Grasshopper and Rhino Journal

Architecture Design Studio Three: Air

RHINO AND GRASSHOPPER

Michael J Stephenson 329784

week 1 - E.O.I. Case for Innovation : Architecture as a Discourse - Rhino Webinar defi nition

ns - Parts 2 and 3

Example of what goes wrong when selecting curves individually and not through autosort,

in this case whilst using the loft command.

The Rhino tutorials for this week introduce the most fundamental idea in Architecture,

which is space, and how we enclose/address that space. Whilst rudimentry, the simple

task of creating a defi ned space is the very fi rst step to creating any building.

Rotate AXIS

‘Mushroom’

EX-LAB BEND

GRASSHOPPER DEFINITIONS

Rotate 3D

week 2 - E.O.I Case for Innovation : Computation in Architecture - EX LAB BEND TUTORIAL

L

Bezier Curves:

Standard (Above)

Loft Added (Right)

week 2 - E.O.I Case for Innovation : Computation in Architecture - EX LAB BEND TUTORIAL

With Parametric Modelling comes a

entirely new method of design. The ability

to make countless iterations which can be

almost infi nite in their degrees apart, is made

relatively extremely fast and easy compared

to other methods (such as hand drawings or

computerized models). When used correctly

with the appropriate structure present in

programs such as ‘Grasshopper’, the slight

change of a single variable can drastically alter

the entire design. The scope possible from

such actions is infi nite and of a completely new

genesis compared to iterations by hand (or by

singular steps through computer modelling).

The designer can now experiment at his or

her fl eeting desire without having to invest

hours of work into an iteration which has no

guarantee of success. Instead, they can make a

couple of quick changes to variables concerning

things as simple as magnitude, or dimensional

plane, or the relationship between two discrete

components, and end up with a form which is

entirely unexpected.

As such, the use of Parametric Design should

not inherently present the risk of restricting the

creativity of the designer (due to the softwares

pre supposed ideas of the design process),

but rather present them with so much creative

freedom that the risk involved relates to having

too many ideas. Creative constraints will be

self-imposed by the designer, allowing for very

personal designs to be created (perhaps more

individual than those possible with pencil and

paper).

RESPONSE TO LECTURE

L

Rotation on Axis - 1

Rotation on Axis - 2

The only difference between these two forms,

is the ‘t’ input on the PERP FRAME node.

week 3 - E.O.I Case for Innovation : Parametric Design - EX LAB BEND TUTORIAL

These are the results from the defi nitions on ‘Extracting Iso curves from a surface’. Creating a

curve in rhino, referencing said curve in Grasshopper and then Lofting gave rise to the above

form. Extracting the curves created the mesh like network of curves on the surface.

I then added a Sum Surfaces component into Grasshopper which has the inputs for a start and

end curve. I used the U direction output and V direction ouputs from the ISO component as these

inputs. With multiple start and end curves, all of which were in pairs, the resulting form has the

same basic structure as the original surface, but is now a series of surfaces.

I would put the form on the right down as one of the unexpected results one can get from

parametric operations. It is totally arbitrary, but none the less looks very interesting... a lot like a

turbine of sorts.


SECTIONING A SURFACE WITH HORIZONTAL PLANES

Grasshopper Defi nition I realise now after completing this excercise, that

did not fully understand what I was doing at the ti

Retrospectively I see that this Grasshopper defi nit

is for creating uniform sections within a specifi c

boundary (something I should have grasped from

the title alone). This would be particulary useful

when it comes to creating section elevations for a

2D presentation, or more importantly, for allowing

detailed analysis of the model’s form during the

design process.

I

me.

tion

m

a

g


This is a very useful

defi nition to know.

It allows you to

turn your 3D model

(a solid) into a

bounding box, and

then project planes

onto it. The projected

planes can then be

used as sectional

cuts through your

model.

SECTIONING A SOLID USING MOVABLE POINT AND VARIABLE PLANE ROTATIONS

ORIENT OBJECTS AROUND A CIRCLE

Iteration 1 Ite

3D SERIES ARRAY MOVE Defi nition.

This script allows us to generate a huge

number of repeating forms very ‘cheaply’

(low use of Grasshopper components).

Ensuring to select the ‘Graft’ mode on the

output from the ‘MOVE’ component, we can

plug the results from a single dimensional

move into a second dimension, and again

into a third.

It seems easily possible that we could

add more steps into the script so that

every repeating move is slightly different...

perhaps based on a random number

generator. We could design a script that

adds a different direction onto every

second repeat, which then goes onto start

its own series array. I imagine this would

be something like rampant cell mutation,

growing exponentially and out of control.

