridges between Buildings

- Linking the Buildings to each other through Bridges

o Modeling The Building

To start, the first step is creating Ellipse by defining the point and two Radii. To create the first base of Building.

Fig.4 Creating a Ellipse with defined Radius and Assigned point as a building base

Then, to creating the No. of floors, the move and Scale functions are applied to create the No. of floors.

Fig.05 Creating Series to generate the floors of building

o Creating the Shape

As you see in Fig. 6, the outside shape of towers can be defined by applying Graph Mapper and range function.

Fig.06 creating the outside shape of Building by applying Graph Mapper and Scale Functions

In addition, we can change the outside shape of tower to desire shape by changing the Graph Mapper Function. In this project, I use the Bezier curve as Graph Mapper type. You can choose another curve types to have your own desire shape. In the following Fig.07, the modified outside shape is presented. Besides, you can change the outside shape of tower by changing the amount of ellipse’s radii.

o Creating the Roof for Each Building

To create the roof of tower, the pipe function is applied to create the roof. The location of the pipe can be defined through defining the item function. This roof is parametric variable and when the height of floor is changed the roof can be added to the last floor.

Fig.07 creating the roof by applying Pipe Function and assigning it to the last floor

Based on the same instruction and same functions, I create the all of four building as well.

Fig.08 Four buildings of Galaxy SoHo are modeled

o Creating the Bridges Between Buildings

Before creating bridges between two buildings, the first step is to define the points on our costumed shape.By applying points on the curve functions, we create the line between points and then the Arc between two buildings be produced.

Fig.09 to Arc between two buildings are defined based on points on the curves

To create the bridges between the buildings I apply the sweep 1 based on the curves which are already created from the points( Fig.10)

Fig.10 the Bridge between two Buildings

Also, the location of bridges can be defined based on the considered floor. I created the bridges between two buildings in floors 4th and 14th. The challenges of this project is in this step, which the height of bridge must be defined.

Fig.11 to assign thickness to the Bridge

To assign the height for the bridge, it is supposed to find the plane of bridge based on the origin plane. You can also change the height of bridge in the Z direction.

Fig.12 the Created Bridges between Buildings

o Linking the Buildings to Each Other Through Bridges

All of the linked bridges are created based on the same functions and procedures.

Fig.13 Final Model of Galaxy SoHo

§ Physically Based Model

One building of Galaxy SoHo is considered to create physically based model by using Kangaroo and Weaver Bird. Two different type of anchor points are applied to analyze the physically based Model.