ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO
AIR 2014
ALGORITHMIC SKETCHBOOK
TONY YU
CONTENTS Week 01 04 Week 02 07 Week 03 10 Week 04 20 Week 05 26 Week 06 36 Week 07 42 Week 08 43 Week 09 45 Week 11 48 Week 12 56
01 Lofting Curves shape + lofting options
Loft Option - Developable offered an interesting compound of surfaces
04
CONTOUR Y DIRECTION
CONTOUR Z DIRECTION
Normal Loft
Developable Loft
IDONTKNOWITFAILED Failed loftting of contours
HEXACITY Base
HEXACITY
XY Plane Scaling with Distance
HEXACITY
XY Plane Scaling with Distance Z Plane Scaling with Distance Y Contours divided with extruded hexagon geometry oriented along division points.
05
HEXAPLOSION
Oriented Orient XY Plane Scaling with Distance Z Plane Scaling with Distance This came out as a mistake, ‘Orient’ command’s resulting planes were plugged into another Orient definition. Further experiment with the division points turned planes were used as tangents, resulting in the orientation of the extrusions
DOMINOS?
Z Contours Orient Experimented with Greater Than and Lesser Than with Culling to divide contour lengths into 3 for greater control over Curve Division Further experiment with using different vectors and the division points as the tangents for forming Planes.
DOMINOS Previous results too crowded, added Random Number Generators while splitting the group of Divided Planes into 5 groups for variety. Variables compiled: Contour Lengths to group Amount of Divided Points Randomness + Amount
06
02
ASX STOCK VALUES
Excel data to Grasshopper through gHowl. Very inefficient creation of points
...to Geodesic Curves
Curves Starting
Mesh 2
Loft
Lofted Geodesic
Mesh
Point Intersect
LINE
REPRESENTING DATA
Points to Tanget Planes Random Line generation 07
SPLIT BOX
Bounding Box Split
ORIENT EXTRUSIONS
Project initial points Vectors from two points Orient geometry; randomly rotated Extrusion with Vectors
VORONOIS
OCTREE
Populate Geometry
Populate Geometry
Variety of expressions of dataExperimenting with definitions, going through various ways to achieve the same thing
SECTIONED FABRICATION LAYOUT
08
DRIFTWOOD Solid Smoother Mesh Contoured
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03
DATA STRUCTURES
BASIC GEODESIC SHIFT
3D
AN EXPLORATION OF DATA STRUCTURES
SIMPLIFY
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PATTERNING
FAILED HEXAGON PATTERNING
Too complex, gave up
Initial
SIMPLE TRIANGULATION
It works?
Surface Test
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PATTERNING
AN EXPLORATION OF LIST STRUCTURES
Fail
Fail
Success
SPIKES
Grid Planar Offset Centroid Group and Line
FURTHER PATTERNING
AN EXPLORATION OF (WRONG) LIST STRUCTURES AND RANDOMIZATION 12
KNOW I DON’T
FURTHE R PANEL LING
FAILED
STAIRS?
Orient on randomized data Scale NU
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FURTHER PANELLING
AN EXPLORATION OF DATA STRUCTURES THROUGH BOX MORPH
Attempt of:
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STILL NOT PERFECT
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LINES
Failed Surface Remap
LINES II
Failed Surface Remap
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17
18
Failed
HEX
H e x a g o n a l S u r f a c e Remap
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04
RECURSIVE ALGORITHMS FRACTAL SUBDIVISION
INITIAL ATTEMPT
SECOND ATTEMPT
Inverted
INITIAL
Data structure fails at higher repetitions Stagger Process: Wrong
SECOND ATTEMPT
Magnetic Field Problem with creating triangles Triangles fail at higher repetitions
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So close...
SNOWFLAKES Offset seemed to work
FLAT CITY
Snowflake extruded via point extractor
Fixing the Snowflake:
Requires a way to discretely generate triangles Perhaps surface subdivision would work better 21
FRACTAL CITY 1 CRASHED MY COMPUTER. THRICE
Morphed geometry to surface (Rectangle) Fractal process generated by Random Number Divisions too high, failed to compute
FRACTAL CITY 2 DIDN’T CRASH MY COMPUTER Less iterations: split it up One seed controls all
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RECURSIVE SUBDIVISION: LAGI SITE Area centroid to form lines Split and random cull Repeat
set light Forgot to . to invisible pretty... ally re V-ray is
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CONTEMPLATION
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05
CASE STUDY 2 AND L-SYSTEMS FUN
BASIC START
GRAPH MAPPING: INTERSECTION, Z AXIS, LENGTH
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MAPPING X Y
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MAPPING POINT LOCATIONS
SIMPLE CURVE MAPPING
At this point, it was quite funny how simple it could have been, yet this definitely does not give the same amount of control as using graph mappers, it is much much simpler.
