Morphogenesis and panelling, the use of generative tools beyond academia. Case studies and limits of the method. Domenico D'Uva Politecnico di Milano - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies http://www.dastu.polimi.it/ doduva@gmail.com The increasing complexity in architectural design brought a parallel evolution of tools for shape generation and management. Digital tools which better fulfil this need are the generative design software.The aim of this work is finding and testing real life uses of generative design software beyond academic edges. The specific target is transform a complex surface into a similar surface mostly made of flat panels.As a testing ground it has been chosen the support in construction of complex shapes made with ordinary and well known tools. The combination of software used is Rhinoceros, with its plugin Grasshopper, and a couple of opensource add-on, Lunchbox and Paneling tool. The cases are listed from the simplest to the most complex, and the first four are solved with the automated procedure, the fifth, manually. Based on the cases studied it is possible to confirm that the method is applicable to the majority of the complex surfaces. Keywords: Generative, Panelling, Discretization INTRODUCTION The increasing complexity in architectural design brought a parallel evolution of tools for shape gen- eration and management. Digital tools which bet- ter fulfil this need are the generative design software. Defining clearly this term is quite tough, because it is a new area in computer science, which lacks of cornerstone literature, that unifies terms and meth- ods shared by the whole scientific community. A brief framing is needed to understand the core of this issue. The starting step in framing digital tools is the distinction between tools that document the design process and tools that eventually generate shape. The first family of tools is composed of all soft- ware able to document and optimize the design pro- cess. In this family it is included Building informa- tion Model. The second family, which is of main in- terest for the aim of this work, is composed by all the tools that create shapes which is not wholly foresee- able from the beginning of the process. Among these equipments which populates architectural design, it seemed important to understand the difference be- tween the tools only used for generating shapes, for the sake of complexity itself, and the tools which give a factual support in the form-generating process. At this time the use of generative design tool meant as Generative Design- Parametric Modelling - Volume 2 - eCAADe 32 | 81