Mohamad Kalhor — architecture, computational design and AI

01 · FORM

Five arches, form-found

Each arch is a chain between two of ten ground points, let out to its 2015 length. Hung under its load and turned over, it stands in compression only.

SIMULATED · 2026 RE-RUN · GOALS FROM THE 2015 DEFINITION · KANGAROO2 MOMENTUM SOLVER · SOLVED HANGING, SHOWN FLIPPED

02 · PATTERN

Fewer cells where the shell narrows

308 seeds in eight rows on a flat strip: 49 at the base, 28 at the crown. Each Voronoi cell grows from its seed.

DESIGN DATA · 2015 DEFINITION · STRIP SHOWN TO WRAP SCALE

02 · PATTERN

A graded Voronoi, relaxed with fixed edges

The 93 boundary points stay fixed while 1,757 edges pull the cells even.

SIMULATED · 2026 RE-RUN · GOALS FROM THE 2015 DEFINITION · KANGAROO2 MOMENTUM SOLVER

02 · PATTERN

Wrapped around the form

The relaxed strip is rolled closed and mapped onto the shell surface, base row to crown row.

2015 DEFINITION · MAP TO SURFACE · ROLL SHOWN FOR CLARITY

03 · EQUILIBRIUM

The net relaxes on the form

The seam is welded and the whole net released. Edges shorten and the nodes slide until the forces balance.

SIMULATED · 2026 RE-RUN · GOALS FROM THE 2015 DEFINITION · KANGAROO2 MOMENTUM SOLVER

03 · EQUILIBRIUM

What holds the net

44 nodes are fixed, 18 base nodes slide on the ground, 21 nodes ride on the two skylight rings, drawn in Rhino over the crown.

2015 DEFINITION · BOUNDARY CONDITIONS · RINGS FROM LAYER “f”

03 · EQUILIBRIUM

315 cells

235 hexagons, 57 pentagons, 21 quads and 2 triangles. The re-run net lands within 10 cm (median) of the built cells.

NET MORPHS INTO THE BUILT GEOMETRY · 2015 MODEL

04 · CELLS

Checked in Karamba

Shell mesh, the two rings as Ø 5 cm tubes, supports below 0.27 m, self-weight. The largest stresses and deflections were at the arch legs.

2015 KARAMBA SETUP IN THE DEFINITION

04 · CELLS

Wraps sized to the load

Deepest at the supports, about 0.25 m; shallowest at the crown, about 0.08 m. In the definition the depth follows height.

WRAP DEPTH MEASURED ON THE 2015 MODEL · DEFINITION: HEIGHT REMAP 0.25 → 0.08 M

04 · CELLS

A cap, a wrap, and ties

Each cell is an outer cap and a side wrap; no inner cap, no jig. Neighbouring wraps are tied back to back, two ties per edge, and each cap once per edge. About 3,600 ties in the model.

TIE COUNT FROM ARCHIVE PHOTOS IMG_0264, 0294, 0304 · POSITIONS MODELLED

05 · ASSEMBLY

Built from the ground up

The cells along the five arches first, as ribs. Then the walls between them, from the ground. The crown last, closed from inside on stools and tables. No scaffolding.

SEQUENCE READ FROM THE 2015 PHOTOS · CELLS FROM THE 2015 MODEL

ARCHIVE PHOTO IMG_0576

ARCHIVE PHOTO IMG_0576 · NOVEMBER 2015 · SAME VIEW AS THE MODEL

A mock-up for a larger shell

Form-found, patterned, tensioned, sized, cut flat and tied by hand.

2015 PROJECT · 2026 RE-RUNS LABELLED

Virtual Art Museum of Lima City · Bachelor thesis · IUST · 2017 · part 3 of 5

A roof made of insect-eye cells

Can a deep cell, shaped like the eye of a fly, be both the structure of a roof and a valve that lets daylight in only when it is wanted?

