Modern structure systems

Eco-Structure Systems Ahmad Muhammad Waheed Sec:1 B.N.34

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Dragonfly Batwing Lizard Panels Endo-skeletons Exo-skeletons Structural Hive Semi-monocoque

Dragonfly 

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Building Type Aluminum prototype with 40’ cantilever

Office EMERGENT

Principal Tom Wiscombe

Project Team Kevin Regalado, John Hoffman, Dionicio Valdez

Structural Buro Happold (Matt Melnyk, Steve Boak, Ricardo Carillo)

The fabrication procedures for Dragonfly reflect this adaptive model. A CATIA fabrication model was generated which parametrically linked hundreds of twodimensional unfolded bands to ‘live’ threedimensional geometry. As the design evolved and as engineering information was filtered into the fabrication model, these bands, including scoring, bending, drilling, and location information, were updated automatically. Bands were distributed onto 4’x8’ aluminum sheets automatically using nesting software which optimized material usage. These sheets were then cut and inscribed using CNC milling machines.

Dragonfly 

In this installation, dragonfly morphology and syntax are employed biomimetically rather than biomorphically, that is in terms of formal and behavioral logics rather than pure aesthetics.

We know that that dragonfly wings in nature are generated by evolutionary processes involving aerodynamics, lightness, mechanical properties, composite performance, the smooth accumulation of organic material, and the active flow of dragonfly blood. Dragonfly is governed by a different set of parameters including gravity and seismic loads, specific support locations and quality of those supports, flat material increments, and buckling failure, differences which lead to an unpredictable hybrid morphology. Seen in a larger context, this project contributes to the recent contemporary discourse on cellularity in architecture as a departure from pure cellularity toward a tectonic based on emerging structural hierarchies within rhythmic cellular fields.

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Because all of the information required for assembly of the structure was embedded into the bands, including relative cell position, the construction of the Dragonfly can be considered an aggressively bottom-up process and a relief from ‘construction documentation’ as it is currently understood by the architectural profession at large

Dragonfly

Batwing 

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Office EMERGENT

Principal Tom Wiscombe

Project Team Josh Sprinkling, Alex Cornelius, Marcus Freisl

Batwing is part of a larger body of work concerned with creating coherent relationships between building systems through geometric and atmospheric means. The aim is to move toward a higher-order emergent wholeness in architecture while still maintaining a performative discreetness of systems.

The project can be understood as an articulated manifold which incorporates structural, mechanical, envelope, and lighting system behaviors. This is not to say that any one of these systems is ‘optimized’ in terms of any functional category-- the formal and ambient spatial effects of fluidity, translucency, glow, and silhouette are all as important for the overall effect of the piece. The intent is to establish a link between the sensate realm and infrastructural flows in architecture.

This is different than simply expressing structure or expressing building technology, making it legible. Batwing is not the inside-out Centre Pompidou, which represents more than it performs, and remains a difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. Translation (a difference in degree) of the ductwork to the exterior doesn’t produce transformation of the system, or any unexpected or crossover effects.

Batwing

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PROTOTYPES I-III: THERMO-STRUT, TRACERY GLASS, LIZARD PANEL Los Angeles, 2009 Building Type Building systems hybrid

Office EMERGENT

Principal Tom Wiscombe

Project Team David Stamatis, Bin Lu, Chris Eskew, Ryan Macyauski, Cody Derra, Katsuya Arai, Eugene Park

These three prototypes are a family. They are combinatorial in nature, fusions of diverse systems and services which generate emergent architectural behaviors and features. They are part of recent research in the office concerned with unpacking the spatial and ornamental potentials of airflow, fluid flow, and glow, often considered to be ‘minor’ forces in architecture.

Based on chunk logic rather than layer logic, these prototypes are intended to manufactured and delivered as fully integrated threedimensional assemblies embedded with all internal infrastructural systems. They are to be constructed of formed fiber composite and polycarbonate materials assembled with socket connections and structural adhesive, as well as more common materials such as plate steel and acrylic pipe. They feature integrated thermal solar systems, PV systems, algae photobioreactor coils, radiant cooling systems, and grey water capture systems.

Lizard Panel 

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PROTOTYPE I: Thermo-Strut This prototype intertwines low-res steel plate beams with a fiber composite shell embedded with solar thermal technology. The solar thermal system is a continuous loop which weaves around through the steel sections, forcing structural adaptations at intersections. In armature conditions, the solar thermal system receives sun exposure through transparent apertures, while in surface conditions, it changes behavior and spreads out as patterns of relief. The result is a prototype which organizes structural forces, fluid flows, and material properties into a tectonically coherent, yet ornamental assembly. This prototype is intended to take ‘surface-to-strand’ geometries to the next level, where disciplinary forces temper abstract formal sensibilities.

