Computational Morphologies by Michela Rossi & Giorgio Buratti

Author:Michela Rossi & Giorgio Buratti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

3 Case Studies. Leading Robotic Fabrication Experiences: Between Conventional and Non-standard Building Materials

Digital fabrication enriches the simulated and optimized performance of forms with the sensorial, physical and material nature which is own of architecture. By means of new generation CNC-machineries, the model develops a new identity. One-to-one digital fabrication offers the way to digitally design architecture, far from the merely representation of form. It introduces an intermediate focus between experimental research and the actual building size, revealing the archaeology character of digital representation of forms, “overwhelmed by new capabilities to fabricate, like never before” [18]. Linking File-to-Factory attitude with powerful capability of algorithmic design—this latter provides tools which make able architects to weave together rules abstracted from several disciplines i.e. geometry, biology or materials science—leads the approach of several academic institutions, like the Institute of Computational Design (ICD) together with the Institute of Buildings Structure and Structural Design (ITKE), both based in Stuttgart. Since 2008 architects, structural, geodetic and biomimetic engineers, material scientists and biologists co-operate to test innovative architectural possibilities merging the computational and the physical in a digital fabrication synthesis. The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011 is based on a biomimetic approach for both the development of construction systems and generative computational design processes. It takes advantage from previous theoretical research for extracting morphological principles embedded within the sand dollar’s skeleton—a sub-species of Echinoidea—related to structural and architectural demands as drivers in the context of performative morphologies in architecture. The skeletal shell of the sand dollar is a modular system of polygonal plates, which are linked together lengthwise the edges by finger-like calcite protrusions. High load bearing capacity is achieved by the particular geometric arrangement of the plates and by the density of the joining system. The design process leads to the plywood fabrication by means of novel computer-based design and simulation methods, along with custom-made computer-controlled manufacturing methods for its manufacture. Hence the tangible innovation consists in the possibility of effectively extending the recognized bionic principles and related structural performance to a different scaled up material-system throughout a continuous computational process. Acting in a seamless system, algorithmic code and digital fabrication strategy evolve together. A new robotic fabrication process (Figs. 2, 3) customized on the 7-axes ICD/ITKE’s industrial robot—six revolute axes linked to an additional turntable—updates the traditional finger-joints used in wood carpentry (Fig. 4). The traditional woodcraft is characterized by manual and laborious operations. Furthermore, the most efficient wood connections usually require steel elements generating further problems, such as different temperature behaviour and corrosion. Here the efficient robotic fabrication of differentiated connections of the shell-elements improves the highly performative construction system based only on plywood plates, withstanding normal and shear forces without the need for additional fasteners. The new adaptive finger-joints system represents the core of the physical translation of the virtual model generated and optimized starting from the biological analysis. The final configuration of the interlocked plywood sheets demonstrates a high degree of adaptability and both spatial and structural performances due to the geometric differentiation and to the high precision ensured by the fabrication.

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