It was the 2008, eCAADe Presentation at Antwerp together with Birgül Çolakoğlu and Serkan Uysal. This paper presents a student work developed in the Introduction to Computational Design graduate course titled “Designing the Design” at Yildiz Technical University. The course focuses on the use of algorithms as design tools, rather than coding experiments. The course runs parallel to the shape grammar course. There, we study the basic concepts of computation through visual design exercises. So, the shape grammar course teaches rule-based logic, algorithmic thinking, and a formal approach to design. Thus, in this particular course, Islamic star patterns depict a variety of geometrical structures and constraints of Euclidean shapes. The presented work named PatGen: Islamic Star Pattern Generator is developed by Serkan Uysal as the final project for the above briefly explained courses.

Computational design education encourages design students to improve their “competitive edge” by cross-training in computational science and arts. The course presented in this paper emphasizes that computational thinking is not only programming but rather conceptualizing that operates in the multiple layers of abstraction simultaneously. It points out that computational thinking is abstract, involves problem-solving, and is a contemporary design skill. It explores new ways of teaching computational design to students. Here is the full paper of PatGen for further information:

Here is the MaxScript file if you want to test (compatible with Max 2011, the menu is in Turkish):

Just select “Run script” from the MaxScript menu and point to the file. The code belongs to 2012 and it might not work anymore (note in 2023).