PARAMETRIC BRIDGE
Demetriou Theodora, Hadjigeorgiou Pantelis, Tymviou Ifigenia - Spring Semester 2021/22 - Dr. Odysseas Kontovourkis
A bridge created entirely by the use of Grasshopper implementing minimal surfaces to produce multiple results. We had to provide flexibility and multiple variations while doing minimal changes. The course was divided into two parts . The first part included the creation of a minimal surface that was our unit. The second stage was the parametric creation of a bridge that included the unit and is capable to change the whole bridge shape as well as the unit shape and provide limitless variations. We got familiar with the powder printer and produced our final mockup with it.
Keywords
Rhino, Grasshopper, Render, Powder printer, Minimal Surface, Parametric design, Computer-Aided Design
Meeks Rosenberg minimal surface was chosen and had to be simulated through grasshopper. Using principles of how the surface was created we managed to recreate it using Grasshopper in 4 steps.
For the second stage we created an algorithm for a bridge with characteristics of a view point and two different paths to cross from the one side to the other. When the algorithm was completed we used each minimal surface and added it to the design, thus having multiple bridge iterations and multiple minimal surfaces giving us flexibility to alter the result.
The general concept was to create a bridge which consists of two different paths from one side to the other while creating a new third path that leads to the highest point of the bridge and creates a viewpoint. On the algorithm, we created the bridge through the basics of a cuboid divided horizontally into 2 parts. Recalling points from the bottom, top, and middle of the cuboid gave as the flexibility to differentiate the height of our bridge accordingly. To achieve our desirable shape we had to take control of the hard and straight surfaces and distinguish cuboids that each unit would be later added. In addition, with the control of the individual points we now had the chance to control the elasticity of the structure and achieve the end result.
Couple of the proposed different Systems that include differentiation in the thickness, curvature, size, and height.
Our next objective was to get familiar with the powder printer and print a part of the bridge that best shows different shapes of the units being created from the bridge.
Visualizations of the Parametric Bridge with different units showing the flexibility it offers.
