Michal Piasecki recently recently developed a generative process for Malgorzata Mozolewska‘s “Structural Ornament”, a project aiming at embedding algorithmic aesthetics into structural logic. The outcome turned out to be more of a material than an object. The project is Malgorzata’s master thesis at the Faculty of Design, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Below is an excerpt from Malgorzata’s description:

“Structural ornament arises on the verge of order and chaos, mathematic calculation and chance, but once achieved, it may serve to shape any object you like. It is generated by a purpose-made software that takes into account the shape of a desired object, loads and pressures therein and adds a component of chance so that the structure obtained, while functional, is different each and every time and not entirely foreseeable. Preparation of the software was preceded by painstaking analysis of the history and transformation of ornament over time, helping to precisely channel my search and to find my own way of creating the structural ornament which is firmly rooted in history, inspired by processes seen in nature, but created using modern technologies.”

Michal’s role was the development of the software. It has an arbitrary shaped mesh as an input. The user is then able to assign the forces. The software then conducts a series of steps to generate a 3d printable infill responsive to the forces present. First is a structural analysis using a direct stiffness method. An outcome of this is a 3-dimensional array of voxels, each containing data on the forces and displacement. This data is used to generate a grid of points which becomes denser where forces are greater. Then the infill is generated based on this grid, thus it becomes responsive to the forces present.