Hello! I would like to know how to create this form by Felix Candela in Grasshopper. I’ve been trying to achieve it, but I haven’t been able to get the result. The structure is Felix Candela’s ‘El Jacaranda’
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That preview looks clean
Yep, thanks to @Rhino_Bulgaria.
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Wow, really? 
I have zero understanding of Grasshopper. 
For whom likes to know how to improve the viewport preview.
Share your custom viewport modes here - Rhino / Rhino for Windows - McNeel Forum
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Ah, you mean the graphics in the viewport. 
Your definitely look interesting with those shadow effects. Which viewport mode are you using? Is it a custom one that you made?
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Hi all,
this is an interessting topic, so I tried some things.
I am not an engineer or shell expert I am just fascinated and trying stuff, so please if am wrong with something or there is a better/correcter way of doing this, correct me!
The nice thing about this kind of hyperbolic paraboloid is, that we have straight lines. Looking at the construction fotos of structures from this era we can clearly see how these lines made it possible to construct a doubly curved surface in times without CNC and computer usage:
We have straight laths! Ruled Surface will do the trick for this in GH.
We can imagine the system as genrated by generatrix(blue) and directrix(red):
That’s how I modelled it:
- Floorplan into Rhino +set Anchorpoints
- Draw two lines paralell to the magenta ones at the anchorpoints and fillet them with distance 0:
3)mirrored them with the anchorpoints, that gave me the initial rectangle.
After that I realized it ends up on the 3rd anchropoint:
- Create a ruled Srf in GH:
- No we need to cut. And here is the question for the mathheads here: How to determine the height of the structure? I did it by adjusting the point manually in rhino until I had more or less the height marked in the sections:
- Once you have the rectangle adjusted it is straight forward(cut+array):
Here the GH(without the floorplan, since it is inside rhino)
230801_LaJacaranda.gh (35.2 KB)
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Felix Candela use Paraboloid Hyperbolic in this design(and many other design) and that’s same thing which happens to pringles chips.
you need LuanchBox plugin for this or you can implement it using formula mentioned in the above link.
the high res of your reference image was available at archinet and you can tweak the script parameters based on image and other reference.
i like the way architect used exact math formula in form.
thanks for sharing this.
felix-candela-002.gh (19.6 KB)
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Hello Ceci, this is a topic of great interest to be modeled with rhino and grasshopper … below is a link to a recent posting I uploaded into LinkedIn where I present some of the work I have done to get the JACARANDA concrete shell modeled in AutoCAD, Rhino, and still pending to be done in Grasshopper … see if you could find some of the material here helpful … until the grasshopper definition can be finalized … still a work in progress … but mainly we need to have a rhino python script tool available …
In summary at the end all that needs to be done is to generate one of the three modular sections of the 120 degree basic original module and then duplicate it two times at 120 degrees and 240 degrees from the original one.
Take a look of the information in the link below to see if some of that may be helpful to you at this time …
Once I get something else on the grasshopper definition … will share that with you …
I think what I will do is upload postings of the basic steps as I get them developed … and perhaps someone else can pitch in if they see they can continue the work …
JACARANDA de Felix Candela …
Hello Ceci, attached is a PDF file and a link to a grasshopper definition that I have recently developed to create the surface shape of the JACARANDA shell that you are interested in …
JACARANDA PPT 24X36-COL.pdf (4.5 MB)
A link to the Grasshopper definition is shared below:
hope this help you …
here a link to my recent posting on this JACARANDA subject today in linkedin …
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