Building on a general aim from our previous project, this study investigates a discrete design system for inter-connected spatial structures.
Most discrete design systems are based on periodic patterns (eg. orthogonal grids) and therefore allow for structures with its parts automatically forming closed cells, usually densely packed:
Other bottom-up aggregations from identical parts are often branching out into disconnected chains of parts. Apart from the bifurcation point, those “branches” don’t touch, describing an L-system with open ends similar to a tree:
Such structures allow for design flexibility, but form weak constructions when materialized. In this study design methods for modular systems are tested, that form emergent cells and thus are inter-connected constructions.
As in Branch Formations, in our previous research the discrete design tool WASP is used to generate aggregations in Grasshopper/Rhino3D.
Fox, another discrete tool for the same modeling environment, allows for realtime-feedback: When parts are being changed, the overall aggregation changes simultaneously, however the underlying algorithm is based on an L-system with limited control options. Based on Gediminas Kirdeikis’ video tutorial, an aggregation system with transformable y-shaped parts is created with the aim to find a configuration with cross-connections.
Translation into WASP with transformed part.
As indicated in the aggregation sequence graph (red lines), cells occur occasionally (marked in magenta), but only locally without further cross connections.