EXTON, PA. — Hanif Kara from innovative engineering firm Adams Kara Taylor (AKT) and Mark Burry, Professor at RMIT and Executive Architect and Researcher to the Temple Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain have been confirmed as keynote speakers for the SmartGeometry 2010 Symposium Day. Together with the Shop Talk Day on March 23, 2010, the March 24, 2010 Symposium Day will offer intimate details about the leading edge of digital and parametric design.

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world, sponsors the SmartGeometry 2010 Conference — an event focused on innovative design tools, technologies, and methodologies that allow and encourage new forms of architectural and structural expression. The conference takes place March 23-24, 2010, in Barcelona, Spain, and carries the theme “Working Prototypes.”

The SmartGeometry 2010 Conference opens with a dynamic and interactive “shop talk” day, during which tutors and participants in the SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop companion event present and discuss their advanced design work of the previous four days. The hands-on workshop, being held March 19-22 at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), enables architectural and engineering professionals and students to explore innovative designs and realized digital fabrication using GenerativeComponents — Bentley’s generative design software. The second day of the conference includes an enlightening symposium featuring presentations by preeminent authorities on the theory and practice of computational and parametric design approaches.

Commenting on this year’s conference agenda, Hugh Whitehead, partner and head of Specialist Modeling Group, Foster + Partners, and a SmartGeometry Group director, said, “The focus of the SmartGeometry 2010 Conference shifts from experimentation to new design agendas based on the production of working prototypes. The fabrication lab at IAAC provides the ideal venue for designers who wish to become digital craftsmen. Workshop attendees will test the integration potential of Bentley’s generative design software to its limits — or perhaps beyond.”

Added Lars Hesselgren, research director, PLP Architecture, and a SmartGeometry Group director, “The architecture of the 21st century will be defined by digital systems, just as surely as 20th century architecture was defined by the notions of repetition and standardization. One of the most important drivers will be the nature of digital manufacturing, which today is only beginning to be seen in rapid prototyping.”

Hesselgren continued, “This year’s SmartGeometry Conference explores the freedom implicit in the development of manufacturing as a creator of digital realities. This results in manufacturing reality becoming just another output, revolutionizing the nature of architecture.”

The SmartGeometry 2010 Conference includes:

• “Shop Talk” Day, March 23 – Provides an opportunity for informal discussions among leading practitioners and emerging talent in digital design about the results of the SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop.
• “Symposium” Day, March 24 – Brings together expertise in the digital manufacturing area. Among the many renowned speakers will be Adrian Bowyer, senior lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath; Mark Burry, director of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia; Enrico Dini, chairman of D-shape; and Rupert Soar, director of Freeform Engineering Ltd.
• Reception, March 24 – Ends the conference with a social gathering celebrating the innovation, creativity, and leadership of the generative design community.

For additional information about the SmartGeometry 2010 Conference, to register, and to learn about the workshop application process and format, visit www.SmartGeometryConference.com/2010.