Introduction
COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN PRACTICES
The Master of Science in Computational Design Practices (M.S.CDP) is an innovative program for recent graduates and practitioners that extends and integrates disciplines between architecture, data visualization, and urban planning—focusing specifically on computational design practices for the built environment at multiple scales. It aims to pioneer new concepts and pedagogies for an integrated multi-scalar and spatial approach to computational design at Columbia GSAPP. The M.S.CDP curriculum encourages critical and creative engagement with spatial computational design as both method and practice.
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DESIGN IN ACTION
In his seminal 1987 text Science in Action, Bruno Latour posited that the best way to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed is to study scientists at work. In doing so, he sought to break down the black boxes that conveniently turn messy social and technical processes into established truths that can be taken for granted and relied upon.
This course studied design computation in action by following the trajectory of the designer and the lifecycle of the design project. From Latour, we know that a great deal about design computation can be learned by putting it into practice; and simultaneously, that design work can never escape the circumstances of its production. Rather than look at the design project as the outcome of a particular brief, problem, or provocation, this course peered inside the black box of computational design to interrogate how designers conceive, organize, and structure their projects; their studio environments, tools, and software; the means by which they perform, facilitate, or automate design labor; and the social circumstances of collaboration, criticism, pedagogy, and practice.
Resistant Atlas
Resistant Atlas is a critical computation and digital humanities project. The atlas reexamines...
Companion, Cohabitant and Continuum (Cee) : Building Relationships in the Space
Cee is not about creating a better robotic vacuum, and it’s not just a device. Cee goes beyond...
Co-Design-Canvas: A collaborative spatial design platform
Spatial environments are often designed without meaningful input from the people who inhabit t...
Crafticulate
Crafticulate bridges the embodied knowledge of pottery-making with machine learning and gestur...
Spatial Resonance
Spatial environments are often designed without meaningful input from the people who inhabit t...
Spatial Semantics
An interactive web application that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) into Building Info...
The Grocery Link
The Grocery Link analyzes food accessibility challenges in the United States through a novel f...
NYC Building Materials
NYC Building Materials is a dynamic mapping platform that leverages public data, machine learn...
Human Pet Interaction
A cross-species interactive application that combines Al and smart hardware. It interprets pet...
Predicting NYC Lifelines
Predicting NYC Lifelines is an interactive platform that allows users to explore the block gro...
TriEmojiMap: Three-fold Embedding Analysis of Emoji Space
TriEmojiMap is an interactive visualization tool designed to explore emoji semantics from thre...
EmotionEcho.exe
EmotionEcho.exe is a three-stage interactive experience that visualizes how emotional landscap...
2
Points Unknown: Cartographic Narratives
How to Navigate Speculative Planning
This project centers on the development of a publicly accessible digital counter-toolkit that ...
Ginkgo Pertexo
Using data from the NYC Street Tree Census, Ginkgo Pertexo maps the Ginkgo Biloba trees of Man...
“Hiroshima, are you still there?”
After the atomic bomb, Hiroshima had to rebuild. It is now re-rebuilding; morphing into a homo...
3
Climate Justice + Digital Reenactments
The Roomba Eyes
A unique perspective on urban spaces through the lens of a Roomba vacuum cleaner. This project...
4
Generative Design I
Urban Sunscape
Urban Sunscape reimagines building facades as dynamic, kinetic systems that generate energy, m...
RE-THINKING MICRO LIVING: A Generative Design System for Adaptive, User-Centric Living in Urban Interiors
As cities grow denser and housing becomes more constrained, micro-apartments have emerged as b...
Re-“Making Studio”
Can Columbia’s congested Making Studio be improved? This was the question that launched our pr...
Stair Generator
This Stair Generator is a helpful tool for an iterative and streamlined stair design process. ...
5
Methods in Spatial Research
Exploring Library Accessibility and Social Impact in Baltimore
Beyond places of learning, libraries remain one of the only free spaces open to the public. Ad...
6
Physical Computation
EchoPULSE
EchoPulse is an interactive game that visualizes players’ real-time heart rates through ...
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Spatial AI
Studio-In-Flux
The GSAPP architectural design studio exists as an oscillating field, where space is in consta...