Stepwell

Hello Everyone.

I am pretty green in this community and the grasshopper.
Fascinated by Indian stepwell, I am wondering if there is any ways of interpreting it in grasshopper.

I made a paper model, but still I have no idea how to parametrize it. Are there any ways of doing it??

Attachments:

stepwell model2.dwg, 43 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Birk Binnard on February 12, 2016 at 10:55am

I agree that the stepwells are truly fascinating. Many people in India are totally unaware of their existence, but they can be found and visited. Below are 3 photos from the largest Indian stepwell. It's name is Chand Baori; if you Google that name you will get lots of info about it.

The stepwells are made from rectangular blocks of stone and their outside shape is square, not round. The stone blocks vary in size, but are arranged so that they make equal sized steps. My guess is the easiest way to model a stepwell would be to do it one layer at a time using same sized rectangles. But you'll probably need some programming logic to control the number of blocks and their correct placement so that the steps are formed properly.

Chand Baori is unusual in that one side of it was built as a summer residence for the current ruling family. You probably would not want to try to model this part of it.

Attachments:

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 13, 2016 at 5:42am

As there are some mathematics this could be doneby algorithms and Grasshopper. After some equations a first try.

Look at the definition and try to follow the flow.

First I define base of stairs, after the stairs, miror that, make a closed polyline loft it, close it so I have the stairs. There is a box behind, some copy, arrays ...

Attachments:

step_well.gh, 23 KB

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 13, 2016 at 6:00am

Permalink Reply by Chan Pak Chuen on February 13, 2016 at 7:47am

Thank you so much for the reply. It is amazing!!!

I would like to challenge it further as to see if it is possible be re-interpreted in a circular form.

I made a physical model.

This is the pattern from top view... but I had difficulties in rhino/gh

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 13, 2016 at 8:17am

I don't think it is Rhino or GH the difficulties.

First thing is to make a model of what you want, the parameters.

Same number of steps for each level ?

What is the progression of number of stair case by turn.

Steps turns or are on a line ...

Draws some sketchs, find the parameters, variables, progressions ... algorithms will follow and after that Grasshopper definition will be a walk in the park !

Permalink Reply by Chan Pak Chuen on February 14, 2016 at 6:13am

Thank you so much!

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 16, 2016 at 1:08pm

It was difficult to resist, so I decided to give it a try. here is a first attemp. My wording for stairs must be not correct. See figures. More variation will come.

Here there are always the same numbers of stairs, steps per level. There is no shift in rotation. In order to cope with so many design parameters I used Anemone and a cluster. The cluster is reponsible of each level. It needs some basics as number of stairs, number of steps a floor level ... so at each iteration of Anemone I could change the number of stairs ...

Attachments:

round_step_well.gh, 28 KB

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 16, 2016 at 1:17pm

Version with a maximum of stairs given some constraints on steps, ...

Attachments:

round_step_well_v2.gh, 29 KB

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 16, 2016 at 1:41pm

Increasing the number of steps for each floor

Attachments:

round_step_well_v4.gh, 29 KB

Permalink Reply by Laurent DELRIEU on February 16, 2016 at 1:48pm

Decreasing the number of steps at each step.

Attachments:

round_step_well_v3.gh, 25 KB

Permalink Reply by Pieter Segeren on February 16, 2016 at 2:02pm

I felt an urge to give it a try too, and though this renders okay, it's not a solid just yet...
It's quite challenging to keep the stair step depth as equal as possible, so no water get spilled ;) Edit: btw - I'm using the Sporph component from the Jackalope plugin.

Permalink Reply by Birk Binnard on February 16, 2016 at 2:10pm

Fascinating result - congrats. Needless to say this would have been extremely difficult to build in the real world - but in the digital world anything is possible.

To make this a 3D printable part all that's needed is a 2D round surface on the bottom. I'd suggest subtracting the inner circle - so you'd have a bottom that was a flat torus shape. Export the resulting STL file from Rhino and in your slicer specify something like 15% infill. Your slicer will fill in the internal space with enough structure to make the steps and walkways printable.