Material Behaviour: Embedding Physical Properties in Computational Design Processes

Material behaviour computes form. In the physical world, material form is always inseparably connected to internal constraints and external forces; in the virtual space of digital design, though, form and force are usually treated as separate entities – divided into processes of geometric form generation and subsequent engineering simulation. Using the example of the interdisciplinary ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion, constructed at the University of Stuttgart in 2010, Moritz Fleischmann, Jan Knippers, Julian Lienhard, Achim Menges and Simon Schleicher explain how feedback between computational design, advanced simulation and robotic fabrication expands the design space towards previously unexplored architectural possibilities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Encoding Material

Gramazio & Kohler's work in the faculty of Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich is renowned for its pioneering work with industrial robots. Here, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler and Silvan Oesterle describe how the integration of fabrication-relevant decisions into encoded designs enables the control of complex interactions between material elements and facilitates the direct generation of machine data, as epitomised by their West Fest Pavilion project. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013-14: Modular Coreless Filament Winding Based on Beetle Elytra

The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013-14, presented here by Moritz Doerstelmann, Jan Knippers, Achim Menges, Stefana Parascho, Marshall Prado and Tobias Schwinn of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) research team at the University of Stuttgart, is based on biological lightweight construction principles. It demonstrates how the development of integrative processes of design computation, simulation and robotic fabrication enable the simultaneous exploration of novel design possibilities, constructional effectiveness and robustness through the expression of material characteristics.     

Computational Material Culture

Computation offers considerable possibilities for architecture, going well beyond the conventional sphere of design that focuses on the generation of complex geometries. Achim Menges , a regular contributor and guest-editor to 2, and Founding Director of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart, is renowned for his pioneering approach to computation and materials. He describes how computation is enabling a convergence of the processes of form generation and materialisation, hailing in new areas of architectural speculation and experimentation, as demonstrated by the ICD/ITKE pavilions illustrated here.     

Experimental study on crashworthiness of tailor-welded blank (TWB) thin-walled high-strength steel (HSS) tubular structures

This paper aims to investigate the crushing behaviors of tailor-welded blank (TWB) thin-walled structures. A series of TWB high-strength steel (HSS) square tubes with different weld line locations is used to perform the crushing tests for evaluating the effects of different TWB parameters, such as weld line locations and material combinations, on crushing characteristics. These TWB specimens are fabricated through the laser welding process to ensure sufficiently narrow weld line. In the study, the center edge of TWB square specimens is not welded so that such special TWB structures have open cross section. The crushing test results exhibit excellent repeatability. The collapse modes and force–displacement relationships are compared with each other. It is found that the crushing behaviors of different material combinations are fairly significant for a given weld line location. Such key crushing characteristics as specific energy absorption (SEA), average crush force (F_avg), peak force (F_max) are also evaluated for understanding crashworthiness of these TWB structures. The experimental results provide us with some insightful guidance to crashworthiness design of TWB thin-walled HSS structures.     

Material Engagement Theory and urban formation: Notes towards a theoretical synthesis

Material Engagement Theory (MET) theorizes artefacts as the emergent outcomes of non-linear processes of formation in which both human and non-human forms of agency are involved. It has proved a useful framework for exploring the architectural design process – which typically involves the mobilisation of multiple tools and materialities – but has not yet been applied to urban design. This paper argues that MET can be applied to the analysis of urban form, helping explain the distributed processes of urban formation. In sketching out an outline theory of urban material engagement, the paper facilitates a dialogue between MET and two theories of urban morphogenesis – SIRN and Space Syntax theory – which explain formal emergence in the urban surface and the urban grid, respectively. Exploring these theories’ analyses of urban formation – and the relationship between urban form and urban social behaviour – the paper outlines a theoretical synthesis which centres on the artefactual nature of urban form.     

大口径输水管道的止推设计

广州市西江引水工程是广州市的生命线工程,其管径大、压力高,且双管同槽敷设。主管材采用预应力钢筒混凝土管(PCCP),由于弯头处双管推力很大,使得弯头处的止推设计成为保证整个输水系统安全的关键因素,也是工程设计的重点和难点之一。对几种常用的止推形式进行分析,并针对西江引水工程推力大、用地紧张、工期短等具体情况,最终确定了钢管外包混凝土的止推形式。对该种止推形式的设计进行了介绍,可供类似工程参考。     

(In)formational Cities

Is the focus on mass customisation with its emphasis on generating architectural form misguided? Is the future of our cities instead more likely to be directed towards the capacity to accommodate informational systems and the possibilities that new technologies afford to redesign existing buildings? Architectural author, professor and guest-editor of the Digital Cities (July/August 2009) and Space Architecture (November/December 2014) issues of AD, Neil Leach appeals to architects to turn away from their fixation with the material properties of the built environment and customise their own approaches to analysis and design to fully embrace the computational revolution that has taken place.     

Fabrication Agency: Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall

Advances in computation challenge established design approaches in architecture through a much deeper integration of form generation and materialisation. Tobias Schwinn , Research Associate at the Institute for Computational Design (ICD), University of Stuttgart, and Guest-Editor Achim Menges , Director of the ICD, introduce how the potentials and constraints of robotic fabrication can now be explored as generative drivers in agent-based design. This enables architectural innovation in unison with fabricability, structural capacity and spatial performance, as demonstrated by the Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall in Schwäbisch Gmu"nd, Germany, the world's first building with a robotically fabricated segmented timber shell as its primary structure.     

