#design-education

I’m looking forward to teaching Design Mathematics, a compulsory course in Istanbul Bilgi University’s graduate program in Architectural Design. The course was previously offered as an elective in the undergraduate program (here). Over time, I have also shared parts of the course content on the blog, particularly the sections on linear algebra and Rhino Python. Unfortunately, though, I have never quite managed to turn this material into the book project I had envisioned. Perhaps this semester I’ll finally make it…

This is the latest reel video of the Online Virtual Studio (OVS) project. We conducted it together with Oğulcan Üneşi and Serkan Uysal since 2022. We tried to develop a tool for online and blended education in architectural studios. The tool has specific features tailored for design studios. İstanbul Bilgi University Scientific Research Fund partially supported this project. This video showcases the latest toolset OVS provided. The tool takes some interaction concepts from gaming and incorporates them into the needs…

Data structures and data matching principles are important to be able to design with Grasshopper. In this tutorial, I show data matching procedures with arithmetic operations. Then I repeat them in the production of geometric objects. I think it should be easier to use this programming language once the students understand the basic principles. Therefore it would be easier to design with it. Sometimes the design process of these diagrams proceeds from left to right (by induction) but sometimes it…

There are cognitive, technological, and pedagogical ideas and experimental studies on architectural design education in virtual environments. In the existing literature; new software tools were developed, add-ons to existing software were developed, or software prototypes were developed and tested on various platforms such as game engines. In the distance education model, currently, there is no stand-alone software, specifically developed for the needs of architectural design studios. Similarly, there is no generally accepted pedagogical approach in this field yet. Virtual Environments…

Fields is a native group of components available since the very early version of Grasshopper. In today’s Design Computing class, we studied it again with the first-year design students. I studied these interesting and beautiful shapes earlier here, here, here, and here. The one you see below is a short in-class exercise about vector fields. The exercise aims to show the Grasshopper’s capabilities in form-finding studies via Field Lines. The definition starts with the generation of a set of random…

We continue with the Grasshopper for Beginners series by explaining Rhino+Gh workflow principles. What does GH add to Rhino‘s standard drawing and modeling functions? To put the question differently, what does GH do that conventional modeling programs, such as Rhino, can’t? What is the difference and relationship between Rhino+Gh? Let’s take an example to answer these questions. Our example is about parametrically describing a surface model and deriving its alternatives. First, we will try to create a surface using only…

Let’s continue the Grasshopper for Beginners series. We start with the traditional “Hello World!” displayed on the Rhino screen: Placing the Components In most CAD programs, the text creation function, which is the equivalent of the Text command, is performed by a component called Text Tag (Tag) in GH. The Text Tag (Tag) component is in the Dimension panel under the Display tab. If you’re not comfortable with tabs and panels yet, you can revisit this section from the beginning….

In this 5th episode of Grasshopper for Beginners, the interface continued by exploring the interface of Grasshopper. With the help of these two methods (tabs and search box), we can find the components. We can select them with the left click and place them on the canvas with the left click again. Now take random components and try to place them on the canvas with both methods. Therefore, components with different functions are the building blocks of GH definitions. The…

Below are some of the student works from the 2018 course: Design Mathematics. The final project of the course was about experimenting the designerly creativity. This included utilizing the mathematical concepts and objects studied throughout the semester. This was a rather open-ended homework question. But in the following years, I am not planning to repeat it. Because it becomes difficult to assess the learning outcome from open-ended homework within such a strict course content. Ayşenur Gençsoy experimented with the tool…

In Design Mathematics 2019 course, Berke Çelik designed the Enneper Slide in his final project. The Enneper surface is an interesting case since it is a minimal surface with potential variations for spatial implementations. Berke used Rhino Math and Grasshopper / Weaverbird to generate his design. I think the Enneper Slide, as a minimal surface, is an exciting start for a Design Mathematics student work. But as always, much more could have been studied. Unfortunately, Rhino Math is no longer…