Date

Defended 11 Feb 2017

Role

Author; supervised by Dr. Ekhlasi

Status

Thesis; one roof panel prototyped

Scroll ↓

Model: model maket detail.3dm (2017) · centre: the 12 modelled cells · around them: the same cell tiled, illustrative

Reference · the compound eye

One cell, one direction

An insect’s compound eye is an array of small cells, each looking along its own axis. The panel borrows the cell, not the optics: a deep hexagonal tube that takes light mainly along its axis.

Land 1997, Annual Review of Entomology 42 · eye drawn here as a schematic

The cell · design model

A deep hexagon in five layers

Each cell is 0.30 m across its corners and 0.40 m deep: a frame of tubes and ball nodes, diagonal cables, three servo units, a funnel of 24 flat faces and a top plate.

Model: layers 01–05, part counts read from the file · roles of the layers read from the model and the owner’s description, to be confirmed with the author

Light · computed in section

Depth narrows the direct light

A sun ray gets through only if it enters the top and leaves through the aperture at the bottom. Past a limit angle the funnel wall stops it. Close the aperture and no direct ray passes.

Computed from the model: θ = atan((w + a) / 2d), w 231 mm, d 0.40 m · opaque walls assumed · not measured · no daylight study is known

Motion · schematic, 2026

Three servos close the aperture

The bottom of the funnel is a three-pointed opening. Each servo arm reaches one inner point. Pull the three points to the axis and the opening shuts; push them out and it opens to a triangle.

Schematic motion, 2026 · mechanism read from the model, to be confirmed with the author: arms and pins meet the inner points · not a solved linkage · area computed from the moving points

Control · design intent

Each cell could answer its own light

The museum shows virtual work, so daylight should arrive only where and when it is wanted. As design intent, each cell could open and close on its own. The built cell reacted to light through sensors, coded in Arduino (owner).

Illustrative · one possible rule: close in direct sun, open in shade · the real sensor logic is not recorded · not a daylight simulation

Depth · design intent · computed index

Deeper cells could act as a space grid

The owner’s idea: make the cells deep and the layer of panels becomes a space grid that can carry the roof. In an idealised two-chord section the bending stiffness grows with the square of the depth.

Computed · I ≈ 2A(d/2)², chord area A fixed · chords assumed = top and bottom frame rings · 0.80 m is illustrative, twice the model · not a structural analysis

Fabrication · from the model

Laid out flat for cutting

In the model the parts are laid out flat on sheets: 1,103 cut curves and 12 engraved curves, placed by a Grasshopper definition.

Model: layers boresh::cut 1, cut 2, hack, border (Persian: boresh = cut, hack = engrave) · definition: 11-11-95 model maket sheets.gh · sheet material and machine to be confirmed with the author

Prototype · owner’s account

A cell was built and reacted to light

A physical cell was built with servos and light sensors, programmed in Arduino. The owner recalls it opening and closing in response to light. It is simpler than the model: a hexagonal frame with hinged funnel panels.

Photos: the built cell · owner: built during the thesis; the photo files carry camera dates of 5 Mar and 2 Jun 2018, still to be reconciled · scale not recorded · behaviour: owner’s account

Roof · design intent

Structure, shade and sensor in one

Adaptive facades are an established field (Loonen et al. 2013); Attia 2017 evaluates one built example, the Al Bahr Towers. The Fly’s Eye panel asks one deep cell to be structure, shade and light valve at once. The combination is the idea.

Loonen et al. 2013, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 25 · Attia 2017, QScience Connect · tiling and cloud are illustrative

Limits

An idea and a built cell

No daylight, structural or thermal evaluation is known. Mohamad Kalhori · B.Arch thesis, Virtual Art Museum of Lima City · supervisor Dr. Ekhlasi · IUST 2017.

Model, sheets and photos: the author’s archive · all diagrams drawn for this film · simulations labelled

01 · brain

A dashboard that keeps no copy

Mohamad Kalhor’s dashboard for his Hermes Agent instance. 266 of 312 commits are his; most co-written with Claude.