PROTOTYPE II: Tracery Glass Tracery Glass reconsiders glass and transparency in architecture. In contrast to modern dreams of dematerializing glass and framing perfect views, this glass is not only not glass (it’s polycarbonate), it is highly characterized by embedded technology which is simultaneously operative and ornamental. It allows views, but through layers of light, cooling coils and fins, solar surfaces, and gradient color patterns. Ultimately, this is an exploration the contemporary relevancy of stained glass and other types of figural transparency from centuries past, and possible crossovers with contemporary energy technologies.

Lizard Panel 

PROTOTYPE III: Lizard Panel Lizard Panel is a unitized system with puzzle-piece components and socketed structural and mechanical members for continuity. It is characterized by a lacy, meandering pattern of algae bioreactor pipes for energy generation as well as deep channels which reclaim grey water from rainfall for use inside the building. This prototype is the most overtly biomimetic: it capitalizes on characteristics of the Agamid Lizard, which siphons moisture from its back to its mouth via deep channels in its skin. Algae and grey water systems are not simply adjacent, but rather interwoven in such a way that structural behavior arises-- grey water channels become the bottom ‘flange’ to the upper ‘flange’ of the algae channels, while interstitial webbing connects the two into a hybrid beam morphology.

Lizard Panel

Endo-Skeleton ď‚› ď‚›

STOCKHOLM CITY LIBRARY Stockholm, 2007 Design Concept While the external geometry of the building is based to a large degree on relations to the macro-environment, the key to the atmosphere of the project is its principal of cellular tectonics.

Instead of reiterating the centered, stable, hierarchical principals of the Asplund Building geometry, the new building grows and evolves in terms of a non-linear geometry more often observed in natural systems. Cells are understood in terms of their interactivity in aggregate form, and their potentials for generating emergent structural and organizational effects. Cells vary in scale, thickness, and density, adapting toward performance and materiality without breaking their smooth formal gradient. A computer algorithm was used to generate a point of departure, a chunk of cellular matter with which to begin the process of evolutionary transformation.

The building can be broken down into a Cellular Shell, a Structural Hive, and a Circulation Net linking the two. The Structural Hive transmits and resolves vertical and horizontal forces, but also serves as an organizational mechanism, sprouting layers of stairs and bridges that connect levels.

Hive cells vary in scale, providing opportunities for various types of inhabitation, from Reading Cells to Study Clusters, to other micro-programs.

Endo-Skeleton

Endo-Skeleton

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CHEONGNA CITY TOWER Building Type: Tower Office: EMERGENT Principal: Tom Wiscombe Project Team: Takeshi Masuyama, Josh Sprinkling, AlinaGrobe, Jon Anderson, Seton Beggs Structural: BuroHappold, Matt Melnyk

Exo-Skeleton  

EVOLUTIONARY EXOSKELETON THE STRUCTURE OF THE TOWER IS BASED ON A STEEL EXOSKELETON RATHER THAN A TRADITIONAL STRUCTURAL CORE MODEL. THREE MAIN STRUCTURAL SPINES WEAVE ALONG THE FACADES, VARYING IN TERMS OF DEPTH, WIDTH, AND ROTATION IN RESPONSE TO VERTICAL AND LATERAL FORCES AS WELL AS GEOMETRICAL RULES SET BY THE DESIGN TEAM. SIMILAR TO THE INSIDE OF A TURTLE’S SHELL, THESE SPINES ARE MERGED TOGETHER TO FORM A HYBRID OF MONOCOQUE AND FRAME-AND-SKIN CONSTRUCTION TYPES. THE STRUCTURAL MORPHOLOGY BECOMES THAT OF SMOOTH GRADIENTS BETWEEN SURFACE, SURFACE RELIEF, AND STRAND WHICH IS A CONTINUING INTEREST OF EMERGENT.

