Bubble and Block Tool
A common process used by designers to begin studying the functional layout of a building or a floor or a space is to make scaled paper rectangles of each of the required programmatic spaces, colored by department, and then rearrange them manually, like puzzle pieces, until a workable configuration is found. The pieces of paper might then be taped down so that the layout can be translated and recorded into a CAD file. There are, however, a number of shortcomings inherent in this process. BlackBox Studio felt, for example, that it would be helpful if the proportions of the rectangles could be freely adjusted, without changing their areas. BlackBox also felt it would be helpful to have constant visual cues about adjacency requirements without having to constantly refer back to the program document, and that it would be helpful to have a more automated process of recording the concept and transferring it to cad.
With these objectives in mind, BlackBox made a tool for generating bubble diagrams and blocking diagrams. The tool was written in Processing. The setup process requires the use of an Excel template to format the programmatic information—including space names, department associations, area requirements, adjacency requirements, etc. The Excel data is saved out as a text file and then read into the processing script to automatically generate the “pieces of paper” on the designer’s screen. If there is a floor plate and core that already exist (or even just a general boundary for the building), those drawings can be imported (dxf) to the screen as a background.
The rectangles, colored by department, can then be dragged around and repositioned on the screen. They can be re-proportioned to fit with other spaces while always maintaining the proper area. If there is an adjacency requirement between two spaces, that relationship is represented with a line that always connects the two spaces, like a rubber band. The thickness of the line is an indication of the intensity of the adjacency relationship. Once the designer is pleased with a particular composition, the file can be saved and/or exported out as either a pdf file, or as a dxf file, which can then be further refined in a cad program.
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