How would I go about modelling this building/structure?

Question

I have been trying to improve my skills in Blender and I would like to try something a little more complex. To say I have hit a wall may be an understatement.

Here is what I would like to replicate. (More to come after images.)

I am stuck on what I believe to be the first step of recreating the structure. I have tried creating the rounded-rectangle shape of the example structure with a Bezier Curve; modeled a segment, then added an Array and Curve modifier to it. I get this:

The spacing on my recreation seems to be way different to the reference structure. The reference seems to have far more "evenly sized" segments.

I have no idea how the reference I am using was achieved. I can't ask whoever created it, as I don't remember where it came from.

My guess is that it wasn't done how I am trying to do it, and there is another way of doing things I am not familiar with. I'm sure many people would like to know how to approach a problem like this, if someone with more knowledge and experience could weigh in.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this is totally in line with some particular method you had ion mind, but here's how I would go about making that kind of shape.

First, start with a cube, select it and press Ctrl + 2 (add subdivision surface level 2), and then apply it - this will give you a quad based, "boxy" spheroid:

Select the whole resulting mesh in edit mode and "flatten" it by scaling it on the Z axis by 0.2 or so:

Select the top and bottom inner faces, inset them slightly, then delete them:

Because your object looks more rectangular, select the whole mesh in edit mode and scale on the Y axis by 1.2 or so:

Add another subdivision surface modifier - to preview the resulting mesh geometry correctly, enter wireframe mode, and disable Optimal Display on the modifier settings - choose a level of subdivision that looks good to you. While it is not identical to your sample images (especially the triangles in the corners), I argue this mesh is just as much, if not more, topologically sound.

It also seems from your images that the mesh "bulges" in the center. If this is the case, select a vertex on the top and bottom center of both sides, turn on Proportional Editing (O) and scale on the Z. You can use the mousewheel to control the influence size of the "bulge":