Geometry of the Venetian Gondola

On my last trip to Venice I realized, that the shape of the venetian gondola is not only elegant, but also functional and higly optimized. Developed in the mid-19th-century, the sections of the boat are asymmetric, in order to balance the weigth of the gondoliere, who stands one side of the boat. Referred to the traditional Tramontin shipyard, the geometry of the boat is curved in plan, according to the weight of the oar.

Plans (c) by Gilberto Penzo.


Photo (c) by Alberto de Marco.

Carlo Borer's Sculpture '422' Completed

Pictures (c) by Carlo Borer.

In previous posts I reported about the design and fabrication process of this piece of art.

Rhumblr - Blogging from Rhino to Tumblr

Document your design process online with on click!


I used Rhino.Python to write a script, that posts the current view to your Tumblr account. A service in Tumblr automatically sends your posts to Twitter, if enabled. The script uses the Tumblr API.


Download rhumblr.py and installation instructions here.

Fabrication of Carlo Borer's Sculpture

The artist Carlo Borer and a 1:4 scale model of the sculpture.


Carlo rolling a chrome steel sheet at Senn AG


... verifying a curvature radius.

Grasshopper tools have been used in the design and fabrication process of the sculpture. Pictures (c) by Paul F. Talman.

Free-Form Masonry Featured on Wired.com!

Thanks to Andrea Graziano, who tweeted eat-a-bug's last post on twitter, Bruce Sterling saw it and posted it on Wired.com!

Advances in Free-Form Masonry

This model of a free-form compression-only vault has been build using rapid prototyping. It stands just by gravity and friction. It is part of a research project of the BLOCK Research Group at the ETH Zurich. Two publications describe details about the structural models and the design process.


Form and force diagrams in plane, the force distribution in the network, and the form of the network in 3d.
The form-finding process is based on TNA, a method developed by Philippe Block.




Pictures and movie (c) by BLOCK Research Group

New Evolutions in ZipShape

Christoph Schindler, co-founder of schindlersalmerón, develops the principle of ZipShape since 2007, in order to build curved elements from cnc-manufactured plain material without molds.


An element consists of two differently slotted panels that only interlock if bent to the desired curvature.


A grasshopper definition worked out during a workshop at the CITA Copenhagen shows the dependency between slot geometry and global curvature.


The newest development allows the fabrication of developable twisted surfaces.


This principle has been applied to a sculpture produced and tested at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Biel.