This is a robotic fabrication student project developed in the Digital Fabrication elective course in 2018. This group of students experimented with the hot wire cutting of EPS foam. Their aim was to create curved surfaces by using a straight wire. Design research started with a literature study of precedents. Then, after several cutting experiments with the available hotwire cutter tool, they gained better control over the technology. However, they […]

The “Common-Action Wall” Project of the POTplus Design Research Group, founded by Fulya Akipek and Tuğrul Yazar from BİLGİ Faculty of Architecture, got an honorable mention in the category of “Completed Projects/Small Projects” in “S.ARCH 2018 Project Award”. For detailed information about the “Common-Action Walls” Project, please click here and here For detailed information about “S.ARCH: The 5th International Conference on Architecture & Built Environment + AWARDs”, please click here. Members of the Jury: Toyo Ito, Toyo Ito & Associates, […]

In 2017, during the 4th International Architecture Biennial of Antalya, we constructed the Common-action Wall in Karaalioğlu Park. We designed this architectural prototype as a wall that enables the growth and harvesting of edible plants for park users. To facilitate plant growth and ensure sunlight access, as well as to direct rainwater toward the plants, we conducted extensive studies on minimal surfaces. Ultimately, we found that the gyroid form met […]

This exercise was a popular one in the 2015 and 2016 Architectural Geometry classes. Recently, I found these images of student works. However, some of the students’ names are missing (please e-mail me if one of them is yours). I love this exercise because it is a quick and efficient way of explaining and experimenting with the workflow of digital to physical production. In this particular exercise, students created Rhino […]

Some facade studies as early sketches of an architectural project; all of them are utilizing a similar Grasshopper approach. My favorite “Graph Mapper” generates the overall gridal deformation, then some of them are drawing geometry for membranes, while others are generated to be realized from sheet metal. Hopefully, one or two of these could be further studied: I hope I’ll be able to improve these sketches and publish their definitions […]

Design Computing classes conducted a “voluntary” assignment; a “contouring” fabrication, that outputs physical prototypes of the previous parametric wall assignment. They worked very well with the corrugated cardboard in fact and extended the simple contouring exercise in Rhinoceros into a design study of patterning and transparency. It seems that corrugated cardboard is a perfect material to study the shift from digital to the material. Below are some of the student works […]

Vitra Contemporary Architecture Series #3, Life Sciences Project by Fulya Akipek and Tuğrul Yazar. The installation is a part of the exhibition called “Dreams to Realities” at İstanbul Modern Art Museum, curated by Şebnem Yalınay Çinici. Filika coded our design, an algorithm that generates rhizomatic structures of typography, that include words of children about “education”. Here is a preview image: A video is posted here. While systems aim to educate […]

Here is one of the student’s works from this semester’s parametric modeling elective course. We refer the first couple of hours in molding of concrete as its “alive” phase. During this phase, due to various reasons concrete sweats, respires and in a way contains an inner circulation of forces. This phase ends when concrete dries and hardens, creating a kind of its fossil. Air bubbles are frozen inside and some even are seeable from on […]

In Design Computing class, we have discussed how the parametric wall study (here) can be implemented to describe regular curved surfaces such as domes. This led us to well-known design compositions named Muqarnas. Previously we have studied how a parametric muqarnas definition could be in Grasshopper (here). After a couple of weeks of study, students started to capture the idea of generating seamless surfaces out of a few components. Of […]

Here are some student works about the parametric wall exercise I briefly explained here along with a Grasshopper implementation of the core wall definition. Students are expected to design their own brick and compose it in a way that generates a seamless wall surface. Ömer Kirazoğlu Osman Can Sözüneri Seda Öznal (slightly out of requirement but very interesting) Adnan Faysal Altunbozar Özgüç Bertuğ Çapunaman

This is a first-year design computing problem we studied last month. It is a simple parametric wall exercise introduced by Mete Tüneri. Creating a simple definition of a building brick to be placed on a straight path, and then manipulating the path to reform different variations of the brick. This aims to introduce a fundamental concept of associativity in contemporary architectural geometry and design computing. Students are then encouraged to […]

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 […]

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 exact locations of bricks, seems very easy at first sight, there came severe problems to solve in order to achieve a correct layout without using […]

Recording History in Rhinoceros3D has interesting potential. You might utilize it in the process of design exploration. We’ll try to show its concept and limitations; First, build two surfaces; one is planar at the world XY plane, and the other represents the “initial” form of your design. Put another surface on the planar one, as if it’s an ideal “component” of the finished geometric composition. Activate the “Record History” button […]