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REVERSE ENGINEERING The bulk of this exercise was in just allocating the necessary curves, and then adjusting the graphs to attain a shape, this process would be hard to simplify due to there being nothing that actually drives the orientation of the spikes, meaning this manual way was the only possible approach. In hindsight, disregarding the spikes would have been okay, but the fidelity of this concept is what spurred on an interest in being able to manage complexity.
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L-SYSTEMS
For future possible application of the Rabbit Plugin in the future, this week I looked a bit at L-systems and played around with it. This experiment was an attempt at recreating a Hansmeyer project using L-systems
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L-systems were explored purely because they looked fun. However ultimtely they did not relate to lead to anything progressive due to how closed off the field is. L-systems have one purpose, and that purpose is isolated within its Grasshopper tab, meaning it was hard to find ways to incorporate it into our direction towards curve manipulation. L-systems were used however to explore ideas for the Spine because it’s so easy to experiment with. 31
L-SYSTEMS 101:
COOL
BUT STUPID STUFF
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33
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HANSMEYER L-SYSTEM - RECREATION Loft those Random Lines While this wasn’t used in anyway, the idea of the lofts came back again in the way of a stretch of fabric that could be an idea.
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06
36
ITERATION DEFINITIONS
& PROPOSAL FORMULATION
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Not all iterations were used so group member’s work could be included.
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THE TOWER One application of the pattern. Interesting spatial qualities underneath, possibility of energy generation at the top. Sculptural qualities, though only from some angles. Red/White contrast just looks cool.
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TOWERS? The Hansmeyer lofts make a return.
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Trimming complexity:
To deal with the amount of clipping and floating elements introduced by this algorithm (the tower), a series of definitions were introduced to get rid of curves that would prove troublesome: -Repeatedly self looping -Too short -Doesn’t touch the ground
PROTOTYPE 1:
Simple orientation along a curve.
Piping added along with the development of the physical prototype for energy generating considerations.
PROTOTYPE 2:
Self fixing constructable module
Definition tunes itself to its own parameters, fail-proof. Controllable parameters: Panel lengths, sizes Extension of the back of the main panel Rotary angles Side panels (auto adjusts)
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07
DESIGN PROPOSAL LOGIC
Base curve + Circulation
Contouring
Exploding Variation of The Tower definition to make it more variable and workable across a wider area, bounding boxes decide the areas that actually interact
Culling Uses the culling process of The Tower The problem with the definition used for the spine so far is that it only works individually, this guarantees maximum fidelity and control, but at the same time, means that each curve needs to be controlled separately for their own effects. This will hopefully be OUTPUT resolved in the weeks to come.
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Algorithm Design
Slowly moving on, week 8 revolved around the consideration of the brief and the site, and how the design would work with it. The major developments were the creation of modules which would do all the functions envisioned by the design proposal. The site is to form the curves, and such, algorithmic modules that could carry out those functions were made: All the algorithms follow the same input output logic: curves are input, and they’re altered around contextual data.
08
Modules
Push & Pull from/to Curve
Envisioned this module to be of use when dealing with circulation, to create openings etc.
Line Push/Pull This module shifts objects away or towards a line. Uses for this were in creating openings through the curves for views, and keeping geometry within the site
Extensive Elevation/Recession Used to operate internally on the curves, to drop them or raise them. Conceived to be used to generate curves at the right level for seating etc.
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Point pull/push The most important module, points are great, points are diverse. Points could be interpreted as the centre for spaces, and this module allowed the generation of space.
Explosion Algorithm
Adapted Tower definition from previous weeks, the logic behind this algorithm is that it explodes an input curve to create dramatic forms, in accordance to where an overlaying curve sits on/near it. The point of this definition was to create interesting 3D form from 2D curves.
The expression that persevered through to the end was a simple x^#/y, which controlled the type of curves. This expression resulted in explosions like parabolas, which seemed structurally more sound than anything unbraced. The geometry generated went on to reflect this idea of chaos vs. order, due to its tendency for tangled messes below and control at the top.
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09
STEP BACK SPINE 2.0
A step in the wrong direction, this spine was immensely more complicated than it needed to be and was overall very unorganized when propogated along curves.
Abstracted Rabbit Curves
Discussed Next
The premise of this spine was that there would be three levels to the design. After rotations to achieve the wrapping effect, the spine would be generated through varying random processes, for a transition from chaos to order. To the right is the continuation of the spine, in use with the generated curves, the result was not satisfactory.
Ran through the modules with spine propogated
This did however inform several ideas of what was to come. This transitional idea was adapted to the proposal of representing the complexity of the metaphysical.
