N-Grid

This simple tool, N-Grid resembles John Hejduk and colleagues’ famous design exercise “The Nine-Square Grid”. I developed the tool in 2009 using MaxScript.

The nine-square grid is one of the most common kit-of-parts exercises in design studios for over 50 years. To explain briefly, the nine-square grid exercise is based on transforming a nine-square grid into a series of alternatives. The nine-square grid is an open-ended educational application with a limited but flexible context. It can have infinite interpretations to meet various studio objectives. Robert Slutzky, John Hejduk, Colin Rowe, and Lee Hirsch developed the nine-square grid exercise. They are the instructors with revolutionist spirits, along with their colleagues in a short, but inspiring educational program at the Texas University School of Architecture between 1954 and 1958. Since then, numerous interpretations of this exercise have been carried on at design studios worldwide (e.g. Gür, 2003; Subotincic; 2007).

source: Hejduk, J.: 1999, The Nine-Square Problem, Education of an Architect. A Point of view The Cooper Union School of Art & Architecture 1964-1971, pp.23-38.

Here is the full paper if you want to read it. In this paper, we emphasized the digital potential of the nine-square grid exercise. As a case study of kit-of-parts conception in the studio, which is based on our experiments and observations with various interpretations. And here is the max script file if you want to try a 3x3x3 grid basic design exercise:

N-Grid is no longer supported. I didn’t test it recently, 2023. Select “Run Script” from the MaxScript menu to start the script.