Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting | February 2025
Simply Rhino were at Zaha Hadid Architects, London, for the Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting on the 12th of February 2025.
We were kindly hosted by Zaha Hadid Architects for the recent Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting. Following a welcome from the Grasshopper UK Meeting organisers Simply Rhino we had presentations from our hosts, Zaha Hadid Architects, and our invited guests from Buro Happold engineers and Chaos, the developers of Enscape and V-Ray. At the end of the meeting there was time for conversations and networking.
These GH meetings are free to attend but you must book your place to join us.
- Meeting Date: Wednesday 12th February 2025
- Time: 18:30-20:30
- Location: Zaha Hadid, 101 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7EZ
Following is an outline of the night’s presentations, if you would like to read the full interactive meeting report then you can find that at the Grasshopper UK UGM February 2025 Meeting Notes page.
Meeting Introduction
Meeting welcome with Paul Cowell from the Grasshopper UK Meeting organisers, Simply Rhino.
Presentation 1 | Vishu Bhooshan – Zaha Hadid Architects
Integrated Design: technologies for research-enabled architectural practise; by Computation and Design (CODE) group of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA).
Image ©Zaha Hadid Architects
The presentation explores the customized deployment of computational technologies to deliver the benefits of research and development to parametric projects at ZHA. We are streamlining collaborative workflows between design, analysis, and visualization, by integrating McNeel Rhino and Grasshopper, Autodesk Maya, and NVidia Omniverse, with the computational framework developed by ZHACODE since 2007; We will highlight applications across different scales, from the Striatus footbridge to masterplans, showing how this approach enables high frequency of design iterations leading to innovation in both small and large-scale projects.
Image ©Zaha Hadid Architects
Vishu Bhooshan – Vishu is an Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects, where he co-administers the Computation and Design group (ZHA CODE). He leads the development of a state-of-the-art, proprietary computational code framework to synthesize high-performance geometries and consequently enables their structural optimisation, parametric modeling and coordination. Since joining Zaha Hadid Architects, he has been involved in several design competitions and commissions ranging from technology demonstrators, products, galleries, stadiums, metro stations, residential buildings, masterplans etc. to designing for the metaverse and gaming industry.
Presentation 2 | Norbert Gräser – Chaos
Enscape, Enscape Impact, V-Ray and Envision
Norbert Gräser from Chaos will present the latest innovations in real-time rendering, with a focus on Enscape’s integration with Rhino. He will highlight how Enscape empowers users to create instant 3D walkthroughs, animations, and VR simulations directly within Rhino, with the added benefit of AI-enhanced performance in its latest versions.
The presentation will also showcase the new connected workflow between Enscape and V-Ray, which allows designers to seamlessly transition from real-time design to photorealistic rendering. This compatibility bridges the gap between design and visualization teams, enabling smoother collaboration and higher-quality results.
Additionally, Norbert will introduce Enscape Impact, a tool that integrates sustainability metrics into the design process, and offer a preview of Envision, Chaos’ brand new standalone 3D animation tool for scene assembly and design exploration. Together, these innovations enhance every stage of the design process, from quick visualisations to photorealistic renders and beyond.
Norbert Gräser – Norbert is the teamlead in Application Engineering for Chaos Enscape.
Norbert has been a 3D enthusiast since the early days in the 90s. He was born in Germany and has worked in AEC and BIM in Europe and overseas. At Chaos Enscape, he leads the team of application engineers to support clients and colleagues around the globe.
Presentation 3 | Sarah Fahlaoui + Dr Al Fisher – Buro Happold
Supercharged Design Workflows with Rhino and Grasshopper
Image ©Buro Happold
Sarah and Al will show how Rhino+Grasshopper really has become a key ingredient of Buro Happold’s design and engineering workflows. From early conceptual design of both simple and complex forms, through to detailed visualisation and analysis. Plugging into wider workflows such as game engines and BIM, using the agility of Grasshopper and the interoperability with the BHoM has been a game-changer for us.
Images ©Buro Happold
Sarah Fahlaoui – Sarah is a Senior Structural Engineer at Buro Happold. With experience on large multidisciplinary projects across multiple sectors and regions internationally, Sarah has worked on a variety of challenging projects throughout her career. She has been the computational lead on significant cultural and religious buildings, canopies, towers, and aviation projects. Passionate about design and innovation, Sarah has a particular interest in complex geometry and shape optimisation and contributes to our global innovation and technology steering groups, promoting the use of computational workflows within our Structure team in all our projects, regardless of complexity or design stage.
Dr Al Fisher – Al leads computational development for Buro Happold globally, directing a distributed development community across the practice and encouraging contributions from the widest possible diverse set of skills and experience. Al’s background is in structural design computation with a masters and PhD in Civil and Architectural Engineering from the University of Bath and experience of applying computation to a variety of wide span and complex geometry projects. Flow-based programming, and specifically Grasshopper, has proven to be the bedrock of embedding computational workflows into so many of Buro Happold’s projects, something Al has been doggedly advocating for through his career. Most recently Al’s research has focused on solving wider wicked type problems, involving collective participation and the subjective performance of co-authored distributed systems.
The Grasshopper UK User Group Meetings are Organised by Simply Rhino
