ABSTRACT
The "parametric landscape" promises more than a method to quickly iterate through options only to settle on a single solution, as Grasshopper is often used today, or to handle the complex data in sets of construction documents, as in the current state of Building Information Modeling (BIM) software. Andrew Heumann developed a Grasshopper plug-in named Human UI that allows users to create an easy-to-use interface that references specific Grasshopper components. In studios across professional landscape architecture programs, students download digital elevation models in ArcGIS, create surfaces in Rhino, manipulate those surfaces with Grasshopper "scripts," and then contour those surfaces at even intervals to create two-dimensional drawings that represent a three-dimensional landscape. Parametric design software, like Grasshopper, is already allowing designers to think in terms of logical questions and commands: copy this; scale according to the distance from X. Parametric design software like Grasshopper seems to have allowed an endless number of options, yet the options do not necessarily improve condition.
