SpaceQueries Design Toolset - Pointcloud-Based Multi-directional Real-Time Swarm Architecture Design Exploration

An important application of virtual reality environments in architecture are real-time design environments. In this article, a tool set for architectural design exploration based on swarming point clouds is presented. The toolset consists of the BehaviourLinks method to shape the point cloud, the SpaceQueries method to map the space spanned by the point cloud as a relational graph of geometric entities given by its partitioning, and the SpaceQuery method for deriving subsets of geometries from the SpaceGraph. All method can be applied simultaneously or in turn, resulting in a tool which allows for multi-directional design exploration. Ways of representation of and interaction with the complex spatial data contained within the tool set are discussed.