Tra (de)scrizioni computazionali di architetture modulari per l’autocostruzione / Computational Description of Modular Architectures for Self-Building

Trying to overcome the lack of computational tools for combinatorial design, the paper describes the application of an open source computational toolkit for designing using discrete systems, highlighting its theoretical and methodological aspects, also with reference to the great masters who have set up parametric approaches before the spread of the most recent applications. The application field constitutes the opportunity to test a number of experimental activities in order to look at new spaces of investigation and frontier and intersection between different knowledge. In particular, the SU.PRE.MO. industrial development project, supported through Provincial Law n°6/1999 (Provincia autonoma di Trento), aid for the promotion of research and development focuses on the definition of modular houses for self-building, using CLT prefabricated products from the Trentino company XLAM Dolomiti, the project leader. The work describes the design activities related to the definition of kits for modular houses designed between 20 and 120 square metres, producing a digital database of the various construction logics accompanied by an initial exemplifycation of possible configurations. The definition of rules and constraints allowed the computational process to be initiated in a more accessible manner, involving users in the generative process and rethinking buildings as open and modifiable sets of discrete parts.