Utilizing “Force Field” components of Grasshopper to show my students how it is easy to develop flexible surfaces in design. The classical parametric canopy design is introduced in this video: According to Wikipedia; In vector calculus, a vector field is an assignment of a vector to each point in a subset of space.[1] A vector field in the plane, for instance, can be visualized as a collection of arrows with […]

The A-Chord folding structure was developed and constructed for the World Wood Day 2015 event in İstanbul. The structure had fifty wooden struts of 4 cm X 4cm with changing heights from 200 cm to 230 cm. Two struts joined with a hinge enabled the folding motion of the structure. Thus, the nearby unit is folding in the opposite direction. The Grasshopper model generated all construction details and drawings automatically. As a result, […]

Based on this post, the problem of modeling tree-like fractal shapes is still a good question for the early years of computational design education. Last time, I used Rhino’s macro to study these fractal trees in an “impossibly” limited interface. But this time I used a VB.net script. Here is the code inside of the VB.net component: Here are the inputs. x is the number of iterations. The Crv input is […]

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 […]

Further studying iteration in Grasshopper, this time, inspired by George Stiny’s “Chinese Ice-Ray Lattice” subdivisions with Aneome, instead of the Hoopsnake add-on I tried in the previous work. As you know, loops add various ways of usage to Grasshopper. In future versions, loops may cease to be just an add-on and become native components of Grasshopper. Until then, loop plugins like Anemone take on this task. In the example here, […]

About to finish the well-defined section of this year’s Parametric Modeling course, here are the mid-term questions I’ve asked; First question checks if the curve < > point conversions are well understood in Grasshopper. Evaluating a parametric curve and generating the closest point from another curve. This also requires a basic understanding of the use of the Grasshopper interface. The second question was testing a basic and classical use of […]

This is a great site, explaining very familiar concepts of dataflow diagrams for designers firsthand. Leveling is an interesting chapter there, I’m not sure if it completely fits with the use of “Clusters” in Grasshopper but it is obvious that the complex systems should be well organized not only to be perceptually “better” ones but also to develop a way to use parts of definitions again and again in different situations. […]

Site models could be calculated for laser cutting easily using Grasshopper’s native components. This definition was a practical one we created in the Parametric Modeling course to see that Grasshopper could also be utilized to prepare fabrication documents not generating design outcomes. However, this definition is a draft one and could be improved more by putting labels inside of each cut piece, trimming the edges properly and so on. It is […]

This is a useful tip both to solve some of the problems with custom surface subdivisions, and to explain the uses of parametric surface evaluations (the U, V, W thing) and the practical use of data lists. Step 1: Put your points inside 0,0,0 and 1,1,0 so that the resulting coordinates can easily be converted to U and Vs. In the example, we are putting some random points between 0,0 and […]

Image Sampler of Grasshopper saves life if used responsibly. While explaining the component to this year’s ARCH362 students, I used this simple example that generates numbers from a beautiful picture of “metal foam” and uses it to generate lots of circles: Metal foams are lightweight but strong materials, that are typically produced by injecting gas into the liquid metal. Of course, it becomes easier to teach something when you manage […]

Finally, I had a chance to test and understand the force fields tab in Grasshopper. It creates a continuous vector field inside of a given boundary. Therefore, it is very useful if you want to create an effect of the continuous presence of a force, such as gravity. The Wikipedia definition of a vector field is very basic and understandable: In vector calculus and physics, a vector field is an assignment of a vector to each point […]

Another tutorial we’ve analysed together with ARCH362 students last week was the one that mimics Zaha Hadid’s Kartal Masterplan. Although the project of Zaha Hadid was pretty much controversial among Turkey’s architectural critics (and most people also), we’re not dealing with how successful or “ugly” it is, but the most simple version of the technique that generated such forms. We have a term “çakma” in Turkish that means “conscious imitation, possibly […]

This year’s Parametric Modeling class starts with some of the very basic use of Grasshopper concepts. This definition is a practical start-up of using force fields in the architectural design process. However it does not compute any physical phenomena (such as circulation of people, wind, or anything else), but shows a simple way to tell Grasshopper about walls that push the field, and points that pull the field. I’ll post more […]

After this tutorial, we are still working on the basic ways of making contouring easier in Grasshopper. This is the updated version of the 2-year-old contouring definition in Grasshopper, with some additional functionality. It produces a flat and properly numbered output for each section. However, it does not include optimized nesting to reduce material use. Here is the Grasshopper definition (don’t left click, use right click and “save” option) [GHX: 0.9.0076] and the […]

Gaudi-like columns are generated as part of the “boolean” classes of Design Computing. The most inspiring, beautiful, and ugly variations are often done by boolean intersection, as this operation is the surprising one of the three brothers. While the class deals with the concept of emergence once again via solid and void relationships, constructive solid modeling techniques are introduced. Although it is widely used as a spatial analysis approach in […]

This video is dedicated to Design Computing and Basic Design students, who “contour” and then move each section by hand in Rhino. They do it individually to fabricate their laser-cut homework from cardboard. It could also be a macro but I prefer this. Because it does not work in all conditions. Maybe you should orient your contouring results similar to those shown in the video, and then use the shear command […]

This is a project proposal designed at the workshop organized together with Simge Esin Orhun and Fulya Akipek as part of the International Wood Day Exhibition in İstanbul. This time, the final Grasshopper definition is created “after” some experiments with physical models. Here is the first model showing the idea inspired by the folding chairs studied here. I realized that in order to make a “wall” instead of a chair, it would […]