Date

30 Aug – 3 Oct 2026

Role

Designer builder

Status

Software

Scroll ↓

github.com/mohamadkalhor/brain · MIT licence · git history 30 Aug – 3 Oct 2026

02 · the question

A second copy would drift

Hermes’ agents write their board into kanban.db. A copy kept by the dashboard would “disagree within a day”.

README.md · the drifting copy is an illustration, not data

02 · the question

Own nothing, and prove it?

Can the control surface stay truthful by owning no state, and can a test that reads the code keep it so?

question as framed for this film · not yet confirmed by the author

03 · where this sits

Related work, pinned in place

• Nous Research n.d.-a Hermes keeps its board in SQLite.
• Fowler 2011 CQRS; brain keeps no read store.
• Nous Research n.d.-b Hermes has its own dashboard too.
• SQLite n.d. mode=ro; WAL readers don’t block.
• Thompson 2011 One writer: for speed there, trust here.
• Thoughtworks n.d. Fitness functions; our reading.

all sources opened 2026-10-16 · full list at the end

04 · read

Read the files, read-only

brain.read opens Hermes’ SQLite with mode=ro and answers ok, unknown or error.

brain/read/db.py:177-195 · the dot illustrates one request on the real call path

05 · the interface

Twelve screens, four groups

See · Make · Judge · Keep.

the rail: brain/screens/shell.py · real interface, run dry on the repo’s synthetic fixtures · 2026-10-16

05 · the interface

The board is the work

Hermes’ dispatcher runs whatever lands in its columns. Each card is a kanban.db row, drawn, not copied.

real interface, run dry on the repo’s synthetic fixtures · 2026-10-16

06 · waves

Cards become waves

brain joins cards by their links and shared keys (union–find), then orders each wave (Kahn).

brain.read.waves.build_waves() on the fixture board · 81 cards, 52 links → 7 waves

06 · waves

A wave becomes a row

Each wave lands on its own chart in the Waves screen.

Waves screen · real interface, run dry on the repo’s synthetic fixtures · 2026-10-16

07 · write

Exactly what will run

The composer shows the hermes command before anything is filed.

real composer · title typed for this film · dry mode, nothing filed

07 · write

Buttons run hermes, only

A button posts /act/{name}. Dry, the executor answers with the hermes commands it would run: for Stop, two.

research/capture/act_dry.jsonl · the dashed path is the live route, not run here

08 · the check

Kept by a check, not discipline

conformance.py follows the call graph back from hermes to every route that changes something.

conformance.routes() · test_conformance.py: 6 passed, re-run 2026-10-16

08 · the check

36 reach hermes, 21 are declared

Before the check, three actions wrote around Hermes (2 Sep). On 7 Sep the test “rightly called the entries stale”.

git d66b4fe · 887b1a8 · a deploy stopped by the check is not recorded

09 · evidence

312 commits in this history

266 from Mohamad Kalhor’s accounts; 248 carry a Claude co-author trailer. The first commit already held 19,390 lines.

git log, 30 Aug – 3 Oct 2026

09 · evidence

Checked, not yet measured in use

1,911 tests pass here; 1 needs systemd. In the rebuild: plan and build by Claude, review by a second model, merge on his word.

pytest re-run 2026-10-16 · briefs/REDESIGN.md §0.2 · no usage data in the repository

10 · reflection

What the rule does not cover

• two declared exceptions Display state, a usage cache.
• the check is static Routes, not hands (our reading).
• estimates are labelled start_tokens = bytes ÷ 4 (Anthropic n.d.).
• no usage evidence README: Loom “will come back later, redesigned”.

README.md · test_conformance.py DASHBOARD_OWNED

11 · references

Sources

The 8 sources, in full, are in the record below ↓

all opened 2026-10-16 · Hermes Agent identified by us, not yet confirmed by the author