Form-finding and fabrication of BeTA pavilion: a bending-active biotensegrity textile assembly
- PDF / 4,342,938 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 12 Downloads / 172 Views
Form‑finding and fabrication of BeTA pavilion: a bending‑active biotensegrity textile assembly Diane Davis‑Sikora1 · Rui Liu1 · Linda Ohrn‑McDaniel2 Received: 12 December 2019 / Accepted: 18 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020 OPEN
Abstract Born in art, the tensegrity logics have been advanced in disciplines from architecture and human anatomy. Biotensegrity principles introduce an adaptive, ‘living’ structural model characterized by networks of interconnected components and tendons with a shape adaptive capacity. Bending-active is an approach to form-force equilibria that adopts actively curving beams and surfaces within their elastic ranges. BeTA Pavilion explores the formal opportunities of biotensegrity logics using elastically bent glass fiber reinforced plastic rods and CNC knitted textiles. Its bending-active system (inspired by animal vertebrae typologies) is composed of prestressed and self-stabilized tetrahedron modules that are arrayed and sequenced to produce structural equilibrium with a bandwidth of dynamic motion. The paper details the iterative design process employing physical and computational modeling and testing for the new adaptive and dynamic structural assembly coupling bending-active textile hybrid with biotensegrity logics. Keywords Bending-active · Biotensegrity · CNC knitting · Textile
1 Introduction Understanding the inseparable relationship between form and force is fundamental to efficient, expressive, and sustainable structural designs. Gridshells, membranes, tensegrities, form-active systems and other newly emerging structural types have capitalized on advances in material sciences, form-finding practices, and computational technologies. Textiles hold great potential for future design innovation as a pliable, structural material. Their responsiveness to knit or woven patterns, generate elegant yet efficient curvature and form. Textiles have spawned a variety of structural methods and applications. Fabric formwork for concrete casting has been an evolving structural type since its patenting in 1934, with Miguel Fisac (1913–2006), Mark West, Kenzo Unno, John Orr, Philippe Block, and others exploring the architectural, spatial and aesthetic expressiveness of flexible formwork
[1, 2]. Orthogonal bias muslin fabric has served as an effective substrate for conical ice pavilions [3–5], while computer numerical control (CNC) knitted textiles have enabled complex substructures for concrete mixtures as well as graceful performative tensioning systems [6]. Applications in computationally programmed textiles are an expanding practice with opportunities for continued innovation through structural hybridization and material pairings. Tensegrity principles have been advanced in disciplines from architecture, to biology, and human anatomy [7–9]. Its logics root biotensegrity theory and have launched new paradigms of understanding in human biomechanics by introducing ‘living’ structures with a capacity of shape adaptability (Fig. 1). Many new active and dynamic structural systems with complex cur
Data Loading...
