Back to the basics. I finally had time to test the vector fields components in Grasshopper. It was a couple of updates ago, a new tool group emerged in the vector tab, introducing different types of vector fields to users. Then, these fields could be merged to form more complex effects. However, I created a very simple example of how we can use those components to distort a system (such […]

This started as a pragmatist search of the term “Objectile”. I was curious about the real meaning of it, while the famous 1995 works of Bernard Cache were the thing I was looking for as images. I found two things about this word. One of them is the reproductions and online marketing of those famous carved panels (I was searching for), and while the second thing was a very interesting […]

This was last year, Salih Küçüktuna had organized a one-day exercise at the first-year Basic Design studio. It was a quite successful event, both emphasizing the fundamentals of contemporary design ideas and also being very pedagogical regarding the method. We asked students to bring blank regular business cards and staples to the studio. The main idea was to design a component and multiply it to create a structure that spans […]

This is the second year we are experimenting with a beautiful exercise with the Computation-based Basic Design 1 students at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture. The exercise is based on the ideas of Benay Gürsoy and Şebnem Yalınay, who are among the pioneers of this studio. The exercise is about the design and production of new year’s lanterns to be lit in the campus garden. Here are a few […]

In this exercise, Grasshopper draws various Archimedean spirals. It constructs polar points and maps them onto a range of angles and a number of points. The spiral’s turning speed is determined by the constant “a,” while the constant “n” gives unique names to the spirals by raising the angle variable to the power of 1/n. Wolfram Mathworld names the spiral with n = -2 as lituus, n = -1 as […]

Can we go back to the beginnings of algorithmic design tools, when it was still as simple as possible (not to the binary level of course)? Most of the theorists agree about the fact that contemporary parametric design tools sometimes provide needlessly many possibilities that suppress the designer’s own creativity. The Voronoi component in Grasshopper was one of the cult examples of that (mentioned here). Throughout this blog, I always […]

These are examples of 2.5D exercises in the design geometry course in my freshman year of architecture. We asked students to create extruded or referenced solids referenced from their previous exercise of pattern deformations, (examples are here and here). We also started to inject some of the most used concepts of design computing here, by perceiving each tessellation cell as the variation of a predefined algorithm, such as a relationship […]

Here is an interesting phrase from Jill Larkin and Herbert Simon’s famous article. It is “Why A Diagram (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words”; The phrase from the article We consider external problem representations of two kinds. Both of which use a set of symbolic expressions to define the problem. The fundamental difference between our diagrammatic and sentinential representations is that the diagrammatic representation preserves explicitly the information about the topological […]

Last year, I posted a way to create a Grasshopper command button in Rhino 4 (here). As the scripting possibilities increase in Rhino 5, the new tab feature can be used to put them together. I’ve made 4 of the most used platforms in a tab named “Scripting”. Here is how I did it; Use right-click on the empty area to open the above menu and select “new tab” to […]

I’ve been searching for a method to study the Voronoi subdivision in order to manipulate it. There are well-known algorithms for that. But I thought it would be better if I use a projective approach just as I did in studying hyperbolic space (here). This is the metaphor of inflating balloons. However, I inflated cones instead of spheres. This way, it became possible to modify the algorithm. So I was […]

Today’s Architectural Geometry course was about platonic solids and different attractor objects in introducing component-based design systems. Benay’s idea was both pedagogical and interesting to test in Grasshopper. I searched for the most fundamental type of attractor solid in creating a composition such as this; There is a subdivided sphere and an attractor sphere. The pull component works great here. You may use multiple attractor solids or different shapes such […]

In this exercise, we asked students to develop a method to produce custom tessellations. This is based on the analysis of what is called “Islamic patterns”. We have discussed Eric Brough‘s famous book “Islamic Geometric Patterns”, regarding geometric relationships and linear connectivities via underlying tessellations (such as regular square and hexagonal). Thus, this geometry and drawing exercise is called “Seamless Patterns” in the Design Geometry course at İstanbul Bilgi University. […]

The first-year Architectural Geometry course includes Euclidean constructions as a study of associative geometry. We have exercised the below questions to study this topic. These are three mutually tangent circles, that can be drawn using only a compass and ruler, without built-in tangency functions in Rhino. Such exercises are expected to improve students’ reasoning. We believe architectural geometry education should encourage a conception that allows students to think about what […]

This is my first try at DesignScript syntax. It is quite easy to understand and on-screen reference help seems to work well. It creates regular AutoCAD entities when you run. One of the most important concepts of this language is said to be a kind of associativity that updates objects when any parameter is changed while the script is running. However such associativity is not possible after the script has […]

Last week, the first-year architectural geometry course was about pattern deformations. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with 2d drawing, transformation, and control point editing commands while trying to design a deformation. After studying regular and semi-regular tessellations of the plane, they are expected to develop reasoning on the rule-based and iterative processes. This also constructed an underpinning for Basic Design‘s “Metamorphosis” study, where they have discussed more conceptual frameworks […]

The Möbius strip is a famous mathematical object. Although being in three-dimensional space, it is a closed-loop of only one surface and only one edge. This quality alone makes the object an interesting study for computational design. I aimed to create an object to test our new CNC machine. I wanted to test the egg-crate interlocking fabrication method. This is why the study became a Möbius strip fabrication. Apart from […]

This is not to explain the method of the Parquet Deformation but to see the potential. After we’ve studied regular, semi-regular, dual, and truncated tessellations with students, the Architectural Geometry course expects them to develop a Parquet Deformation handmade such as those shown below. I call them Parquet Deformation handmade. Because they are manually designed but drawn using traditional CAD. The samples you see below are from this website. It […]