Gator Skin

Gator skin is a parametric design done in grasshopper to imitate the skin of an alligator for the proposal of a facade of a building during schematic design stage, the location of the building is in Miami Florida. Since alligators are in such abundance in Florida and the site location use to be once be part of the everglades populated with Seminole Indians these facade and building pays homage to the everglades and brings in some of the ideas in design from its wild life by not only being a skin but also the buildings curves derive from the way a snake moves, also the building is buried in wild native plants that are also found in the everglades. Mainly these post is about the skin and the process of making the skin rather than the building its self.

Step 1: Concept

Step 2: Parametric Skin

The complete file can be downloaded here. Make sure you have the following plugins. Lunchbox,weaverbird,meshedit

These can be downloaded from www.food4rhino.com

Step 3: CNC

The CNC file is here, if you do not wish to go trough the trouble of making the grasshopper design. Or wish to just CNC what made.

Step 4: Process of Construction

This design was made using a 3 axis CNC with a 1/4" drill bit, make sure to have a distance between your slopes on your design that is equivalent to the diameter of your drill bit or larger in distance . For example if the distance between slopes is 1/8" and you are using a 1/4" drill bit your design will be compromised.