Rulebuilding: A Generative Approach to Modeling Architectural Designs Using a 3-D Printer

3-D printers alter the speed, cost, complexity, and consistency with which physical architecture models can be crafted. If architects are to harness the unique abilities of this modeling process, it is necessary to find a complementary means of conceptualizing designs and generating the geometric data necessary for 3-D printing. This paper introduces a novel combination of 3-D printing and scripting through three examples of architectural surface models. In these examples, VBScript is used to write generative scripts for execution within the Rhinoceros modeling environment. The scripts produce digital geometric models which, in turn, are exported to a Z-Corp 3-D printer. The merits of this methodology are demonstrated, in one example, through models of an architectural surface composed of light-modulating conical components. The design intent in this example is a grid of responsive components which ride on a complex curved surface and steer toward a light. The written script is an explicit representation of this intention. Methods in the script use external parameters to generate a digital geometric model. The form of the subsequent printed model is calculated as a function of the initial parameters; two boundary splines and a vector indicating the orientation of the light. By varying these parameters, a set of design options can be generated and 3-D printed for comparison. The combination of scripting and 3-D printing allows complex design intentions to be managed in a concise, sharable format and modeled iteratively without manual intervention.