Connecting Points Grasshopper File

Note:Version of Grasshopper Used-(Grasshopper 0.6.0059)

This Grasshopper definition uses a grid of points to generate a series of curves that respond to an attractor point.  This definition is a great example of using really simple and basic concepts of parametrics to accomplish a more complicated goal.  Essentially, all this definition is composed of is an attractor point that adjusts the curvature of a plane and an attractor point that adjusts the radius of circles that are projected onto that surface.  The small bit of vbscript at the end is used to split the circles from the surface.

Note:Version of Grasshopper Needed-(Grasshopper 0.6.0019)

VBscript:

a = rhutil.RhinoSplitBrepFace(y, 0, x.ToArray, doc.AbsoluteTolerance)

As a bit of code, its actually not very necessary.  Does it really matter if you split the circles in grasshopper or rhino space?  In this case, not really, however its useful to know and more importantly it brings up the question of how integrated grasshopper can become with rhino.  As a tool, grasshopper can be great a modeling things really quickly and when you start to make relationships its really great at doing calculations for you.  These panels are a good example, they illustrate both a much easier way of modeling and an easier way of calculating the relationships between points.  Grasshopper presents a much clearer way for the designer to understand what the relationships are within a given project.  Given this diagrammatic way of seeing the logic behind an object, designers should begin to spend more time articulating these relationships and less time articulating the form.

The set of images at the top of the article represent an ethereal form of an object.  They show a logic, but in order for them to mean anything they need to be put within context.  The context would then generate a meaningful form.  Whether you design in grasshopper or rhino space is irrelevant as long as there is some context attached to the object.  An example with respect to this tutorial could be assigning the attractor points some sort of value, such as amount of light, pre-existing site constraints, or even something as simple as compositional logic.

-Liam Morrow

 

    Organization, the ultimate goal of architecture, is essential to coherent design.  Architecture strives for some factor that defines its conception.  Design decisions based upon an organizing principle are always stronger and easier to comprehend.

     So all this organizing is meant to achieve what?  Space, but what is that?  This word is thrown around by architects all the time, and is rarely explained in school.  Space is the sum of the experience of being at a location, based upon the organization of materials on hand.  Corbusier would say that space is about axes and how light plays off the surfaces of forms.  Both of these are incredibly important, the axis helps to understand what is being experienced and when.  An example once again from Corbusier “ Architectural buildings should not all be placed upon axes, for this would be like so many people talking at once”. 

      Another example of axis is Eisenmann’s House VI.  In this house, the axises become tools in the form making process.  The house is divided into quadrants which are further divided by intersections of marking from a set of rules, this creates new divisions.  As a tool, these intersecting zones and quadrants become very interesting when introduced in section.  House VI is an excellent example of using the axes to create interesting space without forgetting the human scale.  Its very easy for the architect to lose perspective and forget that the reason for the axis is not only for the architects organizing principles, but also for the occupants to better understand the boundaries created by the architect.

 So it really isn’t the axis that is the key, but the new boundaries that are perceived.  Space then by that definition is a boundary that the human mind can distinguish. 

-Image of City from ShiftOperations