Hacking Science: The ALivE Group's Material Design Methods for Interdisciplinary Environments

Advances in the understanding and processing of materials have historically been one of the foremost drivers of architectural innovation. Today, groundbreaking material developments mainly occur on the nano-scale, and thus lie outside most designers' working knowledge and expertise. Martin Bechthold , Professor of Architectural Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), and Allen Sayegh , Associate Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at the GSD, introduce the work of the Adaptive Living Environments (ALivE) group at Harvard University, which seeks to reconcile fundamental material science with architectural design through new modes of interdisciplinary collaboration drawing from contemporary cultures of computation and hacking.     

Self-X Materials and Structures in Nature and Technology: Bio-inspiration as a Driving Force for Technical Innovation

Over the course of 3.8 billion years of biological evolution, nature has found the answers to many engineering problems. The aim of biomimetics is to analyse and tap biology's potential as a huge reservoir for innovative solutions. Thomas Speck , Professor and Director of the Plant Biomechanics Group (PBG) at the University of Freiburg and the Freiburg Centre for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT), Jan Knippers , Professor and Head of the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart, and Olga Speck , a researcher at the PBG, scientific coordinator of FIT and manager of the Competence Network Biomimetics at Freiburg, explain how biological material systems with self-x properties are cost-efficient, multifunctional, and can be environmentally friendly; and with several billion trial runs, have surely stood the test of time.     

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2012: Coreless Filament Winding Based on the Morphological Principles of an Arthropod Exoskeleton

Advanced design, simulation and fabrication technologies facilitate the exploration and transferring of the morphological principles of fibrous systems from biology to technology. The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2012 pioneered such an approach for architecture. Jan Knippers, Riccardo La Magna, Achim Menges, Steffen Reichert, Tobias Schwinn and Frédéric Waimer of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) research team at the University of Stuttgart describe how they approached the design of the pavilion, which is located on the school's campus.     

Comparative and competitive adsorption of Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) onto Sepia pharaonis endoskeleton biomass from aqueous solutions

In this research, the possibility of simultaneous removal of lead, cadmium and copper divalent ions from water samples through the use of Sepia pharaonis endoskeleton powder (SPEB) as bio‐material, was investigated. The bio‐sorbent was characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT‐IR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X‐ray fluorescence (XRF). The different factors affecting the bio‐sorption process were studied. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to analyse the experimental data. The kinetic studies showed that the pseudo‐second order model kinetics were compatible with the investigated systems. It was found that under optimal conditions, this bio‐sorbent was efficient in the uptake of these heavy metal ions from both mono and multi‐metal solutions, and high removal percentages were achieved. This study verified the potential ability of SPEB as an efficient natural adsorbent for removal of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Cu(II) ions from river, tap and mineral water samples.     

建筑设计事务所——大势所趋

本文分析了目前设计行业现行体制的弊端，主要在以国营综合性的设计的设计院为主，体制单一，不能满足计划经济向市场经济转轨时期设计市场的需求，综合性的大设计院在管理和机制方面也有很多差强人意的地主。文章提出了对现行的设计组织体制进行改革，大力发展专业设计事务所。     

Optioneering: A New Basis for Engagement Between Architects and Their Collaborators

Conventionally, architects are somewhat tardy when inviting engineers to join their projects. By only introducing consulting engineers to participate in the later stages of the design process, engineers are commonly assigned a fixing role. This provides little opportunity for creative engineering solutions at the generative stage. Optioneering, a new business management model, however, offers the possibility of a new collaborative method for interaction between designers and their partners. Dominik Holzer and Steven Downing describe how a research project between the Spatial Information Research Laboratory (SIAL) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the engineering firm Arup investigated the capability of this new form of collaboration. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

运算化设计：知识时代的新设计

运算化时代的理论有必要通过运算化形式表达。今天大多数的数学问题是基于机器的处理。然而对于设计,我们更倾向于把电脑当作一种工具,而不是一个形成概念的媒介。关于设计的运算化理论,有必要是关于人类行动的理论。行动改变现状。设计是我们各种活动中固有的一个部分。关于设计的运算化概念有必要不成为过去某种理论的延续;它对立于那些受制于已有工具的思想。驾驭运算化设计的是意识到未来变数的希冀。设计不再被动地响应期待,而是以更积极的热情面对变化。信息处理已经构成了一种新的生态。设计正在变成一种变化的力量。     

Parametricism's Structural Congeniality

The Block Research Group (BRG) at the Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich, led by Philippe Block and Tom Van Mele, focuses on research in equilibrium analysis, computational form-finding and the fabrication of curved-surface structures. Here, Philippe Block describes how Parametricism's preoccupation with expressive surface structures enables architecture ‘to learn from the past’ and draw on the rich seam of historical knowledge that has informed the complex curved structures of the Gothic cathedral builders and modern masters.     

Solutions You Cannot Draw

For Markus Braach , co-founder of architectural software consultancy Adaptive Architecture, an initial interest in genetic algorithms in the 1990s evolved into working on the generative simulations of historic cities that had developed organically over time, and then on to real urban planning projects with Kees Christiaanse Architects and Planners(KCAP). Here he describes how an emphasis on a purely bottom-up approach, which was characteristic of his earlier work and drew him to the field, has since been replaced in his practice by a greater emphasis on traditional spatial planning and usability.     

景德镇陶瓷学院校园环境标识设计探讨

本文通过自身对陶瓷文化的理解,提炼出了若干能体现景德镇陶瓷学院校园文化特色的造型和色彩的素材,并将其运用在校园环境的部分标识设计之中,着重探讨校园文化与校园环境标识之间内在的、和谐的关系。