Emma Lippmann Algorithmic Sketchbook

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•A lg o r i t h m i c S k e tc h b oo kemm A l i p pm A n n542535 , Sem eS t e r 1 , 2014

Stud io ten, brAdley el iAS

& hASlett groundS

2 •Algorithmic Sketchbook

• Norma l Loft

• Stra igh t Loft

• Tigh t Loft

• Deve lopab le Loft

• Loose Loft

•lo f t i n g op t i o n Sl o f t i n g cu r v eS

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• Stra igh t Loft• Or ig ina l Loft • 1st Al tera t i on

• 2nd Al tera t i on • 3rd Al tera t i on • 4th Al tera t i on • 5th Al tera t i on

• Deve lopab le Loft

•When I began testing out the different loft options I thought that there wasn’t much of a different between them, but after playing around with

them I understood that there are distinct differences, and what these differences were. After this I thought I’d have a go at making a particular

kind of shape by altering curves and lofting options, I chose a wave. I looked at a few different lofting options to see which would help me best

resemble this shape and opted in the end to go with normal. Finding this shape wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be and although it might

not look exactly like a wave, I was pretty happy with the result in the end.

•A lt e r i n g cu r v eSl o f t i n g cu r v eS


•t r Am pu n c t u A l i t yr e p r eS e n t i n g d At A

I used the data from tram punctuality - the percentage of trams that were late, the depot the

were going to, the month (counting backwards from February) - in order to create curves that

I then lofted into a surface. After putting in the data I clustered the data I knew I wouldn’t need

to change in order to make everything a little more compact and organised.

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•f i n d i n g c u r v eSg r A S S h o p p e r e x p e r i m e n t A t i o n

Using the curves I’d made with the data, I explored a few of the rhino tools and attempted to find new curves within the form. I started doing

this by creating a series of vertices from the surface but explored a few other ways to do it, for example dividing the surface and creating

curves from these divisions.


•bmW pA v i l i o nc r e A t i n g gr i d S h e l l S

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•comme n t A r y

I wanted to try emulate the shape of the BMW

Bubble Pavilion, a precedent I looked at in my

journal. I did this by Boolean Unioning two ellipses

and creating curves from the shape I found.

I ended up having a lot of trouble with the way

that the point lists were forming from the curves.

I tried shifting, reversing and altering the lists

but nothing was seeming to work so I decided to

build the curves again from scratch.

The second time around was much easier with the

new curves and I was able to follow the tutorial

and make a series of arches and then loft these

arches.

I used the techniques I’d learnt in the tutorial to

shift to increase the number of the divisions in the

curves, shift around point lists and create a grid

shell on my surface.


•f i e l d fu n d A m e n t A l Su S i n g f i e l d S

These are my explorations after watching the Field Fundamentals tutorial. I used these investigations to create

a basic understanding of the effects of positive and negative charges and how they may interact with each other

when there is more than one point charge. I also started looking at the effects of increasing and decreasing the

decay.

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•evA lu A t i n g f i e l d Su S i n g f i e l d S

Now having a better understanding of field charges I felt confident to experiment a little more with this next

activity. This time I played a little more with the effects of charge and decay to look at the effects they had on

merged fields. I also began exploring the effects of other charges such as the line charge.

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•evA lu A t i n g f i e l d S co n t i n u e du S i n g f i e l d S

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•gr A p h mA p p i n ge x p lo r i n g gr A p h S

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•gr A p h t y p eSe x p lo r i n g gr A p h S

I continued exploring the effects of things such as decay but took my explorations even further this time. I looked

into all different kinds of graph mappers and found that it was possible to achieve extremely different results

when using different graph mappers, something that may prove useful in the future. I again found that I was

often able to predict the result judging by the appearance of the map before I’d even plugged in the component.

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•ch A n g i n g p A r A m e t e r St h e gr i d S h e l l

When I first began playing with the gridshell definition I started with by playing just with the numbers of

division points and adjusting them in small increments, which actually produced some quite varying results.

Although some made it into my matrix there were too many to put all of them and above are a few of the results

that didn’t make it into my journal.

Division points = 14 Division points = 20 Division points = 38

Division points = 41 Division points = 44

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I had found that just changing the parameters of the definition points, i.e. the number of division points and the

number of times the list was shifted, was not enough to break the definition so I explored other possibilities. I

essentially looked for any component that took 3 inputs like the arc did and replaced the arc with it. I also looked

at reversing the list of points. Above are the grasshopper definitions and results.

