notionpress.com Parametric Minds: Empowering Design Pedagogies

Parametric Minds is a reflective and forward-looking chronicle of how architectural education is evolving-and why it must. Through the lens of SmartLabs, India's first hybrid program on computational design, this book traces a decade-long journey of experimentation, innovation, and transformation in design pedagogy. From the classrooms of architecture schools in India to the studios of Zaha Hadid Architects and the critique rooms of the Architectural Association in London, this narrative moves across continents and mindsets. At its core is a mission seeded by a young architect who dared to question why design education had failed to keep up with the world it was meant to shape.Authored by Sushant Verma-architect, technologist, educator, and founder of rat[LAB]-this book merges personal story with professional practice, mapping how a dream evolved into SmartLabs: an open, accessible, and globally connected platform that has trained over 230+ participants from 20+ countries. It reflects on how SmartLabs became a laboratory of future minds-parametric minds-and how it continues to challenge conventions by blending studio and academia, design and research, humans and AI.As artificial intelligence reshapes creative workflows, Parametric Minds becomes both a document of what has been and a manifesto for what's next. It is not just a portfolio of projects-it is a portfolio of possibilities.Featuring smartFOLIO, a curated visual archive of design experiments carried out at Smart Labs.