SpaceChase: A Dynamic and Interactive Tool

Architectural design, as a cognitive activity, has always been fed by architectural knowledge based on practice and theory, and it has been questioned how creative and generative design processes can benefit from scientific methods. Therefore, through inquiry and experimentation, the architect develops his or her ideas, constructs and analyzes the space, and continuously improves it. However, this is a subjective process. There are design tools and methods that provide objective criteria for the assessment of the design decisions and their potential for the designed space whilst iterating with feedback. In this study, we intend to explain how we might functionalize scientific data to search for spatialities, and analyze with Space Syntax in such a process as a scientific approach. Following discussions on the characteristics of the architectural design process, the study focuses on the development and testing of SpaceChase for Grasshopper, a software plug-in that allows designers, architects, and students to build and analyze dynamic and interactive network structures. We created this plug-in for architects as a generative and mind-opening design tool during the design process.

You can read the rest of the paper here.

The SpaceChase plugin for Grasshopper focuses on initiating dynamic capabilities to Space Syntax theory by introducing the “Dynamic Canvas” model along with real-time editing capabilities in an interactive physics-based environment. Therefore, SpaceChase is a software development project for “Mekan Dizimi Tasarım Uygulaması” (no:119M082) under the ARDEB 1001 program of TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey).

You can download SpaceChase from here. Oğulcan Üneşi developed this add-on as a part of a scientific project led by Pelin Dursun and Nilüfer Kozikoğlu.