rat[LAB]’s cellular morphology façade optimises climatic aspects of heat and light in buildings

 rat[LAB], a London-based venture of young Indian architects, have brought a concept of the futuristic innovations in the field of architecture through ‘Computational Design’ to India. This design technology has the potential of transforming the design and character of buildings that would dot the skylines of the future. This concept equally benefits the real estate sector, as this a green building concept, which nowadays is believed to be the future of real estate industry. A large-scale prototype was on display at an exhibition held at Delhi’s Alliance Francaise.

 Sushant Verma, Co-Founder of rat[LAB] is among 20 designers from Delhi, who have been shortlisted for ‘DesignXDesign 2015 20under35’ annual exhibition. The young architects have showcased their prototype of ‘Cellular Morphology Façade system’ which can be retrofitted on any building. The new age computing platforms are deployed with customised and advanced algorithms to design an environmentally adaptive building skin.

Façade is designed to optimise the changing solar insolation and daylight as per the requirements of a building. The component-based building skin is parametrically designed through an algorithm that can control the apertures of each component based on views, visibility and environmental criteria and prepares fabrication data accordingly. This mathematically driven prototype at display consists of 917 unique cells made of 5,392 non-identical surfaces and 5,227 customised joints fabricated through digital prototyping techniques. 

Elaborating further, Mr Verma stressed on the need of computational technology in India and how he aims to bring more focus on developing a new generation of computational designers to the country. He said, “Majority of architecture and design studios in India are not equipped with in-house computational cells and there is a missing gap between design and technology. We aim to bridge this gap for studios by facilitating them with our computational design research cell and bringing in emergent technologies in the design discipline.”

He further added, “Computational techniques are being developed today at an increasing rate and can potentially change the way design is practiced, processed and articulated. Computation, with its varied subsets, is one of the most advanced and growing areas of research that potentially takes control of all design tools and processes at multiple scales, and is utilised by majority of leading architects and designers around the globe.” 

rat[LAB] is optimistic about this new fascinating possibility in building skin design in addressing the growing environmental concerns and would contribute in reducing the global carbon footprint through harmonising energy utilisation through intelligent building skins. This new-age architectural discipline could lead the way in revolutionising the way our roofs and facades are designed in times to come.