The course aims to empower the designer to integrate visualization techniques into all levels of the design process, enabling communication, prototyping, and atmospheric simulation from sketch design to final presentation. An emphasis on flexible and non-destructive workflows allows designers and collaborators to maximize both the quality and efficiency of design output. An introduction to the strengths of combining various software packages leads directly to the practical application of these tools to project-oriented outcomes. An additional focus is on techniques to optimize and streamline these tools for design and workflow processes.

Instructor James Melsom

The Module began with a focus on site photography/photogrammetry, and shifted to massive territorial datasets from LIDAR, GIS, and historical data sources. We worked in groups of two. Each team worked on a different topic: Built Structures, Vegetation, Productivity, Water Network and Movement Network.

Instructor James Melsom

Students: Jacqueline Frizi,  Gebhard Merk

During  Module 2, Jacqueline and Geby worked on the vegetation system and its relation to the topography. By using GIS data and historical maps, which were used as image samplers in Grasshopper, they developed analysis diagrams referring to the valley and forest vegetation. The historical development of vegetation, the decrease of the swamping areas throughout the years, in the valley of Linth, revealed the increase of the productive land and the growth of economic resources for the locals. In contrary the small changes of the forest areas, from the construction of the canal till nowadays, became a very interesting antithesis of the whole vegetation system.

Student:  Georgios Sarmaniotis

George used Rhino, Grasshopper and Photoshop throughout the hole procedure.  At the beginning of his research he visualized the movement networks: the urban road network, local-one and major-one, as well as the rail way and the highway. He showed particular interest at the high way and the noise it’s producing. As he pointed out “the background noise in many areas is determined predominantly by traffic noise. Highways are mayor Contributors”. To sum up, he made some interesting observations on the decibels produced from the highway and how they travel throughout the valley.

Students:  Sofia Prifti, Mohamed Abdel Wahab

Sofia and Mo analyzed the built Structures in the extended area of Linth canal. Searching in a great amount of sources, they started with the historical development from the 18^th century till today. Using the GIS data and the grasshopper they made a very detailed analysis for the built environment today, in which they included building height and position, the proximity to the water and to the railway, the building areas, the uses and the typology. Very interesting was their future perspective according to the evolution of built environment in the valley. Final Cut was a very useful software in editing their presentation video.

Students: Angelos Komninos,  Maki Hasegawa

The subject of productive land, by Angelos and Maki, contains the analysis of agriculture, industry and power network in the extended area of Linth canal. Dealing with a great amount of data, they presented the historical evolution of agriculture and industry since the 18^th century. Also using GIS data, they demonstrated macro and microtopographical changes of the terrain, by manipulating the height range of the available maps through SAGA program. They also presented the current condition, in agriculture, industry and power taking advantage of the intense possibilities that grasshopper provides. In the end of their presentation they pointed out some possible future  aspects to restore the balance between agriculture, conservational areas and industry in the valley.

Student: Gaganjit Singh 

At the middle of module two, we welcomed our new fellow student Gagan. To catch up with all the input we took from module one, Gagan was undertaken to prepare the milled model of the extended area of Linth canal, on which we projected animated simulation models during the presentation, to describe the topological and historical evolution of the site.  Moreover, he made some interesting proposals for the valley using software such as grasshopper and Rhino.  WELCOME!!