cassini ovals: a bridge study
using Rhino & Grasshopper
In the 1600s, Giovanni Domenico Cassini posited that the Sun traveled around the Earth in an ovoid orbit, nearly a figure-8 pattern, with Earth as the focus of one oval. The mathematical equation which defines so-called Cassini Ovals can be used to inform the structure of a bridge, produces a durable segmental arch. Viewed in reflection, as depicted here, both Cassini’s doomed conception of solar orbit and the resilient form of the segmental arch are visible.
Cassini ovals describe one possible orbit for the sun’s journey around the earth in a geocentric model of the solar system proposed by Giovanni Cassini
The tessellation visible in this bridge was generated algorithmically using the same ‘cellular’ Voronoi patterns that are prevalent in nature: honeycombs, a cluster of soap bubbles, the cracks in a tract of parched earth. Voronoi patterns are not just an earthly phenomenon, though; even the spatial distribution of galaxies can be modeled in terms of Voronoi patterns.
This study was created in Rhino and Grasshopper using the Kangaroo physics plugin, and 3D printed in PLA using a Hictop Hero D3 3D printer.
