While preparing the Geometry yearbook, I picked these four patterns from the 4th week’s assignment, “Seamless Patterns”. I still love to see how these patterns are generated by students with very limited knowledge of computers and geometry. There are other posts about this assignment here and here. Below are four from this semester; Ceren Atik Zeynep Dutipek Ceren Atik Meltem Bayrak

Unlike the classical Pattern Deformations assignment discussed here and here, this time we asked Design Geometry students in 2014 to explore deformations by using referential systems as a secondary space. We wanted them to create variations on a regular pattern only by deforming its underpinning lattice. Below are three examples of this alternative assignment. I’m thinking about improving this exercise to three dimensions, seems possible to implement by using the cage […]

Here is a phrase from Deleuze’s famous article “Difference and Repetition”. It clarifies my mind while thinking about patterns, boundaries, rules, and most importantly, the idea and techniques of deformation in contemporary architectural geometry. … On the other hand, generality belongs to the order of laws. However, law determines only the resemblance of the subjects ruled by it, along with their equivalence to terms which it designates. Far from grounding […]

Below is some student works from this year’s Architectural Geometry / Pattern Deformations assignment. Students developed their own pattern deformation sequences mostly on regular tessellations. Based on the classical Parquet Deformation exercise, we tried to implement a rule-based approach in order to explore emergent patterns. The exercise seems to reveal endless improvisation potential. The exercise requires students to design a pattern deformation on a 28cm by 28cm area. It should […]

I at the Center is a multiple-axes vertex deformation based on a quadrangular hyperframe, designed by David Oleson at the studio of William Huff in 1964. Below, you see the original drawing and my Grasshopper animation based on a single-point attractor, creating the “I” wherever it is. It was a pleasure to read and repeat this deformation, which is a nice exercise in data tree operations and also one of the […]

This is a small project of a facade study in Grasshopper, designed by KAF Architecture, and built in 2013 at Altunizade, İstanbul. KAF Architecture designed the facade with varying holes with an image of a forest. The image was supposed to generate the holes. At first, the office tried to do this manually, placing circular holes on the image in AutoCAD. However, after several hours, they thought that they needed […]

Below is a classical Truchet Patterns example we used to discuss in design computing class. Now, we can create a much faster and cleaner definition using the newly added Array component. The new version of Grasshopper brings several important features: Patch surfaces and date/time components. We used to implement a VB component to create simple clocks that measure temporal operations in Grasshopper. Parsing and executing MusicXML and related applications were […]

The exploration of the concept of “patronus – pattern” in architecture is presented in a captivating and insightful manner. This issue of AD, although older, continues to hold relevance in the contemporary realm of architectural design, covering various aspects of the conception and utilization of patterns. It’s comprehensive analysis and thought-provoking discourse shed light on the intricate relationship between patterns and architectural form, unveiling the potential for pattern-based design approaches […]

The Parquet Deformation exercise is generally originated with William Huff. Huff conducted it at several schools of architecture since the 1960s. Huff defines the exercise as rooted in two analytical disciplines; monohedral tilings in geometry, and the continuous deformations in biological morphology. This is generally exemplified by D’Arcy Thompson’s and Albrecht Dürer’s studies. One of the student’s works of Huff, Trifoliolate is a single-axis, single-prototile hexagonal parquet deformation. It was […]

After explaining the beautiful parquet deformations of William Huff, Douglas Hofstadter states his opinions about the algorithmic potentials of those patterns. Although it was 30 years ago, Hofstadter points out a fundamental discussion related to today’s parametric design tools; …for a machine to make simple variants of a given design, it must possess an algorithm for making that design which has explicit parameters; those parameters are then modifiable, as with […]

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 […]

I finally installed Firefly, it immediately powers Grasshopper up with beautifully smart components, even if you don’t have Arduino it is still very useful. If you want to give it a try, first you have to install a small tool free from www.reactivision.com in order to send data to Firefly. After that, you may download and install firefly from their website, www.fireflyexperiments.com. It was the real-time inputs, my first interest. […]

These are examples of 2.5D exercises in the design geometry course in my freshman year of architecture. We asked students to create extruded or referenced solids referenced from their previous exercise of pattern deformations, (examples are here and here). We also started to inject some of the most used concepts of design computing here, by perceiving each tessellation cell as the variation of a predefined algorithm, such as a relationship […]

In this exercise, we asked students to develop a method to produce custom tessellations. This is based on the analysis of what is called “Islamic patterns”. We have discussed Eric Brough‘s famous book “Islamic Geometric Patterns”, regarding geometric relationships and linear connectivities via underlying tessellations (such as regular square and hexagonal). Thus, this geometry and drawing exercise is called “Seamless Patterns” in the Design Geometry course at İstanbul Bilgi University. […]

Last week, the first-year architectural geometry course was about pattern deformations. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with 2d drawing, transformation, and control point editing commands while trying to design a deformation. After studying regular and semi-regular tessellations of the plane, they are expected to develop reasoning on the rule-based and iterative processes. This also constructed an underpinning for Basic Design‘s “Metamorphosis” study, where they have discussed more conceptual frameworks […]

This is not to explain the method of the Parquet Deformation but to see the potential. After we’ve studied regular, semi-regular, dual, and truncated tessellations with students, the Architectural Geometry course expects them to develop a Parquet Deformation handmade such as those shown below. I call them Parquet Deformation handmade. Because they are manually designed but drawn using traditional CAD. The samples you see below are from this website. It […]