AN ALGORITHMIC APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE

iKure Health Hub/HDR

—Nate Berg

TRADItional architecture inspired the design of the iKure Health Hub clinic in West Bengal, India, but in a very untraditional way. Working pro bono, architects from the global firm HDR designed the clinic using an algorithm that drew on a library of images of vernacular brick buildings from West Bengal. Paul Howard Harrison, computational design lead at HDR, wrote the program, which randomly generated thousands of potential options for the shape and form of the building, then sifted through them to optimize for shading, airflow, and natural light. The software finally landed on a semi-rectangular shape that contains two large courtyards and four smaller ones. Then the human designers intervened. The smaller courtyards were turned into light-well towers that act as beacons for the building while also bringing glowing light…

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Fast Company (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2022

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