Syllabus

Covid-19 info

• The course will be taught fully online via zoom

• All courses will be recorded and made available to students.

• Zoom lectures, tutorials and work sessions will be posted here.

Course Overview

The course will be structured in two overarching learning topics:

1. Learn to code This module spans the first four weeks of the course and focuses on the basic knowledge needed to understand and set up Python scripts. Students will learn how to structure their code, use conditional statements, loops and write their own functions and classes. Notions of geometry, datastructrures, topology and relevant algorithms for form-finding will also be introduced mainly through COMPAS.

Tutorial 1 - My first Python Script Tutorial 2 - Structuring code Tutorial 3 - Geometry I: Networks Tutorial 4 - Geometry II: Meshes

2. Learn to design The second part of the curse will teach students how to apply the learned computational skills to form-finding structural forms such as membranes, compression-only shells and spatial structures. The design-oriented examples and exercises discussed in this module will focus on form-finding that is informed by fabrication constraints. Students will learn how to use network and mesh datastructures to form-find cable-nets using force-densities, shells, tessellate a geometry into blocks, build thickness and planarize.

Tutorial 5 - Cable-Nets & Membranes: Form Finding Tutorial 6 - Cable-Nets & Membranes: Advanced Form Finding Tutorial 7 - Cable-Nets & Membranes: Fabrication Tutorial 8 - Discrete Funicular shells: Form finding Tutorial 9 - Discrete Funicular shells: Discretization Tutorial 10 - Discrete Funicular shells: Fabrication

Communication

Slack

Slack will be used to provide real-time communication and feedback, especially for those who will be attending the course remotely. The invitation for joining the dedicated Slack workspace for the course, CSD2, will be sent to the course participants via email.

There are two types of channels ("chatrooms") set up for the course:

Public channels for lectures and tutorials

Public channels include all lecturers, PhD instructors, and course participants. Anyone can post to these channels and everyone can see all of the channels' content. These channels are meant to be used as public forums, where one can potentially receive the quickest answer or feedback from any of the course instructors or participants.

• #general : for general course-related comments and questions, such as administrative questions or issues, grading, schedule etc. This channel can also be used for any announcements.

• #setup : to be used for technical questions (e.g. " I still have problems installing..." )

• #tutorials : to be used during tutorial sessions, for more technical questions regarding the contents of the tutorial (i.e. "I didn't quite understand the procedures of step 2." or "I still have problems installing ...")

• #learning: to be used for all questions, discussions and requests for help outside of class (e.g. when you are doing self study and come across a problem)