Parametric Iranian-Islamic muqarnas as drivers for design for fabrication and assembly via UAVs: parametric analysis and synthesis of Iranian-Islamic muqarnas.

This study proposes a DfMA (from design to assembly) based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and uses Iranian-Islamic Muqarnas as the case study due to their geometric modularity. In Islamic architecture, different geographic regions are known to have used various design and construction methods of Muqarnas. There are four main specifications of the Muqarnas that define to which category they belong; first, its three-dimensional shape, that provides volume. Secondly, the size of its modules is variable. Third, its specific generative algorithm. And finally, the 2-dimensional pattern plan that is used in the design. First, this study presents thus a global analytical study that drives a generative system to construct Muqarnas, through a careful balance of four specifications. In this second step, the paper reports the result of using a parametric tool, Grasshopper and parametric plugins, for creating a generative system of several types of Muqarnas. This synthetic translation aims at expanding our understanding of parametric analysis and synthesis of traditional architecture, advancing our understanding towards using parametric synthesis towards UAV-based fabrication of Muqarnas, by taking advantage of their inherent repetition and recursion