ARCHITECTURE STUDIO AIR ANDREA VALENZUELA 590512 STUDENT DESIGN JOURNAL STUDIO AIR APBL30048
CONTENTS
Task 1: Lofting
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Task 2: Data Entry and Representation
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Task 3: Grid Shells
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TASK 1 Lofting
Grasshopper, originally named Explicit History, is a plugin for 3D modeling program Rhinoceros. Grasshopper retains memory of several layers of history, as opposed to Rhino, which retains only one layer of historical memory: that is, implicit memory. Illustrating this is a simple loft exercise. The lofted surface in Grasshopper may be extracted and placed back into Rhino, the Grasshopper loft denoted by red colouring and Rhino by grey. Here it is shown that in grasshopper, the shape is able to be moulded by the movement of control points. The Rhino shape, however, no longer displays its control points and is unable to manipulated past this point. This is the difference between implicit and explicit history.
Loft is a variant of a wireframe volume of the 3D object. It’s developed from planar sections spaced along an approximate path. The plane serves to connect any number of curves, similar or dissimilar. In this example, three dissimilar curves labelling first, middle and last have been inputted to the loft command on grasshopper. The explicit memory function allows manipulation of this planar surface about the control points to in turn effect the shape of the original curves and the lofted plane.
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TASK 2
Data Entry and Representation
Using input data of mean monthly rainfall in Melbourne for 2014, grasshopper was able to generate a multitude of visual representations which were manipulated based on the contraints placed by myself, the designer. To allow for the creation of a planar surface, I placed the data for odd numbered months on a seperate Y coordiante value to that of the even numbered months.
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This example displays the data as a series of interconnecting quadrangle meshes. Manipulating the mesh forms is done here by simply changing the point/number input sequence on the respective quad meshes. The numbering system provides a comprehensive view of how a change in point inputs translates to a change in visible form. This exercise has served to demonstrate that the parameters of a design dictate are declared, not the form. Form is dictated by algorithmic input placed by the designer.
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TASK 2
Data Entry and Representation
2. Experimentation with curves and arcs
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3. Developed into a lofted form which displays monthly rainfall data for melbourne in 2014
4. Contoured loft form
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TASK 3
The Gridshell
The arcs that form between curve points cannot join directly to each other when the curves point sequences are not following the same direction.
Curve points connected by arcs over a lofted surface
The diagonal line effect is achieved by diplacing the arcs, in this case by a factor of 5, from either side of the control points.
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