The design of Chinese window lattices named “ice-ray” is one of the classic studies of Shape Grammars. It is an old and good example of algorithmic design. George Stiny explained their geometric construction based on the parametric Shape Grammars approach. He explained shape rules and…

In order to start creating recursive algorithms in Grasshopper, I finally managed to run Hoopsnake, a special component developed by Yiannis Chatzikonstantinou. This will help me develop parametric models that include loops. The fundamental experiment here shows a surface subdivision based on iterations. We should…

This is another starting point for pattern generation study in a dataflow environment. I tried to implement the parquet deformation of Islamic patterns in Grasshopper. I studied Hankin’s method of Islamic Pattern generation. Then I tried to simulate his process beginning with basic regular tiling…

This study includes three main topics related to the basics of Grasshopper. The first one is the surface subdivision, the parametric definition of a surface component, that is, in this case, a simple pyramidal object. The second thing is the associative behavior of surface components…

Information Age has been transforming architecture, provoking its theoretical and methodological foundations. We might call this as a paradigm shift or not; it’s obvious that contemporary research fields and built practices lead architectural design into a certain revolution. Mainstream schools of design education are becoming…

A previous work showed a method to create interlocking structures to be created without boolean operations. This time, a small addition is made to create waffle objects using two surfaces, one is the top surface, and the other is the bottom. It was a small…

This was a design competition of a precast concrete roof system. My design proposal was a modular and variable structure for İstanbul’s old bus station, converted to art galleries. However, this project was developed purely by hand-sketches, I’m planning to create an envelope of alternatives…

The regular component design technique can be further improved by adding several manipulations. The purpose of this study was to create a surface component that reacts to an inherent parameter (actually a geodesic curve on the surface). However, within the process of parametric modeling, diverse…

This was a couple of months ago, Nilüfer Kozikoğlu (TUŞPA Architecture) has offered a design for a competition, the new TV Tower in İstanbul. Her design intention was mainly focused on the spatial qualities of the observation decks and the visual interpretations on the overall shape…

A Moebius strip, also known as a Moebius band, is a fascinating mathematical object and a type of non-orientable surface. It was discovered independently by the German mathematicians August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing in the 19th century. To visualize a Moebius strip, imagine…

This is a basic formation of component-based design in a dataflow environment. A double-curved surface is subdivided and re-constructed using straight sections. Parametric model of a surface construction by variable components. The main data list of subsurfaces are distributed into four distinct lists, that will…

Design computing in architecture is evolved enough to form a more spread out advance, instead of being an alternative way of thinking and practising. Contemporary architectural practice is beginning to push forward such a transformation. This also effects architectural education, that is beginning to focus…

One of the most popular shapes in topology studies is the one-edge, one-face Moebius strip. Here is a basic definition that generates Moebius-like lofted surfaces. I say Moebius-like because, in Grasshopper, Rhino, or any NURBS surface method, I couldn’t manage to model this shape in…

Here are some basic references to Grasshopper’s handling of objects. As the most powerful and intuitive part of such Visual Programming Languages is the focus of dataflow, the critical part of it’s education lies at the fundamentals of data tree manipulations. Designers using these tools…

This was an interesting challenge for me to find out if an architect can use Visual Programming Languages (VPL’s) also for graphical purposes? Now, I would say “not exactly” because this definition took much time than I expected. The aim was to create an algorithm…

I developed this code 13 years ago while learning the fundamentals of Visual Programming in Grasshopper. I was studying the ways of NURBS curve geometry. The animation shows the construction process of several Bezier Curves. In 2024, I optimized the code and added the thickness….

The cellular canopy is an anonymous tutorial on the history recording capability of Rhino. I’ve been using a “pedagogical” version of this tutorial as an educational tool on the introduction to Grasshopper and Parametric Modeling for architects. The interesting thing with such exercises is they…

There are a couple of experiments in different schools about organizing free-form surfaces (walls here) with a composition of modular elements (bricks). Even though they created robots to make such brick walls, I still couldn’t understand why. Although creating a parametric model that calculates the…

Inspired by Andru Pavlov’s design, I used a curve to accomplish grid tearing. It’s straightforward, and from an educational perspective, this exercise includes several potentials on vector arithmetics and graph manipulation techniques. As a design domain, this definition stresses the use of associative entities in…

This was my first serious Grasshopper study. In 2009, I decided to attend a design contest for a campus entrance. Of course, the jury didn’t know that the design resulted from a parametric model. I have called this Parametric Entrance since then. The starting point…