A newly established student club named “E3 Architecture and Design” is organizing a two-day workshop at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture between June 10-11, 2013. Event will be conducted at our computer lab. so the seats are limited to 28. I’ll try to explain the basic concepts of dataflow management in computer aided design. Also I plan to test a couple of problems apparent in computational geometry but not architecture yet.

Becoming very popular after the Beijing 2008 Olympics National Aquatics Centre’s facade (which is believed to be a voronoi subdivision, as an epic mistake), Weaire-Phelan is a solution (again said to be the “best” solution, which is not yet proven) of equal volumes with minimal surface area. This quickly became a cult object for contemporary architectural geometry (this is correct). Although it is believed to be a structural solution, I think for architects, catching the eye with “cute bubbles” seem to be the primary purpose of this structure.  This nice [...]

Below is the final production of three-day workshop at Bolu İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. For more information about the process and the photos from first student prototypes, you may visit workshop blog at infections2.blogspot.com Grasshopper definition developed within the workshop is a simple multi-attractor system that deforms (or re-constructs) a regular square grid using the well-known voronoi subdivision. I’ll post the definition here.

The three-day design workshop at Bolu İzzet Baysal University has now opened a blog at: www.infections2.blogspot.com.  Students are expected to share their work there, so you may be able to track the whole workshop process in real-time.

This is an old research paper, prepared with Birgül Çolakoğlu. It is in Turkish and includes our first results in some of the Rhinoscript exercises. Here is the abstract of the paper; Recent research in architecture have focused on to understand computational methods of formal exploration and expression. Computational mechanisms have been used to readdress formal issues using new techniques and methods. Computational tools that operate on algorithmic logic are central in these explorations. Despite the proliferation of computers in architecture today, use of algorithms in architectural design is limited. This paper describes “Designing [...]

Trifoliolate is a single-axis, single-prototile hexagonal deformation designed by Glen Paris at the studio of William Huff in 1966. Dataflow diagram of the prototile is defined by first implementing a “manual” Euclidean construction of ruler and compass, then this applied to Grasshopper using a curve evaluation method (which is much optimal). This dependency graph reveals parametric potentials of the tiling. After that, a gradial manipulation is added to the tiling in order to create the original parquet deformation. Finally, further deformation opportunities are experimented on the tiling. Dataflow modeling is based [...]

I’ve seen very beautiful examples of similar compositions made by using vector field components in Grasshopper. Just tried to make my own animate field lines to see how they float over force dynamics. In essence, these compositions could also be done using regular vector components but the field components make life much more easier by merging different forces together rather quickly. Here is my Grasshopper definition (be careful it may slow the computer down) [GHX: 0.9.0014] As you see below, it is a quite small definition that creates beautiful complexity. Although we [...]

In Design Computing class, we have discussed how the parametric wall study (here) can be implemented to describe regular curved surfaces such as domes. This led us to well-known design compositions named as Muqarnas. Previously we have studied how a parametric muqarnas definition could be in Grasshopper (here). After a couple of weeks study, students started to capture the idea of generating seamless surfaces out of a few components. Of course “Designing your own muqarnas” is a tough question. Here are some successfull results of it; Ekin Arslan. Although she [...]

“Re_Flex Patterning” workshop will be conducted at İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture between 6-8th May, 2013. Workshop is conducted by Tuğrul Yazar and Fulya Akipek, from İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture. Integrating digital media with material world reveals emergent performances. Parametric modeling techniques encourage designers to study more one the envelopes of potentials instead of singular artifacts. Working with these envelopes reveal a design cycle that entails determination of relations and within this relational framework, dynamics keep design process active and variable. In the serie of [...]

WFC Shangai is a design exercise in our first-year Design Computing class introduced by Onur Yüce Gün. This exercise emphasizes both analytical thinking and associative geometry and aims to utilize boolean operations as solid and void references in creating forms. We asked students to develop variations of this building. In order to discuss this formation in class, I studied a simple algorithm to test variations in real time. Grasshopper definition can be downloaded from here [GHX: 0.9.0014]. The initial shape, developed by a boolean intersection of a rectangular prism and [...]

