In his treatise, De Architectura, the famous Roman Architect Vitruvius defined a good building as one that is durable, useful, and beautiful (firmitas, utilitas, venustas). more than 2,000 years later, in video games, virtual worlds, and space flights, where gravity doesn't exist, human body proportions change due to the lack of gravity, and our senses can access different realms. These three principles are NOT ENOUGH for architectural landscapes.
Swarming Colonies is a generative design project and is one of the projects to come out of the DIGITAL ECOLOGY- GENERATIVE CITY workshop tutored by Soomeen Hahm and Hanjun Kim of Studio Soomeen Hahm. The project is rooted in a synergy of traditional Indian and Romanian patterns derived from the traditional architecture of both countries. It is envisioned within a dying coniferous forest in a post-apocalyptic world by Simina- Ioana Dimcea and Deeksha Basawaraj.
OBJECTIVE
This studio aimed to learn how to use C# programming language and Unity gaming software to create an architectural design by thinking about the relationship between the architecture and its context, the program and its environment, and the building and the ground through speculating how architecture responds to the changing landscape due to variation of environment. The final proposal is presented in an animation, showcasing the buildings' design, the ground, and the context. As a team, we decided to explore the possibilities of using traditional architectural elements and observe the variations of the resultant generative
designs.

SWARMING GEOMETRIES
A swarm, by definition, is a large number of animate or inanimate things massed together and usually in motion. This is a very accurate description of the final design generated through the script using our modules. The aggregation of the modules looks as if they are FROZEN IN MOTION. There is a sense of fluidity even though the modules have a simple, basic, rigid geometry.
ARCHITECTURE IN VIRTUAL REALITY
Since architecture makes up a huge portion of our real-life environment, it makes sense to be highly incorporate into our simulated environments. Creating and exploring extremely imaginative designs like these often leads them to become a reality sooner or later; more importantly, the process through which the designs are brought to reality is as important as the product itself.

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