Nowadays, I found myself back into traditional hand sketching. Several failed attempts on Grasshopper led me back there. NURBS (and Grasshopper) somehow limits our conception of surfaces to four-cornered (or two-directional) manifolds. Although it sounds like limiting our designs, having four-cornered component spaces has still lots of experimental fields for designers. Escher is a cult person, who transforms the euclidean coordinate system to meet his design intentions. There are lots […]

This topic of trees and recursive computing is inspired by the method shown here at the Rhino Python 101 Primer. This is a beautiful method of recursion that creates tree-like shapes, composed of arcs. I constructed these arcs by using the Arc SED (start, end, direction) method. This requires start and end points and a vector that is tangent to the arc (at the start point). Therefore, the overall look […]

Today, we’ve studied fundamentals of component-based design methods. Using curves and surfaces as starting points, we’ve experienced ways of translating those entities via design criteria based on our purposes. First, a curve is used to construct a leaf structure. We’ve experienced dispatching data lists and combining them back together. Subdividing curves into points created further entities such as vectors and planes. We used those entities as inputs of regular drawing […]

Today, we’ve discussed ways of subdividing entities to create parametric definitions. Curves can be divided into segments, creating snake-like object definitions. This exercise is important regarding the management of data. Vectors and planes are used as reference entities here. Nowadays, it became clear to me that, reference planes are very important because they both include reference points and related vectors as well. The definition studied in this post includes a curve […]

This was an interesting topic in design computing class. Geometric constructions based on strict relationships are becoming exciting in parametric modeling environments. I think muqarnas includes such a relationship. There is a primary method of modeling this shape, introduced by Mete Tüneri. His solution to a simple parametric muqarnas object includes a surface with six reference points, with two boolean differences (one cylinder and one box) creating the component. In […]

Today’s subject was closely related to the one last week; the data list and data tree management. Creating suitable data structures for our purposes is one of the tricky parts of whole Grasshopper experiments. We’ve developed a grid of objects, somehow associated with another one (a curve). Strong emphasis was on the way of thinking, getting back and forth on the process, and the re-definition of data lists. Especially, this […]

SPEC disappeared from our garden suspiciously. Hopefully, we’ve already finalized its parametric survey. Can create the original model by measuring exact corner coordinates. Then, it manipulated shape by creating diverse vectors for each shape. Emre has also tried a similar approach. Can be definition was too long, and did not use data trees, therefore it is slow. But it’s very effective at offering a solution for animation. I re-captured his […]

Here is a funny sketching system for the “SPEC” homework. [GHX: 0.8.0066] Four (or more) points are created using 2d sliders (MD slider) and decomposed these points into x,y and z numbers. Then, they are re-populated in 3d points by changing their plane. X coordinates are connected into Y, and Y coordinates are connected to Z’s. Tricky part comes then, the X number is defined by a serie of numbers started from […]

Today, we’ve studied ways of representing multiple data structures in Grasshopper. As of our last week’s experience, sometimes (most of the time actually) we’ll need to work with vast amount of data. We’ll have to control them in order to open door for further explorations. Today’s exercise was a good example of this “sustainable” process of data management. All functionality of Grasshopper is based on data matching. From short-list, long-list […]

This is the basic definition of one point attractor on a grid of points. [GHX: 0.8.0066] Here, the fundamentals of data tree matching can be studied. A hexagonal grid is exploded into points and new polygons are created there. Instead of a standard point distance relation to polygon size, this time the distance factor affects the rotational angle of these polygons. Although the structure of data trees is getting complicated, this has no […]

Maybe a huge kitsch for contemporary architecture, I know, but a good example of a fundamental problem of constructing geometric relationships. In ARCH362 today, we’ve examined the geometric modeling process that opens us to parametric relationships just by converting it into a diagram of design history. You may follow the construction of such a diagram step by step and see the possible parameters emerge from it. The only rule of […]

Whenever we try to define something suitable for our design intentions, it became somehow closely related to the design tool. The contemporary theory of computational design (or design computing) has many definitions. In this website, we look at that from the perspective of method and its theory underneath, not the tools; however, it finally comes to a point that we -again- start to talk about “tools”. Whatever, the purpose is […]

Here are some of the results of first assignment, “Reptile Skin”. Generally, we couldn’t manage to develop innovative solutions to the problem. But this became a good starting point for understanding the method of “skins of components” in contemporary digital design. Before going into any control over the flow of data, it’s hard to maintain associative geometries. We usually feel stuck within the capabilities of the single commands or procedures. […]

In recent years, computational approaches in architecture started to change the scope of the architect’s work. He/she is not any more a passive tool user instead, became a casual tool developer. Conventional CAD systems that focus on geometric representation of a designed artifact, are transforming into systems in which the design is represented as a parametric process. By increasing utilization of these systems in architectural design process, parametric modeling is integrated not only as a new medium of design representation, […]

Here are three technical tips, that might help you model in Rhinoceros faster. Please note that, in most cases, you’ll find CTRL+F1,F2,F3 and F4 very helpful in modeling and transforming objects in digital space. These key combinations will focus you on Top, Front, Left and Perspective views (maximized) respectively. Also, when you try to express your design process (especially supporting geometries) using different linetypes, it’s possible that you’ll never like those preset linetypes. By […]

That was about six months ago, our study for a design competition required a spatial allocation algorithm. An office building with a rectangular plot and a strict functional requirement forced me to the good old Voronoi diagrams, subdividing a surface. Here is the definition file: [GHX: 0.8.0066]. However, there were other design parameters such as the sunlight and orientations of each functional cell. Combining a couple of graph components helped me […]

This is the old-method Parametric Truss definition. Interestingly this quickly became a solid solution, used and taught for years. I couldn’t find a better answer yet. As Grasshopper updates, some of the components in this definition change but the overall structure remains. Subdivision of a free-form surface and addition of geometric components has, of course, a wide range of alternatives. Maybe we should combine this with different problems and solutions […]