Donatien Delmon

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Building’s appearance

Here are two options for the parametric building I have designed. The main parameters I decided to change are the radius of the base polygon and the number of segements of the base polygon.

Radius = 60, Number of segments = 4
Radius = 60, Number of segments = 4
Radius = 80, Number of segments = 3
Radius = 80, Number of segments = 3

However, these are not the only parameters that can be changed. All the red boxes in my Grasshopper Graph workspace are sliders that can be used to change different parameters:

  • the building’s height
  • the floors’ height
  • the top and intermediate profiles rotation
  • the top and mid height profiles size scale factor

Other factors can also be changed but I have decided not to touch them:

  • the second floor location to allow to have an atrium in the building
  • the location of the intermediate profiles
  • the filet radius which allows to have a more rounded shape rather than a very sharp one

Grasshopper Graph workspace

The original profile block allows to choose the basic shape that will then define the building’s general appearance.

Original form block
Original form block

All the intermediate profiles have a similar code block.

Intermediate profile block
Intermediate profile block
Top profial block
Top profial block

Once we choose the height of each floors, the following block allows to create the correct number of floors depending on the height of the building.

Block allowing to create the floors
Block allowing to create the floors

Once we have all these basic blocks, we are allowed to create the surface of the building based on our bottom, top and intermediate profiles. Then, the volume and surfaces we can be easily computed.

Just for fun

I was marked by a building back when I lived in Qatar so I used the same principles to be able to recreate this building with Grasshopper.

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