At Gray Puksand, we thrive on innovation, always looking for smarter, more efficient ways to collaborate, create and deliver meaningful design outcomes for our clients. Building on our knowledge and leading through design is part of who we are. Two individuals from our national 2025 Graduate intake, Caterina Moreitz and Cassandra Savvas, are helping us do just that through the adoption of Rhino and Grasshopper as a front-end design tool.
Rhino, or Rhinoceros 3D, is an intuitive and versatile design tool used widely in architecture, interior and urban design fields for the seamless creation of forms and intricate details. The real benefit of Rhino lies in its ability to handle complex, organic geometry; forms that are often impossible or too time-consuming to create in the Building Information Modelling (BIM) platform, Revit. Rhino opens doors to quicker concept massing, custom detailed joinery, and organic facade design, supporting creative freedom every step of the way.
Embedded within Rhino is Grasshopper, a parametric and generative design plugin. With Grasshopper, designers can automate and quickly iterate on complex problems, using a system of graphic nodes that completely sidesteps the need for traditional programming. It’s similar in philosophy to Dynamo, the visual programming plugin for Revit, but with its own unique strengths and workflows.
Rhino.Inside is a plugin that lets the full power of Rhino operate directly within Revit. Rather than keeping design and documentation separate, this tool removes platform barriers, allowing creative ideas formed in Rhino to flow right into the Revit environment for BIM documentation. No more time lost recreating work or worrying about compatibility issues.
Caterina Moreitz and Cassandra Savvas have worked closely with our Digital + Design Technology team this year to expand the capabilities of Rhino.Inside within Gray Puksand. They’re not just working with the tool, but actively developing clear, practical workflows informed by real project experience and best practice. By documenting what works and what doesn’t, they’ve created a workflow user guide and training program to support the national expansion of Rhino.Inside in collaboration with the Digital + Design Technology Team.
“The future of digital design is defined by flexibility, interoperability, and empowering designers to focus on creativity. Interoperability between software platforms has long been a challenge in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry,” said Paraic Walsh, Digital + Design Technology Manager.
“Rhino.Inside helps bridge the gap between front-end concept design and our primary authoring tool, Revit. This enables our teams to fluidly transition ideas from concept to documentation and ensures we remain at the forefront of technology and practice.”
The workflow and training guides that Caterina and Cassandra are developing will make it easier for everyone in the studio to fully utilise Rhino. They are guiding best practices for organising and preparing files for smooth import into Revit, modelling techniques that maintain accuracy and compatibility, and efficient methods for integrating geometry into the Revit environment.
Already, the work built by Caterina and Cassandra has been eye-opening. The wider Gray Puksand team have seen the efficiency gains first-hand; Rhino is incredibly fast and nimble, and the models import into Revit so neatly that it barely feels like an external tool. By increasing the use of these and other technologies there’s a genuine sense of optimism about what this could mean for future project delivery, across both architecture and interiors.
Reflecting on her experience, Caterina Moreitz shared, “As a graduate, I never expected to have the opportunity to help shape how we design as a practice. By promoting Rhino and Grasshopper as an additional design tools and guiding their use across multiple projects, I’ve been able to help the team solve challenges that would have been impossible in Revit. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the impact these solutions are having on our projects and approach to design.”
Cassandra Savvas adds, “Working on projects where I’ve utilised full integration of Rhino into Revit for complex façade design has been very rewarding. This gives our design team full control of form, and has allowed for a freedom of creative expression, where the iterative design process maintains consistent precision and interoperability between designers and the consultant team alike.”
“Our graduates are challenging the way we think and work, and that’s exactly what makes Gray Puksand unique. Caterina and Cassandra are helping us move faster, think bigger, and deliver smarter design. Their curiosity and drive are shaping the future of our practice, and I couldn’t be prouder,” concluded Nik Tabain, National Managing Partner
The Graduate Program at Gray Puksand is designed to foster initiative, growth and the sharing of best practices. Caterina and Cassandra embody this, showing how new opportunities can be discovered, advanced and shared across our four national studios. Their work with integrating Rhino and Grasshopper as a workflow is more than just a technical achievement; it’s a clear reflection of how our collaborative culture sets us apart and keeps us designing places of integrity, now and into the future.