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RABBIT Excitable Cell Simulation
Rabbit was used, as discussed in the journal, to establish some form of relationship to the context. The first part of the algorithm establishes that agents are to propagate out from a point along a series of ‘excitement’ states: this was used to simulate water and wind.
Wind Simulation + Buildings
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Python Script - Curve Creation
Closest point tracker then provided curves. This was one of the abstraction steps unfortunately taken due to the inability to bridge the cells to curves.
Mapping the Base: Chaos
Rabbit was very unco-operative. Starting off as a agents of chaos: mapping water, roads, buildings and human circulation, the forms produced were quite uninspiring. Top left is what it was simplified too, and that resulted in the arrangements shown on the left. Despite starting idealogies being to encompass much more, the end result, while an appropriate and very fitting result, was driven by much less.
Python Abstraction
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11
DESIGN
SPINE 3.0
Integrating the new design intent: chaos to order, this spine was created. The idea behind this spine was to reflect chaos via random generation.
PART I - LEVEL ESTABLISHMENT & CURVE DIVISION The first step of the algorithm establishes the three tiers, from there: 1- Spine split to a graphically mapped spread of parametized lengths 2- First level of randomness introduced, depends on the base tier -Randomizes lengths for variety in fin sizes
2 1
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B A
A B
B
PART II - FIN CREATION
Second step of the algorithm generates the things, again with varying randomness levels mapped to each tier. 1- Fins rotated 2- Smallest fin size set (this size determines the highest level) -Random numbers, as lengths generated via a deviation calculation -Back Fin (B) and Front Fin (A) generated separately 3- Shrunk to avoid clipping
A
A B
B
A
A B
B A
This makes up the main assemblage of the spine. -Differing lengths and sizes convey disorder -Rotary aspect keeps coherency
A B A
B
3
2
1
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PART III- SUBSTRUCTURE GENERATION
Planar evaluation to generate the substructure, which is a square. This square is then stretched to form what is in the design to represent the PVC cladded steel RHS.
PART IV - 3D
Giving the members depth + configuring the levels for transparencies
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Various effects generated: Objectively, the spine does not need to be in effect from chaos to order: the tiers determine this and thus can have a spine of completely one aesthetic.
Reverse Chaos to Order - Medium Randomness
All Chaos - Medium Randomness
All Order
Tier 2 Dominant - Minimum Order - Substructure emphasized
Spine used in the Design: Chaos to Order: 3 Tiers - Medium-High Randomness
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EXPERIMENTATION
Formal Test Comparative Calculations
Spine algorithm to test one representative curve
One spine was generated only due to how much strain it puts on the machine. This spine then attested to the functional and possible spatial experiences for a tested dimension. The Comparative Calculations then estimated the rest of the design based on the single spine. The Formal test was only to visualize the spine
FORMAL TEST
Simple lofting component that gave thickness to the curves. This same component was used in the fabrication process to fabricate the curve geometry with thickness to represent the spine.
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COMPARATIVE CALCULATIONS -THREE TIERS Interested in the functional aspect: -Lengths -Fin sizes -Energy Generated
This then was evaluated on a qualitative level as well with reference to the single curve.
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Four sets of explosions Followed by going through the various modules to generate space, circulation and introducing the idea of growth, all through curve manipulation
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DESIGN GENERATION
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12
ANALYSIS + FABRICATION
EVALUATION
Diagrammatic analysis of the elements to determine their function amidst all the geometry allowed the detailed controlling of the design. In the future, it would make for easier testing if this definition could be expanded to be more than just feedback, but editable feedback which could override the input, however, this constitutes a feedback loop. Maybe other technology would do the trick.
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
The first structural analysis was not this algorithm, but not much was changed. This algorithm was still manually adjusted to ‘kind-of’ reach a low deflection rate: not very computational at all. CHS and RHS proved to be the most useful given some experimentation. Tests were not conducted to test which kind of profile, though this would be possible by just introducing a list item algorithm to cycle through the profiles. This algorithm formed the basis for the true structural analysis shown later, taking the idea of the spines within the system supporting other spines.
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JOINT ANALYSIS Extracting necessary data for construction, in the case of these joints, various angles were derived:
C
B
A - From the horizontal B - From the previous section C - Rotation from the prior section
A
B
C
A
Algorithm for testing
Text-tagged for reference
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FABRICATION
Altered definition from the experimentation phase to just divide up the loft to allow for unrolling.
Fabrication File
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Paper Cut Fabrication - Site Model
Prototyping - 2mm Perspex Laser Cut
AFTER FINAL PRESENTATIONS: STRUCTURAL RESOLUTION
Galapagos ran for 16 hours straight. System self re-arranging itself to find the optimal combination of spines that support each other in the system. 16 HOURS
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Thanks for sticking around for this mess
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