Thanks to Lars Moth-Poulsen at Bentley Denmark, I discovered there was a feature in Generative Components called Fabrication Planning. It's a set of very useful tools including developable surface generation and unroll/unfold. Great fun! (Svenska:) Tack vare Lars Moth-Poulsen på Bentley Danmark upptäckte jag en funtion i Generative Components som heter Fabrication Planning. Det är en samling mycket användbara verktyg, t e x för att skapa enkelkrökta ytor och sedan veckla ut dem. Kul!

These models illustrate the concept of Conic Plank Lines. Thin (straight) strips of paper are wrapped around cones of different angles. Why did I do this? Well, it turns out these shapes are found when elastically bending something in 3d. I haven't really worked out why, but it has got something to do with elastica curves. Read more about this investigation at The Geometry of Bending.

WIRE. These models were invaluable for understanding developable surfaces. First I created a figure out of wire and then tried to cover it with paper. See the whole project here: English, Swedish (old site).

This model was made in MicroStation with the excellent function Feature Modeling. The rendering is made in Maxwell (sky without sun, I think) and I have overlaid a vector output (from MicroStation) in Illustrator.

Modelled in Generative Components. Rendered in Maxwell.

Trying to understand the geometry of an inflated plastic bag.

Just testing the digitizer here. You can download a copy of the resulting rhino-file here: A4-papper.3dm.

Just checking too see if this pine cone complied with the sacred geometry of the golden section. Of course it did.

[Quote:] Jupiter-mass protoplanet excites 'density waves' in the gas and dust of a planetary disk, as shown in this model by astronomers Douglas N. C. Lin and Geoffrey Bryden of the University of California at Santa Cruz. Those waves, seen as spiral patterns, create regions of high (red), medium (green) and low (blue) density in the disk. The protoplanet accretes gas and dust until its gravity can no longer attract surrounding material. The resulting planetary body ultimately settles into a stable orbit. Image: Geoffrey C. Bryden and Douglas N. C. Lin http://www3.amherst.edu/~gsgreenstein/astro/bryan/extrasol/giantplanets.html http://www.ucolick.org/~bryden/home2.html

This was a test I did in 2002 (before I got my digitizer). I took two photos with a digital camera, front and top. First I tried PhotoModeler to get the points into CAD, but it turned out to be easier to do it inside Rhino. - - - - - [Photos: Mårten Nettelbladt]

This model was made from polycarbonate and the different pieces were sewn together with fishing line. - See the whole project here: English, Swedish (old site).

DEFINITION. Forms are called 'developable' or 'single curved' when they can be created through ordinary bending of a planar surface without stretching, cutting or wrinkling the material. These surfaces are characterized by only bending in one direction at a time, like the cylinder or the cone. Developable surfaces are useful because they allow round forms to be made out of flat materials like plywood, sheet metal or cloth. This is why they are used for ship building, tent sewing and fabrication of ventilation ducts etc. DOUBLE CURVED. Surfaces that bend in two directions at the same time and cannot be made out of a flat material are called 'double curved'. The sphere and the saddle are examples of such surfaces (no double curved surfaces ...

I found this piece of metal inside a mechanical typewriter. (Or was it a calculator? Can't remember)

DIPLOMA PROJECT . For me, this was an opportunity to study something that really interested me. I wanted to embark whole-heartedly upon an investigation without knowing necessarily where it would end. It was also a chance to tie together what I had learned during the course of my studies. FORM. I am fascinated by organic shapes and have sought in my investigations to find forms on the dividing line between free-form and the geometric. I have also tried to find a ballance between complexity and simplicity. CONSTRUCTION. Organic form can often be hard to produce in a larger scale. What can be modelled easily out of clay or in computer software, may prove to be too complicated for traditional production methods. Therefore I have tried to find a technical system that ...

Walking west in the evening on Divanyolu (just west of the Ayasofya). April 1994. [UPDATE] I took this photo, just across the street in October 2009. (Photos: Mårten Nettelbladt)

Link to the UHU website.

This is a list of Rhino Aliases that I always import. Without them I feel very clumsy. ag AddToGroup c copy d distance g group h hide j join l line m move mi mirror q quit r rotate rg RemoveFromGroup s save s1 scale1d t trim ug ungroup x intersect

When you bend a thin strip of an elastic material you get a beautifully shaped curve. What geometry does this curve follow? Can the curve be calculated if you know the length of the material and the position of the end points? Is it possible to calculate more complex situations with several forces in different directions? Can you make similar calculations in 3d? Can this geometry be useful in design/production? See more here. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt) När man böjer en remsa av ett elastiskt material uppstår en vacker bågform. Vad är detta för geometri? Kan bågen beräknas om man vet materialets längd och avståndet mellan ändpunkterna? Går det att beräkna mer komplexa fall med flera påverkande krafter i olika rikningar? Kan man göra liknande beräkningar i 3d? Kan dessa geometrier vara användbara i design/produktion? Läs mer här. (Bild: Mårten Nettelbladt)

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Please leave a comment if you've spotted Miso somewhere or if you've used it in your own work. Thanks!

