Parametric Chess
A chess set as a parametric model. Every piece is generated from parameters, so anyone could shape their own set.
- Year
- 2017
- Context
- Master's thesis, Stuttgart Media University
- My role
- Concept, parametric modelling, C# programming, 3D printing
- Tools
- Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, C#, 3D printing
Question
What happens to product design when customers can change shape, color and material themselves? The thesis asks whether IKEA’s “design for everyone” could become “design from everyone”, and what the designer’s role would be then. It also looks at how AI might take part in design development.
Approach
I needed a product with high aesthetic value, a lot of room for variation in form and a simple function. Chess pieces fit. Their function is their shape: as long as the typical features stay readable, the form can be varied and abstracted.
Each piece is a parametric model in Rhino and Grasshopper, with parts written in C#. The model does not describe a fixed shape. It describes how the shape is constructed. New parameters produce new variants.
Result
A working parametric chess set. I printed the pieces myself. It stayed a master’s thesis.
