The masterclass session by Ar. Urvi Sheth, principal architect at Craft Quest, explains why computational designs matter in modern architecture. She walks us through real-world applications, from smart design decisions to creative possibilities.

The Future of Design

Founded in response to architecture’s struggle for innovation with technology, her practice, based in experimentation and craft, showcases the ways and levels at which architecture has hesitated in embracing new models of practice, while IT and engineering have surged ahead, with architecture mostly moving through necessity while being cautious to accept change.

Working and thinking through her own experimentation, Urvi Sheth expressed specifically how digital tools aren’t just pretty pictures—they enable precision and variation, and promote design as human-centered design. As far as she is concerned, computation is no longer the future of architecture, but it’s right here, right now, relevant, and crucial.

Key Components of Computational Designs

Urvi Sheth insists that architecture is not really finished until it has worked in time, space, and material. “Renderings and simulations, of course, are beautiful, but not enough. A design must take on an existence of physical form to validate value.”

She divides computational design into three main parts: 

Design: The conceptual development via Rhino, Grasshopper, AI, and generative design methods. 

Optimization: The rigorous performance, whether that be as an evaluation of material use, structure, daylighting, etc. 

Making: The digital fabrication aspect of fabricating your design into the real world. 

These are not just workflows, but new lenses through which we think about, measure, and stimulate architecture. She encourages designers to be mindful of what phase they are in because design and optimization are very different mindsets, tools, and outcomes.

Shift in Design Paradigm

Urvi Sheth emphasizes that there is a difference between BIM (Building Information Modeling) and parametric/associative modeling. Although BIM is about coordination and documentation, true parametric modeling will allow you to associate the most minute component of a design to the entire system (Change one component, and the entire design responds to you).

This becomes especially remarkable in large-scale or modular projects like airports or public buildings, where elements are often repeated, but not the same. You can lose your design constraint with computation, meaning you uphold your commitment to design, but can try iterations within hours instead of weeks, and through customization parallel to your own thinking instead of laborious human activity.

Beyond Architecture

Who knows boundaries in generative design? Computation thrives on collaboration, not just with engineers, but with biologists, material scientists, and digital artists. “Mutation” and “crossover,” terms from biology, have become commonplace in the vocabulary of design. Urvi Sheth states that designers are now “experimenting with hybrid territories, which situate architecture as fluid, adaptive, and responsive.”

Conclusion

Urvi Sheth’s talk serves as a timely reminder that architecture is not an immovable object. Architecture is about systems, relationships, and responsiveness. Designers have the opportunity to create the unimaginable—they can test and validate their designs, not as spectacle, but as a reasoned, sustainable, and human response to an evolving world.

In Urvi’s words: “Whatever I design, I want to see it be real.” This desire to build, to experiment, and to change is at the center of computational designs and the future of architecture.