Currently underway, I am currently exploring the use of conditional adversarial networks (CAN), a machine learning strategy, on images to generate 3D models of building facades.

To begin, I utilized a pre-trained models from Affine Layer’s ‘pix2pix - Tensorflow’, which is based on an academic paper from UC Berkeley researchers. I used datasets of over 600 images from Center for Machine Perception’s facade database. The images are from a variety of urban European facades. Each image is labeled & divided into 12 classes, which describe the elements of the facades.

These classes include: facade, molding, cornice, pillar, window, door, sill, blind, balcony, shop, deco, background.

I added my own class of labels to account for the size of each element so that the pixels were scaled uniformly. This would help Revit apply the appropriate dimensions to families which were eventually placed.

When modifying the pre-trained model, the images were split into testing & training sets. The testing set is used to validate the model trained on the training set. A few of the images from the testing set were also eventually used to generate the Revit model.

The results from the research paper yielded a promising outlook for using CANs on images of the built environment for use in computational design. The inputs were PNG files with shapes drawn to correspond to the labels from the dataset. The outputs are new images of facades.

From there, there was the task to convert these outputs to Revit elements. All walls, windows & Revit families related to the labels are placed according to the layout in the image.

The script then resizes the Revit elements according to their predicted dimensions.

Bamcore is an innovative manufacturing company which specializes with developing modular wall systems. Wall panels, made of bamboo, form the foundational aspect of this wall system. Additionally, this wall system has the ability to come with some pre-installed MEP elements.

Bamcore solicited my VDC organization, Matechi, to develop a series of Revit tools to automate the panel rationalization of any 3D model, generate detailed & annotative cut sheets of all pieces generated, and export of all parts in a format to be used when manufacturing the wall systems. The manufacturing process can take less than a day for certain buildings, and the assembly of the parts occur in a matter of hours, once on site.

Thus, these tools allow for any 3D building design to be segmented into modular elements, manufactured, and constructed in less than a week.

Kasita is an effort to tackle the urban housing crisis by generating a new housing typology. Our tiny & smart housing start-up is in the process of mass producing 308 square foot homes, designing them so that they are able to meet a complex array of building and land use codes around the world. These structures are also being designed to act as stand alone units (often for granny-flats) or assembled in multi-family structures.

These efforts include lobbying various jurisdictions to ease certain restrictions which prevent the construction of small homes or micro apartments.

Another component of Kasitas is the device connectedness of the home; including a series of IoT items to augment the livability of the small space. From the devices, we are also able to gain insights into user habits & preferences in addition to the performance of the buildings. Long term, we envision this segment of the company can yield valuable data concerning living habits, environmental effects and human psychological traits.

Kasita is the brainchild of Professor Dumpster, who lived in a 33 square foot dumpster as a research project into minimalism and human comfort with reduced environmental footprint. Upon completing his research, I reached out to him to work on another project. Eventually, he revealed that the results of this research inspired the idea to help solve the housing crisis by mass producing micro homes while forcing jurisdictions to acquiesce to resultant changes.

I became the founding technical member & designed the first iterations of Kasita for patent documents. I eventually took on the scope of finding ways to collect and use the data collected from Kasitas to yield a better product, predict the needs of the user, and identify new ways to market the units.

Kasita has since gone on to collect numerous accolades, including the 2016 SXSW Interactive Innovation Award for Smart Cities, ranking among Fast Company's’ “2016 Most Innovative Architecture Companies”.

Selected Media Coverage:

- New York Times

- NPR

- Forbes

A stunning and colorful look onto the Martian surface. For the first time in history, very high resolution color photos have been released by NASA’s HiRISE satellite of our closest neighbor in the Solar System. The details defy expectations and show that Mars is more than Red and the diversity of landscapes rivals that of Earth.

The book goes into the history of martian maps, the HiRise program and provides an atlas of Mars before presenting detailed and stunning views of Mars. The book later connects the sites presented to areas of research related to life on mars in the past, and how humans could manipulate the landscape to support settlements.

Atlantic Magazine’s CityLab, among other media sources, covered some of my observations on the land use outcomes of the last 30 years in selected urban areas.

I have always had an interest in the new American urban paradigm as seen in the infill of the Sunbelt. So when NASA, Google and USGS teamed up to release Landsat Annual Time Lapse, which tracks changes to the Earth via satellite imagery from 1984, I was eager to explore various locales. I identified a series of American and developing world urban areas to compare and created gifs to make the observations more easily digestable and shareable. 

During this exercise, there were a few things that stood out to me:

It is interesting to see the "greening" of the mid-ring suburbs of the 70-90s as the tree canopies matured. This is in contrast to the concrete jungles of pre-war neighborhoods and the virgin developments of the 21st century. This is particularly evident in the Dallas-Ft. Worth image.

The shrinking of natural and manmade water sources near cities is an interesting sight to behold. On the other hand, the creation of artificial land in coastal metropolises is increasingly larger in scale (re: Shanghai).

If you look closely at cities like Chicago and Philadelphia (midwest/rustbelt crescent), you will notice that the cities appear lighter in color due to white roofs replacing the older, dark tiles on older buildings at a massive scale.

On a thesis level, the growth/intensity of industrial zones at sunbelt highway intersections is the most underrated urban trend of the last decade.

And, of course, the massive scale of urbanization, particularly in China is further evidence of the ascendance of cities globally.

Detailed Blog Post Here

Buildings are the physical manifestation of a culture. From this exploration, we can infer many of the values elevated through the architecture of the cultures explored:

Importance of the social interaction of the extended family. Nearly every region's housing typology focused on a family compound, organized around a central, circular courtyard. Each family member was afforded a high degree of privacy within the compound, but had the expectation of frequent encounters with the rest of the family. The family compound itself afforded privacy from the greater community, yet the main structures were meant to communicate a message to neighbors. 

Residences were generally more rounded in form, which is the most economical and optimal use of material and structure. On the other hand, the religious architecture tended to have more rectangular plans, with a focus on architectural elements paying homage to culturally significant orientation, which were more expensive endeavors. This calcifies the importance of religious and communal gathering spaces. 

Food storage was the second most significant driver of architectural development. In nearly each culture is a dedication to allocating a lot of space to the storage of grains, which takes up as much space as any family member's quarters would. The entire community itself acted as storage for livestock within the fenced courtyard.

As with any locale, the building materials and construction techniques were reflective of readily available resources. Due to the climates and abundance of certain materials, many buildings had no need to move beyond the techniques of earthened & thatch structures. While this required frequent maintenance of structures, there was the security of never running low on building supplies, and added another layer of social cohesion and activitiy.

Many techniques shown are still occasionally employed. However, it has become clear that much of Africa is currently in the midst of an economic revolution, which is resulting in the emergence of a more international, contemporary architectural tradition. It is with these changes, combined with the impact of 'Black Panther', that many are reviving traditional architectural styles and combining them with modern construction methods. Perhaps this is what is needed for the various societies of the continent to strongly assert their identities on the world stage in aspiration to what the real Wakanda can be.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is currently considering a few proposals for upgrading Interstate 35 through Central Austin. The most prolific proposal comes from my work with a team from the University of Texas & Reconnect Austin, under the guidance of Sinclair Black, to bury the highway and build public spaces above (Cut and Cap). This is similar to efforts seen in Boston (The Big Dig), Dallas (Klyde Warren Park), among other places.