This is my desk in Abrahamsberg, 2003. Det här är mitt skrivbord i Abrahamsberg 2003. Vårberg, 2000/2001. Århus / Denmark, 1998. Århus / Danmark, 1998. Stockholm 1983-1984. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt) (Bilder: Mårten Nettelbladt)

This summer I built a house! Well, it's only a 12m² shed, but for me this was a real achievement. I decided from the beginning that I would not make any drawings, but rather just build. Being an architect and all, this was quite an unusual approach, but it turned out to work really well. The site is in Lemland, Åland. Here are some shots of the result: I somras byggde jag ett hus! Visserligen bara en bod på 12m², men för mig var det en stor bedrift. Jag bestämde från början att jag inte skulle göra några ritningar utan i stället bara bygga. För en arkitekt som jag var detta ett ovanligt sätt att gå tillväga, men det visade sig fungera riktigt bra. Platsen är i Lemland på Åland. Här är några bilder på resultatet: Here are some earlier photos of work in progress: Här är några tidigare foton från byggtiden: The door was a real hassle. It had to be reworked a couple of times. Det var riktigt knivigt att göra dörren. Det krävdes ett par omarbetningar. (Photos: Mårten Nettelbladt, except one) (Bilder: Mårten Nettelbladt, utom en)

When travelling by train from Stockholm to Gothenburg you pass this building just west of Gnesta. It's called Tvålfabriken (=the soap factory) and was designed in the 50s by Ralph Erskine. [Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt] (I like how the speed of the train skewed the photo...) Below is an areal photo with Gnesta station (bottom right) and the area Vackerby (top left) where the building is located. [Image: www.hitta.se]

Welcome to the redesigned website! Hopefully this change will encourage more frequent updating of the content and also make it easier for visitors to interact by leaving comments. (It's based on WordPress and if you are interested in some more technical details please read more here). Välkommen till den omarbetade hemsidan! Förhoppningsvis ska det nu bli enklare att hålla sidan uppdaterad och även lättare för läsare att lämna kommentarer. (Sidan bygger på WordPress och för den som är intresserad av det tekniska finns mer info här). This is what the old site looked like, just before it was closed: Så här såg den gamla sidan ut, precis innan den stängdes: Here is an even older version: Här är en ännu äldre variant: Better? Worse? Bättre eller sämre?

Lemland full size.

This small island is Heligholmen, just off the coast of Gotland, close to Holmhällar. I thought it made quite a nice desktop image. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt)

Grunden för de standardiserade pappersstorlekarna är formatet A0 (A noll) som är ett rektangulärt papper med ytan 1 m² och proportinerna 1:√2 (≈1:1,4142) mellan kortsida och långsida. Det första måttet får man (i meter) genom att ta √√2 = 1,189207. A0: 1189 x 841 mm A1: 841 x 594 mm A2: 594 x 420 mm A3: 420 x 297 mm A4: 297 x 210 mm A5: 210 x 148 mm Dessutom finns B-formatet och C-formatet. B0: 1414 x 1000 mm C0: 1297 x 917 mm Se även http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappersformat.

MISO by Mårten Nettelbladt is a heavy duty typeface for the construction industry*. Three weights: Light, Regular and Bold. TrueType and OpenType. Completed in 2006. (* No seriously, please write your own description when linking to this page...) Download MISO (freeware 189 kB). Spotted, license info, character map, info, promotion image, weights, lettering stencil, wish list. - Originally Miso was called Indikator and had a more blurred look: - Thanks everyone for your comments! I appreciate the feedback. /Mårten

A memorable Christmas dinner in the atelier at Millesgården, Stockholm. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt)

These images was taken in 1999 at a bridge just northwest of Bega (Australia) where the Princes Highway crosses Bega River. De här bilderna tog jag i Bega (Australien) 1999 vid den bro som tar Princes Highway över Bega River. A screenshot from Google Maps, 2009. Unbelievable that it was actually possible to find another image of this exact detail - ten years later and from halfway around the world. Another view here. En skärmdump från Google Maps, 2009. Otroligt att det gick att hitta ännu en bild av just denna detalj - tio år senare och från andra sidan jordklotet. Sett ifrån en annan vinkel här. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt) (Foto: Mårten Nettelbladt)

A hut for the construction workers seemed to have emerged from the ground while the apartment blocks had rather descended from the sky. Byggboden verkade ha växt upp ur jorden medan flervåningshusen snarare stigit ned från himlen. (Photo: Mårten Nettelbladt) (Foto: Mårten Nettelbladt)

I designed and fabricated this chess set in 1995 at the HMS Gålö where I did part of my military service (it was later sold to my teacher Bo Göran Hellers, father of chess player Ferdinand Hellers). [Photos: Mårten Nettelbladt] I designed and fabricated this chess set in 1995 at the HMS Gålö where I did part of my military service (it was later sold to my teacher Bo Göran Hellers, father of chess player Ferdinand Hellers).

This is something I made in kindergarten in the late 70s. Every kid was given a square piece of cardboard and the idea was to create something like a puzzle. All pieces were to be covered with green, brown and blue beeswax so that when they were all put together they would form a landscape or a map. I put some green and brown onto my piece of cardboard and suddenly it looked like a dog sitting by a tree. I remember that my teachers encouraged me to go ahead and make it a picture and also helped me to make the hole and attach a piece of thread. Through the years I have always kept it next to my desk at home.