Lab – Jose Martinez Castro

Lab

A collection of computational design experiments and projects in progress.

Growing a Desk Organizer

I designed a bio-inspired desk organizer for your office! Using a growing simulation, I created an organic form that grows around the initially defined design parameters to be able to hold your pens and more. ✏

The product is ready for FDM 3D printing and can be printed using "Surface Mode" and "Spiralized Contours" in Cura.

Product developed with Rhino Grasshopper and rendered in Blender 3D. Thanks to Gediminas Kirdeikis for the original development of the Differential Growth algorithm.

Programmable Biomaterials Lampshade

I participated in DigitalFUTURES's workshop "Decoding Biomaterials: Biomateriales Programables basados en Diseño Computacional" hosted by MATTERTEX | Instructors: Laura Civetti & Juanda Cabrera Cobo.

During the workshop, we learned how to combine biomaterials with computational design by:

1. Creating our own 3D printable biomaterial mixtures with variable mechanical properties. 🍊

2. Developing an algorithm in Rhino Grasshopper to create a custom 3d printing pattern with variable stiffness based on the structure's curvature. Each of the 3 colored sections uses a different biomaterial mixture to create a flat structure that can be shaped into place after printing it. 💻

3. Building and printing with our own biomaterial 3D printer (I hope to build my own bioprinter soon!) 🔬

I designed my own lampshade structure with Rhino Grasshopper and applied the techniques learned to prepare the structure for bioprinting. You can see my results from the workshop below.

Ripple Form Study - Speaker

Exploring the use of natural elements as design cues in this form study of a speaker. I was inspired by water ripples/audio waves and the complex shapes created when the waves collide with each other. In this example developed with Rhino Grasshopper, the waves guide the users toward the speaker buttons and the geometry is fully configurable as shown in the video allowing for design variations.

Lattice Shoe Sole

Study on lattice structures for footwear design. Created using Rhino Grasshopper with Crystallon and Dendro plugin. Rendered in Blender Cycles.

Parametric Pattern in Running Hats

I was inspired by the variety of ventilation patterns found in running hats and I wanted to recreated it as a parametric model with Rhino Grasshopper. I developed it as a fading hole pattern using an attractor curve on the hat surface that can be adjusted to change the location and fading of the pattern. This way, you can quickly iterate and test various patterns to find the most optimal and comfortable design. Final texturing and rendering done with Blender 3D.

Contact

Based in The Netherlands

studio@josemartinezcastro.com