The seminar provides a thorough overview of structural systems, such as form-active and surface-active structures, and their relationship between form and structural behaviour. Furthermore the module covers design strategies for those structural systems focusing specifically on compression shells and tensile structures such as membrane structures. Prerequisite for the design and construction of such structural types is a solid knowledge of their structural behaviour that will be taught during the seminar.
To design and evaluate spatial structural systems, a range of digital modelling, scripting and analysis tools are introduced and digital form finding procedures are explained and applied on practical examples. With the introduction of Finite Element programmes and Particle Spring Systems the understanding of the form – structure relationship is intensified. To be able to critically evaluate and compare the results of the used methods, an overview of the mathematical background of the used tools is provided.
The seminar will conclude in the submission of a design project of a small scale architectural application using the introduced form-finding and analysis tools. The students should be familiar with the architectural and spatial potentials of shell and membrane structures in order to explore their possibilities within their projects. Prerequisites for attending the course are good Rhinoceros skills and basic Grasshopper and Python knowledge.
Edward Allen and Waclaw Zalewski, Form and Forces – Designing Efficient, Expressive Structures (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Heine Engel. Tragwerksysteme – Structure Systems (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007).
Jan Knippers, Jan Cremers, Markus Gabler and Julian Lienhard, Construction Manual for Polymers + Membranes (Basel: Birkäuser, 2011).
Helmut Pottmann, Andreas Asperl, Michael Hofer and Axel Kilian, Architectural Geometry (Exton: Bentley Institute Press, 2007).