Study 6 – Charles Street Car Park

Architecture by Allies and Morrison

Script and methodology:

Parameter Setup: Using number sliders, the following are defined:

• Square panel dimension
• Panel array amounts
• Extent of opening
• Randomizer seed

Panel Array: With panel amounts determined, the base geometries are drawn.

Establish Panel Opening: By inspection, it is clear the openings extend towards the center of each panel. As such, a displaced point from the panel centroid and the midpoint of one edge define a vector for the opening. The edge is then scaled down to avoid overlap, and moved along this vector by a user-defined amount.

Model Surfaces: Lastly, the panel edges and their end points provide a basis for surfaces.

Design Challenges: Four Color Theorem
The simplicity of the script was cut short when the resulting panels lacked the appropriate distribution. When a random listing is used, invariably, clusters of panels with the same opening direction are modeled. To properly recreate the facade, each panel’s direction is dependent on the panels around it. With four possible directions (up, down, left, right), a case of the Four Color Theorem is created — each panel must be surrounded by unique panels, with only four options to choose from.
This solution is ongoing.

Results: