Try it: Design from inside your live 3D model Grasshopper VR (GHVR) is our open working prototype connecting Rhino 8, Grasshopper, and Unity, streaming your parametric model directly into full-scale Virtual Reality. You stay at your normal multi-screen setup, with keyboard and mouse in front of you. A VR headset places you inside your live model. Adjust your script, and the geometry updates around you instantly. VR becomes part of the design loop. Not post-rational visualisation. Not mere representation. At the Building Simplexity Lab (BSL), we have been investigating how Extended Reality reshapes architectural practice and education, from AR-assisted low-tech construction to immersive analysis environments. GHVR extends that work directly into the modelling workspace itself. Our recent article in the journal “Virtual Reality” presents the prototype in detail, positions it against existing XR design tools, and discusses implications for teaching, research, and practice. If you work with computational design, XR, or tool building, test it and see what changes when you design from inside your geometry. More info: - Journal article: Crolla, K., Sheikh, A.T. Grasshopper VR: development of an immersive visualisation interface for parametric design workspaces. Virtual Reality 29, 133 (2025). /10.1007/s10055-025-01174-5 - App download + example files: https://bsl.hku.hk/projects/grasshopper-vr/ #GrasshopperVR #BuildingSimplexity #XR #VirtualReality #ParametricDesign #ComputationalDesign #Architecture #DesignResearch #Innovation #Grasshopper3D #Rhino3D

It’s a wrap! Reflecting back at a great exhibition and AR app for the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture @uabbhk : Explore the pioneering work of Dr. Kristof Crolla and Dr. Garvin Goepel on the integration of digital technology into bamboo architecture. By downloading the augmented reality (AR) app (BambooAR), you can access an immersive experience that allows you witness the physical scale models of their bamboo projects at full scale through holograms made visible directly onto your mobile device. The exhibition includes seminal projects like the 2015 “ZCB Bamboo Pavilion” in Hong Kong, which celebrated its 10th anniversary; “MemutAR”, a bamboo pavilion created for the Bamboo World Congress in Taiwan in 2024; “Bale Timbang”, a community project built with Hong Kong students for a farming community in Bali, 2025; and the “Bamboo U Dome”, a lecture hall, workshop, and cultural event space at the Bamboo U campus in Bali, 2024. These projects utilised innovative computational workflows throughout their design, fabrication, and construction process, including AR- driven holographic instruction methods. This approach offers a far more intuitive and comprehensive alternative to traditional construction drawings, thus simplifying construction, making complex geometries more accessible—the philosophy of “Building Simplexity.” Download the App: https://augmentedarchitecture.pro/uabb/ #augmentedreality #architectureexhibition #uabb #bambooarchitecture #augmentedrealityapp

Building with bamboo, gravity, and XR This brand-new short film of the Bamboo U Dome (Bali, 2023–2024) shows what few thought possible at this scale: A 22 × 18 × 8.2 m bamboo gridshell, assembled flat on the ground, lifted in one go, and then left to bend, slide, and organise itself under gravity into a doubly curved shell. No formwork, no drawings, no time. Instead: bundled bamboo, traditional lashing, and a construction team guided by full-scale Augmented Reality, working inside 1:1 holograms to lay out the grid, steer the lift, check curvature, and lock in the structure once it found its shape. This project picks up from Frei Otto’s Mannheim Multihalle, and pulls it, fifty years later, into the world of bamboo and XR. The video reveals how computational form-finding, augmented reality, and low-tech craft can meet in a way that is fast, sustainable, and genuinely social. The Bamboo U Dome is not a prototype or a one-off experiment: as part of Bamboo U’s campus, it is a permanent educational facility that through its manifestation opens new territory for bamboo, form-finding, and building at scale. More info: • IASS paper: https://bsl.hku.hk/publications/2025/pioneering-deployable-bending-active-bamboo-shells-a-computational-and-ar-assisted-construction-approach/ • Project page: https://bsl.hku.hk/projects/bamboo-u-dome/ #BambooArchitecture #ShellStructures #ComputationalDesign #AugmentedReality #FormFinding #BuildingSimplexity #IASS2025 #BambooU

How to knot Cantonese Bamboo Scaffolding? After the recent tragic fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong, public discussion has turned to bamboo scaffolding, its practice, cultural value, and fire safety. Bamboo scaffolding has shaped Hong Kong’s skyline for generations, from bamboo theatres to temporary residential tower façades. Hong Kong’s bamboo theatre building technique (竹棚戲台建造技藝) is recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the trade operates within established safety guidelines, statutory codes, and licensed training. In this short tutorial, Cantonese bamboo scaffolding sifus (師傅, masters) demonstrate three core knots used for temporary scaffolds and theatres, which could also be applied elsewhere. Up close, quick wrist movements turn loose nylon into tight joints, enabling scaffolds to be erected and adjusted quickly and effectively. Within the regulatory framework, these knots support the swift, flexible construction of temporary structures. The same knots were used in the ZCB Bamboo Pavilion (Kowloon Bay, 2015), where scaffolders tied them with thin stainless-steel wire, translating craft into innovative gridshell architecture. Bamboo has quietly shaped Hong Kong’s built environment. We must recognise the skill in this low-carbon craft, and remember that safe scaffolding depends on regulation, licensed professionals, and disciplined site practice. Want to learn more? - “Code of Practice for Bamboo Scaffolding Safety”, Hong Kong Labour Department: https://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/os/B/Bamboo.pdf. - “Guidelines on the Design and Construction of Bamboo Scaffolds”, Hong Kong Buildings Department: https://www.bd.gov.hk/doc/en/resources/codes-and-references/code-and-design-manuals/GDCBS.pdf. - “Guide on Construction and Work Safety of Truss-out Bamboo Scaffolds”, Hong Kong Labour Department: https://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/pdf/os/D/TOS_Guidance_notes_eng.pdf. #BambooScaffolding #CantoneseBambooScaffolding #BambooArchitecture #HongKongArchitecture #IntangibleCulturalHeritage #ConstructionCraft #LowCarbonConstruction #FireSafety #SustainableDesign #ZCBBambooPavilion

Free tutorial website from HKU Building Simplexity Lab (BSL) now used in 150+ countries Want to accelerate digital onboarding in teaching or practice? This free resource offers deployable tutorials that are already used worldwide. Through more than fifteen years of teaching digital design technology at institutes worldwide, we developed a large body of custom-built entry-level material to get students past basics quickly. That work is now freely and publicly available on the BSL website in the form of 230+ tutorials centred primarily, but not exclusively, on the Rhino and Grasshopper ecosystem. The platform is grass roots and teacher-built, with the aim to lift global digital design literacy so that classroom and studio time can shift from tooling to innovation. It serves beginner to intermediate users in computational design and educators seeking ready-to-use material for flipped classrooms. Most tutorials include step-by-step video instruction and all include required course files for immediate integration in teaching. Since its launch three years ago, the platform has engaged more than 15,000 active users across more than 150 countries with more than 250,000 logged learning events. Its content expands with emerging technologies including XR, AI workflows, sensing and actuating, and computer vision, and will continue to grow as new tools and methods emerge. The initiative received the HKU Teaching Innovation Award in 2023 and continues to be maintained within the Building Simplexity Lab as open infrastructure for computational design education. Please share and adopt, as increased visibility will strengthen our case for continued support. Explore: https://bsl.hku.hk/tutorials/ #ComputationalDesign #OpenEducation #TeachingInnovation #ArchitectureEducation #HKU