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Generative design · computational design services

Generative design: a hundred options, one drawing.

Set your project's rules below. Every option we generate has to obey them. We score the lot and hand your team the one worth drawing.

Building form

Generate keeps form, plot and grid. Floors ±2, setback your minimum to +2 m, core ±15%.

GFA m²0
Efficiency0%
Daylight0%
Modules0
AIM United · In short

What is generative design?

Generative design uses your project's rules to produce many design options, then scores each one. AIM United generates massing options for your site with Dynamo and Grasshopper, ranks them on area, efficiency and daylight, and carries the chosen option into the BIM model. We work with developers and designers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the GCC.

The problem

One option, drawn by hand, defended in every meeting.

Early design decides most of what a building will cost and how well it works. Yet most teams test two or three schemes, because each one takes days of modelling. The rest of the options are never seen.

Managing director

Feasibility is unbilled time.

Every extra option costs senior hours you can't recover, so the team stops at the first scheme that works.

Technical director

A grid change breaks everything.

Move the structural grid late and every plan, section and schedule has to be redrawn and re-checked.

BIM manager

"We already have Dynamo."

You do. But the useful scripts live on one person's laptop, undocumented, and break on the next Revit version.

Developer / client

"What if we add two floors?"

A simple question takes days to answer, and by then the decision has been made on instinct.

58%

of design and make professionals say a lack of skilled talent limits their growth. Tools that multiply each designer's output matter more than hiring your way out.Source: Autodesk, 2025 State of Design & Make (2025)

Stage 01 / 03Parametric rules

Set the rules. The building answers.

The rules you set at the top are the ones we would write into a Grasshopper or Dynamo graph. Some are fixed, some are ranges. Every generated option has to pass all of them, and the model is checked against them live.

RuleAllowedThis option

GFA0m²
Efficiency0%
Daylight proxy0%
Modules0
FAR 0.0 · Coverage 0%
How these scores are worked out
  • GFA: modules × module size². Each module is one grid bay on one floor.
  • Efficiency: 1 − core share − 7% fixed circulation − a travel penalty for floor space more than 18 m from the core.
  • Daylight proxy: share of floor space within 7.5 m of a facade. It ignores orientation, overshadowing and glazing.
  • Modules: grid bays × floors, including the core.

These are teaching numbers, not design advice. On a project we use your authority's rules and validated analysis, such as Ladybug Tools for daylight.

Change the rules
Stage 02 / 03Design optimisation

Generate 100 options. Keep the one that earns it.

Your rules, a hundred answers. The generator keeps your form, plot and grid, moves floors, setback and core only inside your tolerances, then scores every result. Pick one and it becomes the main model.

Nothing generated yet
Sort
On the Pareto frontScore = 40% GFA + 30% efficiency + 30% daylight
No option pickedPress Generate, then choose an option. Hover to preview it in the field.

Scored against your rules

Stage 03 / 03Modular kit · DfMA

Every option is a kit of parts.

Scroll to take your chosen option apart. The same rules that generated it also produce the part list, so the design is buildable from day one. Tap or hover a part to isolate it.

Module types
0 / 0 / 0
Parts per type
0
Units shipped
0
Heaviest lift
0 t

Corner / edge / internal · 4.5 m transport width · 0.5 t/m²

What's included

Six services, one set of rules.

Take one, or run them as a chain. Every deliverable comes with the source graph, so the work stays yours.

01

Parametric and computational design

Your design logic written as a graph: grids, spans, setbacks, facade rules and cost limits.

  • Parametric definitions.gh / .dyn
  • Rule book and graph notesPDF
  • Custom componentsPython / C#
02

Massing and feasibility studies

Many options on your plot, tested against zoning, height and area targets before anyone draws a plan.

  • Option book with scoresPDF
  • Area schedules: GFA, NIA, FARXLSX
  • Massing modelsRVT / IFC / 3DM
03

Design optimisation

Multi-objective search across area, efficiency, daylight, cost or embodied carbon. You see the trade-offs, not one answer.

  • Ranked option setCSV
  • Pareto chartsPDF
  • AnalysisLadybug Tools
04

Modular and kit-of-parts systems

A catalogue of modules and the rules that join them, so every layout is built from parts you have already approved.

