It all started with a simple task assignment of remodeling a stadium structure based on a picture on the internet. This involved projecting points distributed equally around a 3 different circles upwards using a sinewave function to create a ripple effect. These points are then joined through a Nurbs Curve rising up from the ground bending towards the center.
This abruptly invoked an idea from our Design Director to transform a previously Massed project into a similar form, fully parametric and greatly taking advantage of the Sine/Cosine wave to bend and create oscillating waves in 3D Geometry. The following is the result of multiple data and analysis driven massing studies primarily done from paper sketches, AutoCAD drafting and SketchUP 3D modelling.
At one point, it was required that some buildings were moved slightly away from the automatic position of the Cosine wave. To do this we had to directly manipulate distribution the series of angles fed into the cosine formula to produce a less natural Cosine Wave, but which positioned the buildings at the most satisfactory positions to fulfil the design objective.
Further, the buildings towards the trough at the narrow front had to be shorter than the buildings at the opposite peak. The Cosine formula also came in handy at this point since we could subtract values from all the heights of the buildings with the highest subtraction happening towards the trough, as the lowest happening towards the peak. The subtracted values were developed from the absolute cosine of a series of angles ranging from 90 to 270. This gave us a smooth decline in the heights of the buildings.
To create the floor levels we intersected the forms with flat planes to create floor plates. Being fully parametric, the floor plates would always re-intersect with the changing form and would also report an updated value for listed areas or cumulative area. Balconies were parametrically generated along the outer edges of the floor plates. The first type of balconies was a staggered solid-glass railing form.
This was then followed by a major form modification. To create access into the courtyard, the design recommendation was to raise the base of every building using the same cosine wave language. The second type of balconies was a ripple shape across the exterior wall, but having the horizontal peaks and troughs alternate on every consecutive floor. This was again achieved using the cosine formula.
By this time the algorithm was already becoming heavy to execute continuously after the progressive modifications. The process was even slower once we tried to bake the geometry back to Revit. The other challenge was the poor graphics display of Dynamo. Zoomed in shots reveal pixelated edges and segmented edges that don’t show their true curvature of Nurbs curve edges. Getting the geometry to Revit was the only way to get better visuals because Revit has better display graphics in detail, and added shadows.
From here we decided to try the same algorithm in Rhino and Grasshopper.