THE FRACTALS WORKSHOP BY DESIGNAWARE
The Fractals Workshop is a generative design and form finding workshop series that combines logic, geometry, natural system and Structure. This workshop is an adaptation of the teaching methods practiced at the Design Research Lab at the AA School of Architecture in London.
Fractals is a hands-on workshop, building upon the design research carried out in previous iterations.
Participants work in teams to design and aggregate discrete 3D units based on self-designed and developed analog algorithms. The focus is on connections and rules of growth at the single-unit level to result in a prototypical system or aggregation that is resultant of applying the rules. Participants understand the concept of evolution in that one small change or rule at the unitary level impacts the holistic system:  bottom-up approach to the design process versus the standard top-down approach. The rules become a manual to be followed to create larger aggregations, and can be used in the future to replicate the system again, or to create an evolving catalog of parametric system by tweaking the rules. Rather than a single solution to a singular problem or for a specific context, the workshop focuses on the design of prototypical, adaptive, aggregation system’s, arrived at through the use of analog and digital tools and techniques.
The method is derived from the organic growth of natural systems, Structural systems, mathematics and geometry, and computation, and their application in parametric design and architecture.
The Fractals Workshop encourages teamwork, computational thinking, 3D thinking and logic. The design research will culminate in a public exhibition of the work, as well as a series of large-scale installations designed and fabricated by the participant teams.
Design Aware was born of a desire to create awareness through liveable, wearable, usable, accessible and responsible design. Situated in Hyderabad and Dubai, the Studio practices process-oriented design, and their portfolio cuts across scale, method, location and typology, with a special focus on socially-relevant projects, such as a school for Students of disadvantaged backgrounds in the heritage zone of the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.