•ch A n g i n g i n p u t S


•t h e c A n t o n t oWe rr e v e r S e en g i n e e r i n g

Reverse engineering the Canton Tower was a lengthy, but not impossible, process. The best lesson I learnt by

doing this in a group was that there seems to always be more than one way to achieve a result. Quite often when

one person would use one component to say sort lines to be culled, I or another group member would say, ‘oh, you

could also do it this way’. In the end we managed to quite successfully reverse engineer the project.

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•t h e c A n t o n t oWe r

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•t r i A n g l eSe x p lo r i n g t h e de f i n i t i o n

When playing with our reverse engineered Canton Tower definition I can see retrospectively that I, in a way,

started off with more simple explorations and moved onto more complex ones as my confidence in Grasshopper

was growing. The first modification I tested was using a triangle instead of an ellipse as an input. I then went

onto modify other inputs to push the definition into an entirely other place.

First triangle iteration Last triangle iteration

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•geo d eS i c A r c

I then tried applying what I’d learnt from Case Study 1.0 to Case Study 2.0 but attempting to loft the surface and

create overlapping geodesic arc across it. At first I was unsuccessful but, with a little perserverence, I managed

to do it successfully.

Unsuccessful attempt

Successful attempt

Geodesic arcs


•rot A t i o n , pr o j ec t i o n , v o r o n o i

By now I was feeling a lot more confident and really went all out with my next experiment, which was almost

three experiments in one. I managed to flip the tower, raise it up, project it down to the ground plain, loft walls

between the two and then cut these walls with a 3D voronoi. Although the definition is extremely long, it works.

I feel this was a really learning curve and achievement for me in my Grasshopper progress.

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•cre At i n g A de f i n i t i o nh y p e r b o l i c p A r A b A lo i d

This is the definition my group and I developed for the hyperbolic parabaloid. Unlike the other definitions it’s

not as lengthy because the concept behind it is fairly straightforward, creating curves/a curved surface using

straight lines.

Perspective view

Front view Top view Right view

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•mAk i n g p A n e l S

We then created panels using Grasshopper and unrolled them in Rhino.


•cre At i n g t h e u n d e r b e l lyS t e e l meS S

I used Grasshopper to generate the steel mesh for the underbelly. I did this by referencing in the wind blown

structure, applying points to the surface and then creating two intersecting delauney meshes from these points.

This was done on three different levels. Above is the definition and result for one level and picture right is the

entire definition which, as you can see, is fairly large.

One level definition

One level curves

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Multiple level definition


•v e r t i c A l el em e n t SS t e e l meS S

I then needed to create steel elements in the vertical plane that would run between the three levels. I did these by finding the start and end points of the curves from the three levels, randomly reducing the points and drawing curves between these points. This file was a good learning experience for me because it required very specific labelling in order to keep track of everything. I found that I labelled subsequent files much better than previous, which helped make using grasshopper a lot easier.

Vertical plane elements

Part 1 of definition

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Whole definition


•f i n A l pr o d u c tS t e e l meS S

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•gr A d i e n t gr i dt h e c A n o p y

I wanted to panel the canopy so that the panels would gradually get larger towards one end and figured I could either attempt a variable panel or a variable grid. I chose grid. To do this I first required a gradient grid which, I found surprisingly difficult to do but managed in the end with the help of the grasshopper forum.

Line grid

Line grid definition


•Ap p ly i n g t h e gr i dt h e c A n o p y

I then needed to apply the grid to my surface. I did this by project the gradient lines onto the surface and then finding the intersection points on the grid. I found this part surprisingly easy.

Line grid on surface Point grid on surface

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•mAk i n g p A n e l St h e c A n o p y

Offset panels

Definition for offset

Once I had panelled the surface using the grid I needed to great the panels for the shade, which would be offset inwards from the frame of the canopy. This took me quite a while because although I’d seen in it one of the tutorials I had to teach myself again how to offset objects on many planes at once. It also took the computer a while to process it all as it was a lot of information. Though in the end I was successful.


•f A b r i c A t i n g A mod e lt h e c A n o p y

Possibly the most difficult Grasshopper task with relation to the canopy was setting up a file to fabricate for the model. I wanted to create a file that was one piece but had gaps cut out that would represent the gaps between the sails and the canopy frame. It took me a few goes to find the right method. The definition I used in the end was actually quite simple and seemed obvious in retrospect, but they often do.

First attempt

Successful attempt

Second attempt

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Laser cut curves

Emma Lippmann Algorithmic Sketchbook

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