Building-Scale Prototype

Computational Design digital fabrication installations Prototyping

Bachelor's Thesis_Research Pavilion

Computational Design and Digital Fabrication

Bachelor’s thesis focused on processes of producing double-curved surface and seeking to explore new possibilities from computational design to identify new fabrication capabilities in the digital age. Through experiments of bending the material to finding architectural form and made criteria of form-finding method. The destination of research was culminating on physical model in building-scale and presented digital prototyping by computational design and improved workflow of digital fabrication.

State of the Art

By the beginning of the 15th century, Filippo Brunelleschi built the dome of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. He proposed structural techniques to build the double layer of dome and chose the brick as a light weight material than stone and being easier to form. The technique presented the solution to construct geometrical forms.Until now, there are some architects already researched on methodologies of light-weight structure which are based on the computational design, geometric analysis and manufacture processes. Such as, Antoni Gaudí designed catenary cord models with weights that transformed the hanging curves into funicular polygonal elements. Frei Otto proposed a methodology to Finding Form from natural structures, utilising lightweight structures to optimize and natural structures having maximum strength for minimum materials.

Architectural geometry and Digital Prototyping

Architectural aesthetics is closely related to structural systems and geometric design which deals with constructions and representation of free-form curves, surfaces and volumes. The geometric design is building for objects of any dimension through computational designs and modelings. It also can be applied on shipbuilding, aircraft and automatic, industrial design as well as architectural design. As a new generation of architects, to integrate approaches from design process and fabrication to improve techniques and present possibilities of production.

Techniques are a solution to construct geometrical forms and geometric logic is a practice to design architecture.

Development Process

The process of development was through iterations of empiric testing and experimental materials to develop methods of computational design. The thesis explored from the scale of a unit to a system, and forwarded to an entire project. Every processes is fully tested in physical prototypes, and most importantly was to show its spatial experience and the potential workflow of fabrication and computational design for further scalability.

The final pavilion was used materials efficiently and made material present the maximizing structure. The segmentation of geometric logics was stripe-types by rows to construct the prototype, this way deformed material with bending to create its volume and structural capacities.

In part of the computational design, the segmentation of dividing meshes is related to the structural behaviour and the geometric logic of prototypes. To control the segmentation of meshes by the structural performance of pavilion, like membrane structure, foundation, columnar structure, shell structure, and seam. The segmentation of meshes which was included naked-edge, interior-edge, sewing-edge, and single-layer to double-layer and design by this rule to construct the geometry and find the form of final prototypes. The pavilion was fabricated by 1.2mm ABS plastic sheet and presented the feasibility of parametric design and digital fabrication, as well as applicable to in the practical field, such as facade, interior design and industrial design.

The final pavilion was used materials efficiently and made material present the maximizing structure. The segmentation of geometric logics was stripe-types by rows to construct the prototype, this way deformed material with bending to create its volume and structural capacities.

Future Outlook and Application

The future outlook provides strategies for computational design which aimed on the different material behaviour to divide the meshes in the computer and simulate the model with form-finding methods to fabricate physical prototypes. The physical building-scale prototypes utilize advantages of computational designs which were improved workflows from design to fabricate and the methodology is applied on as well as industrial design.

In addition to units of the pavilion were recognized easily and assembled efficiently, transportation and disassembly of the pavilion was considered into the design.