Case Study: Pratt Institute achieves structurally optimized, organic architectural designs with Altair's solidThinking Inspire

Pratt Institute - Customer Case Study

Pratt Institute architect and professor Peter Macapia sought to rethink how buildings are conceived—moving from a sequential design/analysis process to an integrated approach that changes perceptions of form, materials and environmental impact. To do this he needed an interactive structural tool that could translate forces into many design alternatives; he turned to Altair’s solidThinking Inspire to explore new morphologies and teach students how engineering and architecture can be developed simultaneously.

Using Altair’s solidThinking Inspire, Macapia integrated design and testing in the same environment, iteratively specifying materials and loads to generate organically optimized forms. The result was a new “language” of deforming-surface structures, greater flexibility in altering forces and materials, and stronger support for research and student projects at Pratt Institute—demonstrating tangible design outcomes and teaching impact enabled by Altair’s tool.

Pratt Institute

Peter Macapia

Architect and Professor