This defi nition allows us to create repeating copies of an object (in this case a curve) around a

circle. We have variables such as the radius of the circle and the number of repeats (planes).

Simple manipulation of the radius can give very dynamic results.

ration 2

week 4 - E.O.I. Research Project : CUT (Develop) - MATRIX

CUT RESEARCH PROJECT: Inputs, Associations, Outputs.

INPUTS

ASSOCIATION TYPE‘MATHS FUNCTION’

OUTP

UTS

ARBI

TRAR

Y PO

INTS

CURV

E INT

ERSE

CTS

NORM

AL TO

SUR

FACE

PLA

NE

DATA DRIVENGEOMETRY

DATA DRIVENCOMPONENTS

DATA DRIVENLINES

DATA DRIVENEXTRUSION

DATA DRIVEN ROTATION

DATA DRIVENSHADING

week 4 - E.O.I. Research Project : CUT (Develop) - EX LAB BEND TUTORIAL

CREATE A 3D GRID OF POINTS FROM REFERRED GEOMETRY

The defi nition for creating a 3D grid based from a single referenced point in Rhino.

The defi nition for creating a 3D grid based from a single referenced surface in Rhino.

I was unable to get this script to work correctly. I had to reference the surface a second

time as the base geometry for the MOVE component to acheive the following form.

MOVE A GRID OF POINTS USING A MATHEMATICAL FUNCTION

Iteration 1

MOVE A GRID OF POINTS USING GRAPHS


Iteration 2


MOVE A GRID OF POINTS USING A RANDOM FUNCTION

Here, I used the arbitrary curve

from the previous excercise

and added the random function

defi nition to it. I used a high

multiplication for the amplitude

of the random number

generator, so it resulted in

quite a tall form. I then baked

the resultant points into Rhino

and used an autosort ‘curve

from points grid’ command to

create a curve. I extruded the

curve in one direction, then

again in a different direction,

creating the 3D form seen here.


Parametric Brick Wall

VILLA SAVOYE In this weeks EX LAB: BEND tutorial, there was an example of how to build a parametric brick wall, using

a referenced surface, referenced geometry and the image sampler associative technique. The grasshopper

defi nition is as follows.

The Divide Surface component splits our referenced surface into a series of division points and UV coordinates,

the amount of which we can control by the U and V inputs. We reparametricise the surface to ensure all data is

in the same domain. The division points output we Flatten into a list of data and then designate each point as a XY

plane.

We feed the UV coordinates into a Flatten component and then into the Image Sampler. Using an image of Le

Corbusier’s Villa Savoye in Poissy and setting the Image Sampler to brightness, we get a list of values which

describe the intensity of brightness in the image. The image becomes black and white to give a clear indication of

the values (white is 100% intensity and black is 0%). These values become the angle of rotation in the Plane Rotate

Component. The XY planes become the base planes in the Plane Rotate component. Each plane’s original division

point matches up with a UV coordinate that was fed into the image sampler, so every plane has it’s own angle of

rotation.

The rotated planes become the input for the ‘Final’ plane in the Orient component. The orient component takes a

base geometry and places it onto whatever plane(s) we reference into the component. We reference a geometry

built in Rhino to become the base geometry and use the list of rotated planes as our ‘Final’ planes. The orient

component also needs to know which plane the base geometry is orientated in, so we pull a point from the

geometry and affi x a plane to it (using the box corners component). We also cull both the division point and UV

point lists with the same pattern so that the bricks are offset and take on a typical brick wall arrangement. The

cull pattern must be identical so that the matching UV and Division point pairs are culled in those pairs.

We can adjust the resolution of the image by reducing the size of the

referenced geometry, and increasing the amount of division points on

the surface. Using a mesh instead of a solid geometry also frees up

memory and is quicker to work with.

week 5 - E.O.I. Research Project : CUT (Develop)

REVERSE ENGINEERING CASE STUDY - ‘ARTICULATED CLOUD’

Children’s Museum of PittsburghNed Kahn in collaboration with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Santa Monica, California

For my Reverse Engineering Case Study project, I chose ‘Articulated Cloud’ shown here on this spread. A.C. interacts directly with its environment through its unique hanging tiles. These tiles ripple in the wind much like grass ripples in a field. What is interesting, is that A.C. uses this effect to mimic the form of clouds in the sky, hence its name. It is even more interesting to note however, that this only really works when viewing a snapshot of the buil-ing, like the one on this page. In real life, the rippling effect is very fast and is continious and is not remotely like the slow moving if not virtually still clouds above it.

