Rhino Studio Series: Architecture
This series works the way studio works: the architecture comes first, the software follows. Every episode opens with the conventions, the standards, and the design reasoning before anything gets built with Rhino. Every episode’s guide includes helpful reminders while you work.
SEASON 2 | Architectural Massing
In Season 2, the finished 2D drawing set stands up. We take the ADU from Season 1, a 1000+ sq ft ADU (max 100 sq m), and turn it into a volume you can walk around, light, and judge: one closed solid, then a family of studies, then one expressive move that earns its place. Plan to volume to image.
Watch the Season 2 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcLjYAGc-F8M
Season-specific Material
SEASON 2 Guide: outcomes, episode map, how the toolkit fits together (44.7 KB)
ADU Project Brief: Program, site assumptions, constraints (246.8 KB)
SEASON 2 Template, model units: ft (5.2 MB)
You do not have to draw Season 1 first. The Season 2 template above ships with a completed Season 1 drawing set on the
2Dlayer branch and one massing iteration on the3Dlayer branch, so you can open it and start modeling. The layer standard is already built in. This season’s template ships in feet; a metric twin will follow, soon. Options are not pre-built: duplicating the3Dbranch intoOPT1,OPT2and so on is the move the season teaches.
SEASON 2 Student Toolkit: season guide, episode guides, and the season template together (completed when all 6 episodes are published)
QUICK REF: 200+ First Commands to Know
QUICK REF | Rhino Studio Series: Layer Standard
New here? Season 2 assumes the drawing set Season 1 builds, so the two intros and the two orientation videos still live on the Season 1 playlist and are worth the hour before you start:
Architecture Before Software: Think First, Then Build with Rhino | The argument the whole series rests on
Rhino for Architecture: Interface, Interoperability & Independence | One tool across the whole life of an architectural idea
How to Get Started with Rhino | Download, install, and your first file
Top 10 Setup Tricks with Rhino | Setup tips from years of teaching studio
Season 1: Architectural Drawing, the full season (all videos & resources)
S2 E1 | How to Think in 3D
Before any form gets developed, an orientation to working in three dimensions: what kind of geometry you have, which plane you are working on, and whether you are making, modifying, cutting, combining, or repeating. Rhino stops being a list of commands to memorize and becomes a set of relationships to read. Three moves: know the geometry, choose the plane, match the operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sozaV2SFWDI&list=PLcLjYAGc-F8M
Episode 1 Guide (1 page) (57.3 KB)
Rhino Practice file: a small model to try the ideas yourself (2.7 MB)
S2 E2 | Creating Massing
A plan tells you how a building is organized; a volume tells you how it will feel. The same footprint reads one way at eight feet and another at thirty, and none of that is visible in plan. The plan stands up as a single closed solid, simple enough to change and clear enough to judge. Three moves: height and proportion, one closed solid, the roof and the slab.
DATE: S2 E2 will be released September 22nd, 2026
Episode 2 Guide (1 page, uploaded when episode is published)
S2 E3 | Massing Iterations
Your first idea is not a bad idea; it is simply the first one. Nine studies grow out of one mass, each holding most conditions constant and changing one variable, so the comparison stays fair and the options get compared rather than defended. Three moves: openings, volumes, roofs.
DATE: S2 E3 will be released September 29th, 2026
Episode 3 Guide (1 page, uploaded when episode is published)
S2 E4 | Beyond the Box
When a box is not enough: one signature move, a swept roof or a flared opening, and the environmental or aesthetic driver that justifies it. If you cannot write the sentence naming the driver, the move is decoration. Three moves: naming the driver, building the curve, testing it against the mass.
DATE: S2 E4 will be released October 6th, 2026
Episode 4 Guide (1 page, uploaded when episode is published)
S2 E5 | Massing Polish
Refining the envelope before any detail arrives: compositional balance, proportion tuned by eye and checked by measure, and the volume cut open so its interior can be read rather than guessed at. Three moves: balance, cutting the mass, reading what it shows.
DATE: S2 E5 will be released October 13th, 2026
Episode 5 Guide (1 page, uploaded when episode is published)
S2 E6 | Exterior & Site Rendering
Rendering as a design tool rather than an afterthought: sun, location, and an honest shadow study that puts the mass back on its site and tells you whether the form works. Season 2 finale. Three moves: light and location, materials held quiet, the mass in its place.
DATE: S2 E6 will be released October 20th, 2026
Episode 6 Guide (1 page, uploaded when episode is published)
For educators
SEASON 2 is built to drop into a syllabus, and the educator set is public. Nothing here is behind a gate.
Course plan: the season mapped to a term, with pacing and groupings (142.7 KB)
Assessment rubric, studio final (130.2 KB)
Assessment rubric, technical class (159.8 KB)
Critique guide, mid-season pin-up (131.6 KB)
Critique guide, end of season (152.2 KB)
Season 2’s assessment materials pay particular attention to judging volume without detail, which is the hardest thing to grade fairly in a massing exercise. The rubrics are published on purpose: students are welcome to read exactly what is being assessed, and a course that hides its criteria is arguing against its own pedagogy.
Next Season
SEASON 3 | Design Development takes this massing study and works it into a resolved building.
“Studio life comes first, and the Rhino Studio Series supports us.”
