While reviewing past Grasshopper studies, I stumbled upon a Parametric Muqarnas study dating back 11 years. Although it shares numerous characteristics with a muqarnas design, it is not a perfect match. The Grasshopper definition used in that study was not particularly efficient, prompting me to revisit and improve it. This particular design presents various challenges, making it an excellent exercise for mastering Grasshopper. My goal with this study was to create Parametric Muqarnas Blocks suitable for 3D printing. To achieve…

The interlocking frame structures represent a quintessential example of parametric design since very old times. More recently, they gained widespread attention through the Metropol Parasol in Seville, captivating architects and designers. I’ve extensively explored these structures on this blog, attempting various methods like manual slit drawing and solid/region boolean operations. My latest iteration aimed for greater simplicity and adaptability on complex surfaces. I call this new version Interlocking Pavilion. The ribs now align perpendicularly to the surface, which is a…

Archimedean Solids are convex polyhedra with faces of regular polygons and vertex-transitive. There are 13 such objects (excluding prisms and antiprisms which are probably less exciting). In this study, I experimented with these solids and designed a family of planters. Since they are convex and look cool, I decided to give it a try. I call this algorithm Archimedean Planters. The first part of the definition deals with the generation of the chosen solid. A list will help the user…

“In the heart of a sunflower’s embrace, its seeds weave a poetic tale—a dance of two spirals, parastichies they’re called. One unfurls gracefully from the center in the hush of clockwise whispers, while its counterpart whispers secrets in the tender breaths of counterclockwise motion. A subtle ballet unfolds, where the number of these spirals gracefully mirrors the whispers of adjacent Fibonacci numbers, composing a delicate symphony in the sun-kissed fields.” says ChatGPT if I force it to be a little…

Today’s curve is the beautiful Bezier curve. A series of linear interpolations between the coordinates of control points describe a Bezier curve. So, I created a simple tool in Grasshopper called Bezier Function Extractor to experiment with this elegant construction. In the linear form (degree 1) the linear interpolation between 2 points (P1 and P2). The point at parameter t (0<= t <= 1); Q = tP1 + (1-t)P2. In the second degree, we need three points (P1, P2, and…

This week’s fractal is the famous Dragon Curve. Dragon Curve exhibits self-similarity, meaning parts of the curve resemble the overall shape, regardless of scale. It’s fascinating because a relatively simple construction process generates a complex and visually captivating fractal pattern. The Dragon Curve is often used to demonstrate fractal properties in mathematics and is popular in recreational mathematics due to its intricate and beautiful patterns. It has applications in computer graphics and is interesting in studying chaos theory, self-similarity, and…

Here is a simple pavilion design I call the Turtle Pavilion. It was exceptionally easy. The planar shapes placed on the sphere continue to be planar after the ellipsoidal deformations. I was amazed when I first noticed this, for some reason. With Grasshopper’s Facet Dome component, we can panel spheres as we desire. When we deform these panels in the X, Y, and Z directions, they continue to remain planar. After deformation, we can create the desired macro forms by…

The Polyhedra Unroller with Flaps is a simple tool I developed for the obvious purpose. It picks any polyhedra (closed polysurface) from the user and unrolls it flat on the XY plane. This part is easy because a short Python script is sufficient. The important function of the script is the generation of the production drawings from the unrolled net. It means, the generation of the flaps. Here, the continuous lines represent the cutting paths and the dashed lines represent…

The Weaire-Phelan structure is an optimal solution to the problem of partitioning space into equal volumes with the least surface area. Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan discovered it in 1993. This structure gained attention due to its efficiency in filling space, offering a configuration that achieves a more balanced distribution of volume and surface area compared to other known structures at the time. Here is my model for the Weaire-Phelan space-filling structure. The Weaire-Phelan structure consists of two different shapes:…

In this study, I explore Cesaro Fractal, generated by Grasshopper. Usually, it is not possible to code recursive algorithms in Grasshopper. With the help of the Anemone add-on, these fractal curves are easy to model. I studied similar fractal algorithms here before. This one is very similar to the Koch’s snowflake. The only difference (as far as I understood) is the side of the spikes. Koch’s Snowflake generates triangular spikes pointing to the outside of the polygon. Cesaro Fractal does…