Still, this idea of a design directly displaying the effects of its environment is strong, both visually and in terms of meaning. The design for the Wyndham Gateway could benefit greatly from a similar concept. Perhaps the design is built in such a way so that the cars

moving past the design are the environmental influence that is being reflected.

Images via LMS. Intially from Christine Killory, and René Davids, ‘Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’, in Detail in Process. 1st edn, Asbuilt (New York: Princeton Architectural Press,

2008), pp. 112 - 117



Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

‘Articulated Cloud’ has a very strong resemblance to the possible forms that can come out of image sampling, so to try

and reverse engineer this project using Grasshopper, I thought I would start with my Villa Savoye defi nition.

I realise that ‘Articulated Cloud’ doesnt actually move

the tiles to resemble clouds on purpose, but rather

lets them ripple in the wind. I really only needed

to recreate the geometry of the hanging tiles, but I

thought that if I designed Articulated Cloud, I would

need to demonstrate how it could look in action before

it was actually built, so using the image sampler here

would help demonstrate its active form.

On left is the image I knocked up in Photoshop to

become the clouds.



Children’s Museum of PittsburghInitially, the results of this defi nition were unusable.

Whilst the image was coming up, the

tiles were rotating on the wrong axis,

(see TOP view above). The tiles on

‘Articulated Cloud’ rotate/swing around a

horizontal axis.

The tiles were rotating around the

z-axis due to my use of the Plane Rotate

component which is set to the z-axis.

So I altered the defi nition to use the

Rotate Axis component, which allowed

the choice of axis.

I used a Line between Two Points component to draw a line between two parallel, in-line points on the referenced

geometry, and then used this line as the axis of rotation for the planes....



Children’s Museum of PittsburghUnfortunately the results of this defi nition were also unusable.

The tiles were rotating around a single horizontal axis, and not on their own individual axis’. As the angle

increased, the tiles moved away from the surface.



Children’s Museum of PittsburghI edited the defi nition, defi ning an axis that was placed between two points on the already ORIENTATED tile

geometry. I then used the list of axis’ as the input for the Rotate Axis component, and the list of orientated tiles for

the geometry input. I could now input the list from the image sampler as the angle, and the tiles would now rotate

around their own individual matched axis.

Notice now how the tiles are rotating on a horizontal axis and not a vertical one.



Children’s Museum of PittsburghThis problem of defi ning the axis of rotation was the hardest obstacle to overcome. Now all I had to do was simply

place this axis at the top of each tile, and then duplicate the screen of tiles four times as per the real ‘Articulated

Cloud’. Below is the section of the defi nition that takes the average of two corner points to create one in the center.

I use this defi nition on the top four corners of the tile geometry and then feed it in to a line component to create a

center line across the top of the tile. This becomes the axis of rotation, so that the tile is ‘hanging’ from this axis as

per ‘Articulated Cloud’.

Hanging tiles in Articulated Cloud. Hanging tiles in Grasshopper.

This section of defi nition is used to create a duplicate of the screen 90 degrees offset from the original. The result

is fed into a copy of the same script to obtain a copy at 180 degrees, and then again to obtain one at 270 degrees.

This totals four screens enclosing a sqaure center.

This section counters the 90 degree

rotation of the entire screen’s effect on

the tile’s rotation. Without this section,

the screen to the left or right of the last

screen will exhibit the negative of the

image on the current screen.

The two screen perpendicular to the

original need their own script after

this point for orientating the tiles

rotation, as otherwise they will not

be rotating perpendicular the their

surfaces’ ‘normal’.

REVE

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Pro

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UT

(D

eve

lop

)This is the entire Grasshopper Defi nition.

Every component is adjustable except the

surface (immediately on right), which is

still under construction. At the moment this

defi nition still relies on referencing the

surface from Rhino.

week 5 : E.O.I. Research Project - CUT (Develop)


Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Above: Iteration # 1. The tiles rotate around

their centre, and the image is inverse on

perpendicular sides.

Left: Iteration # 3. Data driven shading is

used to actually colour the cloud in addition

to rotation being used to creat the image. This

was scrapped as it did not refl ect the way in

which Articulated Cloud operates (rotation

only).

Above left and right:

Iteration # 2. Tiles now

rotate from an axis at their

top so that they ‘hang’.

Image is uniform across all

walls.

Left: Iteration # 4. Additional

vertical components added

to furthur capture the

geometry of A.C.

Grasshopper and Rhino Journal

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