Many recent buildings have challenged the traditional idea of a simple plan shape, extruded vertically towards to the sky. These building forms are often very exciting and create great interest in a scheme, but also introduce significant additional risks to the envelope design. They must balance visual interest created by these irregular forms, with simplicity and repetition in the façade design and detailing - fundamental cost drivers that could make or break the commercial viability of a scheme. Uppermost in these challenges is the manufacture and installation of façade elements, which are usually pre-fabricated off-site without losing or diluting the architectural vision. Projects must also be delivered to cost plans and programs, which require well considered designs, developed to a good degree of detail, early in the process, to give confidence that eye catching renderings are also practical, can be built and are attractive to the industry to build. Fundamental to our realisation of complex geometrical forms, is not only computational skills but an understanding of materials and manufacturing processes. Often cladding solutions are informed by the different shapes, be they singly or doubly curved, twisted, facetted or free-form, and practical limitations of material and fabrication techniques of forming these shapes. We can analyse these forms to show the complexity of the envelope in terms of repetition, curvature, panel wastage, panel warping etc. Using a variety of visual formats, 3D models, databases all parties involved can get a clear understanding of complexity. This understanding of complexity is crucial to allow the design team to make decisions on details and material selection for example. Through the use of parametric tools and custom software we also have the ability to optimise geometrical complexity for a number of different drivers. These may include structural performance (or form finding), environmental performance and/or shape rationalisation to reduce cost and risk. This allows us to arrive at a suitable solution that will accord with local regulations and building practice but without making substantial changes to the original architectural geometry.
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