About

Fractals Workshop

The Fractals Workshop is a generative design and formfinding workshop inspired by patterns in nature, that combines art, logic, geometry, structure, materiality and mathematics. This workshop is an adaptation of the teaching methods practiced at the Design Research Lab at the AA School of Architecture in London.

The focus is on developing prototypical, data-driven design systems from the bottom up using analog algorithms versus designing from the top down. The method is derived from the organic growth of natural systems, as well as parametric architecture, structural systems, mathematics, geometry, and algorithms. The collective designs, created using physical and digital tools, manifest themselves as amorphous, scaleless, tangible installations, as digital aggregations to be experienced in immersive virtual reality, or as large-scale, site-specific urban sculptures. There is a smooth transition between 2D/3D/4D, analog/digital, hitech/lowtech, tangible/intangible, permanent/ephemeral, real/virtual, static/dynamic.

The work created in the Fractals Workshop is an ongoing, iterative, open-ended design research, that has no preconceived result. Each new version of the workshop learns from and builds upon previous research. Participants are encouraged to document their process, depicting the “analog algorithms” through diagrammatic representation, which form part of the growing research.

The Fractals Workshop was created by Architect Takbir Fatima. The workshop is open to students and professionals from all backgrounds. Since 2011, the workshop has been to Hyderabad, Chennai, Surat, Roorkee, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain and Doha. Since 2020, the workshop has been taught online to participants from all over the world, and in collaboration with the Turenscape Academy, Boston Architectural College and DigitalFUTURES at Tongji University. The workshop was an official part of Dubai Design Week 2018 and Hyderabad Design Week alongside the World Design Assembly 2019, resulting in urban installations for the cities of Dubai and Hyderabad.

Takbir Fatima
Creator + Director

Takbir Fatima is an architect, educator and entrepreneur. She is the Director of the inter-disciplinary experimental design and architecture studio, DesignAware. Takbir created the Fractals Workshop and BuildAware. She has an MArch in Architecture + Urbanism from the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture, London, and a BArch from CSIIT School of Architecture & Planning, Secunderabad. She is also a fellow of the Startup Leadership Program. Takbir was named Telangana Young Architect by the Indian Institute of Architects in 2016 and awarded the Emerging Architect of the Year by NDTV Design & Architecture Awards 2016. She was recognized in the annual selection of 50 emerging Indian architects and designers, iGen 50 in 2019. Takbir received the HyBiz TV Women’s Leadership Award 2021.

Takbir is a TEDx speaker, and has exhibited and presented her work and methods at various design events, including the Dezeen Virtual Design Festival 2020. Her writings have been published in LA Journal, Indian Architect & Builder, The Wire and Mvslim. Takbir has been invited as an external juror and thesis guide, and has been associated in a teaching capacity with CEPT University, the Boston Architectural College, VIT University, Turenscape Academy and Tongji University. She is a Global Teaching Artist for Facebook Open Arts.