Gonzalo L. Vegas Olcese

Co-advisee together with Prof. Sonit Bafna and Prof. John Peponis.

Gonzalo Vegas is a Ph.D. student in architecture at the Georgia Tech Institute of Technology, and a GRA for the Georgia Tech Research Institute on the RISC unit. With a background on computational design, performance analysis, and digital fabrication, he focuses on developing tools to support decision-making processes of architects and urban designers.

He holds a professional degree in architecture from Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, where he developed his interests in agent-based modeling applied in generative design. Later on, he grew further interests in building analysis, in particular on human-related factors on the built environment.

He participates in the vertically integrated project “Surrogate Modeling for Urban Regeneration”, where he leads a group of Master’s students on the development of a microclimate simulation platform for the Rhinoceros-Grasshopper environment, in an effort to accurately model thermal comfort.

He believes the principles of architecture design can be captured through systematic analysis of building morphology, and thus support the improvement of building inhabitation and produce better social outcomes. To pursue this belief, he collaborates with Georgia Tech professors in the development of novel Space Syntax analytical approaches to advance both architecture theory and practice.

His thesis follows the same objective, as he bridges architecture, environmental psychology, and systems modeling into a novel approach to capture the underlying mechanism through which buildings shape human behavior. Once completed, his work will allow architecture researchers to test spatial theories on the effects of the built environment on human organization and the development of social outcomes, such as sense of community, tie-formation, and serendipitous encounters.