Aeolus: a Grasshopper plugin for the interactive design and optimisation of acoustic shells

The design of music venues, such as concert halls and open-air concert stages, requires an integrated approach in which the acoustic response of the space being created is evaluated at every stage of the process to inform its formal development and associated performance. Various software exists to assess acoustic performance: Odeon is considered by many as the industry standard standalone software for detailed and accurate acoustic analyses, whereas Pachyderm is a plugin for Grasshopper (Rhinoceros 3D), which provides architects and engineers with more rapid feedback on preliminary design ideas because of its integration with a parametric modelling environment. Although an experienced acoustic designer could rapidly learn to use any of these programs, their usefulness during conceptual design or teaching activities is limited by the computational power and time required to get acoustic performance results. In these instances, testing time is more valuable than accuracy. This paper introduces Aeolus, an acoustic modelling plugin for Grasshopper. Unlike other similar Grasshopper plugins, Aeolus allows users to control the simulation accuracy and can therefore be used to rapidly test the performance of design ideas. Aeolus can also easily be interfaced with various Grasshopper optimisation plugins. Aeolus v0.1 was publicly released on 7 March 2023, and will be the focus of a Masterclass offered at the IASS Symposium 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.