Material Constraints_Dylan Davis

Using nature as precedent, Bio-mimicry can take advantage of material properties to create a form specifically about function.  An example is the catenary arc found in a hanging chain.  The curve created at the chain’s rest point minimizes the potential energy throughout, and in opposition (compression) can create a stable form.

The Galapagos component in Grasshopper provides means to finding the catenary curve.  By applying a set of constraints to the component, it will apply evolutionary algorithms to create a Fitness Value.  This value then represents the ideal properties to create the catenary arch.

In lab, we used a series of catenary arches created by Grasshopper’s Galapagos component to model after a pavilion at Stuttgart University.  The pavilion exploited the elastic nature of wood to bend the material into weaving arches.  To create these arches in class, we started with the Torus solid in Rhino.   Then we extracted a series of curves and used the dispatch component to divide the curves into two separate lists.  Then by dividing the curves into points, PolyLine component can create new curves that connect to specific points (items) in each curve (list).  This allowed for the weaving form because one list gave the PolyLine points: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, and another list gave the opposite points.  Then the Fillet component was used to remove the sharp edges of the lines.  These new series of curves can be used in rhino to create surfaces extruded around a central point.