The interlocking frame structures represent a quintessential example of parametric design since very old times. More recently, they gained widespread attention through the Metropol Parasol in Seville, captivating architects and designers. I’ve extensively explored these structures on this blog, attempting various methods like manual slit drawing and solid/region boolean operations. My latest iteration aimed for greater simplicity and adaptability on complex surfaces. I call this new version Interlocking Pavilion. The […]

I studied the interlocking joint details in Grasshopper here and here. This time, the interlocking structures were revisited with a cleaner code and an in-depth explanation. I believe that this is a very good educational exercise for learning the potential of the native Grasshopper components. The Preparations The Region Difference (RDiff) component is used to create the interlocking detail of a surface that is contoured with bi-directional spacing. In the […]

A very hard-working group from this year’s Computation-based Basic Design Studio produced this amazing structure. They joined 8mm cnc-cut wooden plates using puzzle-like cuts and tightened them with strings. A good example of group coordination produced this result in two days. Below are some photos of the prototype and the project phases: Final prototype. Interlocking Structure The joint details and the first experiments. *Students: Aslı Naz Çolakoğlu, Aybike Yılmaz, Bilge Kardelen […]

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 modification at the beginning; to replace the “extrude” component with an “edge surface” component. But the interlocking details are now different at each intersection, so […]

It has been a tough problem for me, for the last two days. A parametric model of an interlocking structure (sometimes also called egg-crate, waffle, or contouring structure) can be created easily in Grasshopper using a Contour component. In addition, you need a couple of list management operations and a boolean (or region) difference event. However, Rhino and Grasshopper are very slow at calculating boolean differences on both solids and […]

Holger Strøm designed the famous IQlight system in 1973. After more than 50 years, it is still a popular, innovative, and smart design. The IQlight is a self-assembly lamp composed of interlocking quadrilaterals. By utilizing polyhedral geometry, you can generate various shapes and sizes. I created a model of one of the most common IQlight designs, fitting it onto the Catalan solid known as the rhombic triacontahedron. This solid is […]

In this short trial, I will be testing the Open Nest add-on for Grasshopper. The add-on is available in food4rhino as of 2023. For this test, I will use the latest exercise on Interlocking structures I experimented with here. Nesting is an important topic, especially in today’s economic crisis. It reduces the waste materials on laser-cut plates. First, I should re-visit the interlocking structures Grasshopper definition here. The below image […]

Here, our aim is to generate a 3D Voronoi puzzle ready for 3D printing. Below is the step-by-step explanation of this Grasshopper algorithm: The 3D Voronoi Puzzle Step number one is the application we saw earlier in the Voronoi diagrams. We obtain random polyhedra within a given volume quickly. The basic features we need for the puzzle are: (1) When we solve the puzzle the final volume should be a […]

Kündekâri is an old woodworking technique, composed of interlocking parts without any glue or nail. It is primarily used in wooden doors and minbers inside Mosques. The interlocking system makes the whole structure very durable. I tried to model this technique using the Voronoi pattern, naming it Voronoi Kündekâri. Below you see a typical example of Kündekâri pieces and the resulting pattern. The interesting part of the Grasshopper model is […]

The following posts will include some of the final projects, completed in Basic Design Studio, İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture in 2013. Below, you see the amazing work of group 1, an interlocking system that presents diversity and structural integrity at the same time. This project initiated a hard discussion among the final jury. I think the interesting geometric underlying, great precision for a hand-made computer modeling of each […]

The Möbius strip is a famous mathematical object. Although being in three-dimensional space, it is a closed-loop of only one surface and only one edge. This quality alone makes the object an interesting study for computational design. I aimed to create an object to test our new CNC machine. I wanted to test the egg-crate interlocking fabrication method. This is why the study became a Möbius strip fabrication. Apart from […]

Here I am testing the nesting. RhinoNest is a plug-in for Rhino and a set of components for Grasshopper. I tested it using my old interlocking fabrication definition (here) and (here). I downloaded RhinoNest from this website and installed it. However, I sounded a little complicated at first sight. Then I found a sample definition (here) and modified it a little bit to meet my purposes. First of all, I added orientation components […]

After a reviewing a short story of digital architecture from Branko Kolarevic, we looked at the roots of the theory and the concepts derived from it such as digital fabrication, building information modeling and parametric modeling. After a short brief, we’ve discussed about the final projects. Next week, we’ll start studying final projects and start to look at individual problems developed from them. Final submissions will highly be related with […]

ARCH 362: PARAMETRIC MODELING: Undergraduate Elective Course at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture student exercise: Deniz Yazıcı (YTU/CADU 2008) COURSE BRIEF (2011) Digital paradigm transferred parametric modeling as an alternative conception in architecture, emphasizing a focal shift from the singularity of design artifacts to the explicit and generative process of designing. While architects start to experience the construction of algorithms, computers played an increasingly important role in the adaptation of […]