  • Kit libraryRevit families
  • Connection and grid rulesPDF
  • Layout configuratorGraph / web
05

Dynamo and Grasshopper tooling

Graphs and tools built for your templates, documented, versioned and handed over with training.

  • Dynamo for Revit graphs.dyn
  • Rhino.Inside.Revit workflows.gh
  • Team trainingLive + recorded
06

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA)

Transport, lifting and factory limits set as rules, so every option can be made, shipped and assembled.

  • Bill of partsXLSX / CSV
  • Assembly sequencePDF / 4D
  • Fabrication exportsIFC / DXF

Proof

Backed by a design record.

Company record and build specs
11

Projects with AIM United design scope, from hospitals and factories to petrol stations

Project record
100

Options generated and scored in each batch, inside the rules you set

Build spec
250+

Engineers behind the design, BIM and delivery teams

Company record
Selected work · Design

Obhur Al-Shamaliyah Residential Compound, Jeddah

Full architectural, structural and MEP design, with AIM United as Architect of Record for permits and approvals.

Completed 2022 – 2023
Market signal

40%

of respondents expect design optioneering to be where AI has the most impact in construction.

Source: RICS, AI in Construction 2025 report (2025)

How we deliver

Capture, Model, Automate, Deploy, Evolve.

The AIM United method, applied to generative design. Every step leaves something your team can open, check and reuse.

  1. 01

    Capture

    Your brief, plot, zoning and authority rules, area targets and cost limits. For modular work, the factory's catalogue and its transport and lifting limits.Brief workshop · site data · rule sheet

  2. 02

    Model

    We turn those rules into a parametric graph. Every constraint is written down, visible and testable, so nobody has to trust a black box.Grasshopper · Dynamo for Revit · Python / C#

  3. 03

    Automate

    The graph generates and scores options, hundreds rather than three, and exports area schedules, drawings and part lists for the ones you keep.Option runs · scoring · schedules

  4. 04

    Deploy

    You receive the chosen scheme in Revit or IFC, the graphs that made it and a training session, so your team can run the next study without us.RVT / IFC · .gh / .dyn · training

  5. 05

    Evolve

    Cost plans, authority comments and site lessons go back into the rules. The next project starts from a better set of constraints.Rule updates · kit revisions

Questions buyers ask

FAQ

What is computational design in construction?

Computational design means writing a design's rules as code (grids, spans, setbacks, module sizes, cost limits) so a computer can build and test the geometry. In construction it is used for massing studies, facade and structural rationalisation, modular layouts and automated drawings. We build it in Grasshopper or Dynamo for Revit, and in custom code where those run out.

What is the difference between parametric and generative design?

Parametric design links geometry to inputs, so changing a value updates the model. Generative design goes one step further: it runs those inputs through many combinations, scores each result against your goals and shows you the best trade-offs. The parametric model is the engine. Generative design is the search.

We already have Revit and Dynamo. Why bring you in?

Most firms do, and most of their scripts live on one person's laptop. We write graphs and tools that are documented, versioned and tested on your templates, then train your team to run and change them. You keep the source files. If a task is better as a Revit add-in than a Dynamo graph, we will say so.

How accurate are early massing and feasibility scores?

They are as good as the rules behind them. On a project we use your plot, your authority's rules and validated analysis, such as Ladybug Tools for daylight and sun hours, and state the assumptions next to every number. Early scores rank options. They do not replace detailed design.

What do we receive at the end of a study?

An option book (PDF) with scores and assumptions, area schedules (XLSX), the chosen massing as RVT, IFC or 3DM, and the source graphs (.gh or .dyn) with notes. For modular work you also get a kit library of Revit families, a bill of parts and an assembly sequence.

Do modular construction and DfMA work for projects in KSA?

They work when the kit is designed around real limits: road transport width, crane capacity, factory tolerances and the authority's approvals. We set those limits as rules first, so every option we generate can be made, shipped and lifted. If a scheme is better built conventionally, we will tell you early.

Start with one plot

Send us a site boundary and your rules.

We will scope a pilot study: the rules written down, a scored option set, and the graph that produced it. We agree the scope and fee before any work starts.