Here are some student works about the parametric wall exercise I briefly explained here along with a Grasshopper implementation of the core wall definition. Students are expected to design their own brick, and compose it in a way that it generates a seamless wall surface. Ömer Kirazoğlu Osman Can Sözüneri Seda Öznal (slightly out of requirement but very interesting) Adnan Faysal Altunbozar Özgüç Bertuğ Çapunaman

This is a first-year design computing problem we studied last month. It is a simple parametric wall exercise introduced by Mete Tüneri. Creating a simple definition of a building brick to be placed on a straight path, and then manipulating the path to reform different variations of the brick. This aims to introduce a fundamental concept of associativity in contemporary architectural geometry and design computing. Students are then encouraged to develop their own parametric brick to be tested in different path conditions.   Below is a simple implementation of above [...]

This is a solid-void (or boolean) exercise for first year students. It is initially introduced by Onur Yüce Gün as an in-class exercise, but later became a design problem also. Before getting into the parametric wall and eventually muqarnas exercises, this small but effective assignment help students understand some of the fundamental concepts such as associativity, solid / void relationships and component-based design compositions in three dimensions. Here is the initial object we used to introduce in design computing class: As you see, the component is developed in a fashion [...]

Today’s design computing class was about fractals. In Rhino, writing macro statements are very easy to learn as it just mimics your behaviours in a sequential text. There are few syntactic rules that we should know. First, you should watch the command line carefully to understand the steps of your design process. Each command in Rhino require different inputs from the user. In macro, you may enter these values or tell macro to ask user by typing “_pause”. Blank spaces work as if you hit enter. Below is one of [...]

One of the cult texts in Shape Grammars theory is Stiny’s Ice-ray grammars. Although it is full of technical terms, it represents an analysis of a working algorithm, directly transferred from the behaviour of an artist. One can imagine a Chinese artisan, summoned to a building site, bringing with him tools and implements and a collection of finely finished sticks. Shown a rectangular window frame, he is asked to create an ice-ray lattice. He begins his design by selecting a stick of the appropriate length and carefully attaching it between [...]

One of the main requirements of being succesfull in the field of digital design, seems to have nice high-tech background images. Usually it contains different kinds of nebula-like-grids, plastic-explicit and/or combinations of curves-surfaces-and-numbers, burnt by a couple of photoshop filters. If you have the right background, this means you are ready for a workshop, a book, or a presentation. (just joking) However I love these, cannot stand more than 1 minute working for them. So, here is what I found ten years ago while preparing a portfolio. This way, you can [...]

Maxscipt can be used to automate specific modeling tasks in a sequential-parametric way. This example, developed in 2005 shows an example of that. It creates various table designs by polygon modeling operations and asks the  user various parameters. Maxscript file is here, [MS File] you can download, test and alter it however you want (last tested in Max Design 2011 and works). Below is the interface of the script; There are preset parameters in a dropdown box, and all other available parameters are organized in rollouts. Here are some default results [...]

This month became a retrospective for myself. This was my first animation, prepared for CAAD Graduate course of Ahmet Turan Köksal in 2002. It was a funny inspiration from SDF-1 of Robotech. Model of the terminal is in fact, my graduation project at YTU Faculty of Architecture in 2001. It was a bus terminal project for İstanbul modeled in AutocadR14. I mirrored it with ground plane to create the space station. Other spaceships and grape-like houses are done with Rhinoceros 3.0 (again, they were my first modeling experiences). And they are put together in [...]

Below is a part of Heidegger’s famous book, questioning concerning technology; … We are questioning concerning technology, and we have arrived now at aletheia, at revealing. What has the essence of technology to do with revealing? The answer: everything. For every bringing-forth is grounded in revealing. Bringing-forth, indeed, gathers within itself the four modes of occasioning – causality – and rules them throughout. Within its domain belong end and means, belongs instrumentality. Instrumentality is considered to be the fundamental characteristic of technology. If we inquire, step by step, into what [...]

Today’s design computing class was about thinking simple. We explored how a small but smart design of a tiling system can generate diversity. Some patterns based on a system called “truchet tiling” are modeled in Rhino using patch and block commands. The example below shows the “prototile” of a hexagonal grid, while each edge is divided into two in order to generate a secondary blobish pattern. As the prototile is symmetric, design possibilities does not allow a hierarchical organization. Instead it refers to a homogeneous construction of minimal variations. Below [...]