Exo-Skeleton CATIA, MODEFRONTIER, AND ROBOT A COMBINATION OF PARAMETRIC SOFTWARE, POPULATION GENERATING SOFTWARE, AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS ENGINES WAS USED IN A BOTTOM-UP NONLINEAR ENGINEERING PROCESS. THIS PROCESS IS SIMILAR TO NATURAL SELECTION IN NATURE WHERE POPULATIONS OF MUTATIONS ARE GENERATED AND THEN FITNESS TESTED BY ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES. SUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS ARE THEN BRED AND TESTED UNTIL THE SEARCH EVENTUALLY NARROWS. CATIA WAS USED TO SET UP THE GEOMETRY WITHIN PARAMETRIC CONSTRAINTS, ALLOWING FOR A PARTICULAR RANGE OF BEHAVIOR. MODEFRONTIER WAS THEN USED TO GENERATE POPULATIONS OF MUTATIONS BASED ON A STOCHASTIC, NON-LINEAR METHOD. THESE MUTATIONS WERE THEN PROCESSED AUTOMATICALLY THROUGH ROBOT WHICH PERFORMS A BASIC STRUCTURAL EVALUATION OF THE MUTATIONS, WHICH WERE THEN EVALUATED FOR THEIR ARCHITECTURAL POTENTIAL. THE ‘SURVIVORS’ WERE THEN PROPAGATED INTO A NEW GENERATION IN MODEFRONTIER AND SO ON, ESTABLISHING A FEEDBACK LOOP. THE KEY HERE WAS A MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS, WHICH DOES NOT HAVE THE GOAL OF 100% OPTIMUM IN ANY SINGLE SEARCH BUT RATHER A MORE ECOLOGICAL APPROACH OF MULTIPLE INDIVIDUAL TENDENCIES PRODUCING COMPLEX, EMERGENT TENDENCIES AT HIGHER LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION. FOR THIS PROJECT THREE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS WERE USED: I. SPINE BUCKLING RESPONSE (ROTATION) II. SPINE BENDING RESPONSE (DEPTH) III. SPINE FOOTING RESPONSE (TRANSLATION) THIS WAY OF WORKING REDEFINES ENGINEERING WORKFLOWS AND POTENTIALLY, THE ROLES OF ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER IN THE DESIGN PROCESS. THE DANGER HERE-- SOMETHING WE ARE CONSCIOUSLY AVOIDING-- IS AN ANEMIC UNDERSTANDING OF OPTIMIZATION AS A REDUCTIVE QUEST FOR EFFICIENCY RATHER THAN AS A GENERATIVE DESIGN PROCESS WHICH CAN RESULT IN ARCHITECTURAL ‘SPECIES’ CHARACTERIZED BY BOTH EFFICIENCIES AND EXCESSES. 

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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC Prague, 2007 Building Type: National Library and National Archival Collection Office: EMERGENT Principal: Tom Wiscombe Structural: Arup Consulting Engineers Mechanical: Arup Consulting Engineers Surface Area: 50,000 SM The Mountain While the Box relates to the local urban scale and the wide-ranging LetenskáPlán, the Mountain reaches upward to a height of 60 meters. This height is calculated to allow the building to be seen from a great distance, in particular, from the center of the old city center of Prague. At the same time, this height respects the given setback rules for the site due to the fact that the Mountain is located away from the perimeter of the site. The natural topography of the Letná Slope above the Vltava River, combined with the building’s setback from that slope, would make the building otherwise invisible. The Mountain creates a visual connection with the cultural landscape of the city, establishing an urban triangle connecting the city center, the Prague Castle, and the new National Library. At night, the crystalline facets of the Mountain will glow, revealing the national archive inside, making the most precious of artifacts of Czech culture part of the skyline of the city.

Exo-Skeleton

Exo-Skeleton

Exo-Skeleton

semi-monocoque SHENZHEN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Shenzhen, 2007  Building Type Museum  Office EMERGENT  Principal Tom Wiscombe  Project Team: Kevin Regaldo, Chris Eskew, Gabriel Huerta, Sebastian Hiemisch 

Design Concept The design of MoCA/PE is based on structural morphologies found in nature, both in terms of their aesthetic and performative characteristics.

Specifically, lilypads were examined for their biomathematical logic which includes a network of deep veins which support their wide diameters. Although lilypads float naturally on water, their overall stability is determined by the depth, number, and distribution of these veins.

The building structure similarily spreads over architectural surfaces according to force flows, driven by a rule-based system of branching and computational subdivision.

Ultimately, the morphology of veining and structural surface relief can be understood as a semi-monocoque construction. The semimonocoque, often found in aerospace and automobile construction, is based on the skin as structure, but utilizes stiffening ribs and bending members as needed to keep the strength-toweight ratio optimized. The variable, composite sensibility of semi-monocoque construction offers an alternative to dogmatic frame and skin alternatives.

semi-monocoque