Architectural Technology Speaker Series: Keyan Rahimzadeh

The Fall 2025 Architectural Technology Speaker Series - Data, Details, Delivery, is a series of daytime lectures from leading practitioners and researchers presented by the Department of Architecture's Technology Committee.

This talk will talk through the design of a complex facade system for a contemporary high rise project We will cover many aspects of delivering contemporary architecture, including: how to develop a project with complex geometry, from its inception, through the process of solving detailed technical challenges, and on to fabricating the millions of unique components. This is all supported with an underlying parametric framework called "Procedural BIM", which eschews the idea of a single, federated model, in favor of a networked collection of smaller, discrete models. This allows the design to unfold in an organic, flexible way, so that the design team can move quickly, while maintaining a robust system of information. The data-centric framework enables advanced techniques like Machine Learning, which will also be discussed in detail.

Keyan Rahimzadeh combines his education in Structural Engineering and Architecture with his experience in computation, geometry, and fabrication to solve problems in the built environment. After spending 10 years at Front, Inc. in the New York and London offices, working on high profile facade projects around the world, he went on to lead the Computational Design team for Grimshaw in New York. Currently he is the Head of Product Development at a startup that combines custom software, parametric modeling, and artificial intelligence as part of the next generation of Architecture and Engineering firms.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.