Читать книгу Rethinking Prototyping - Группа авторов - Страница 18

The emergence of gridshell structures – intensively studied by the German architect Frei Otto – is a major step in the development of complex shapes in AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction). Since the 1970s this structural concept has led to emblematic realizations (Mannheim [Happold and Lidell 1975], Downland [Harris et al 2003], Savill, Hanovre [Ban 2006]). They have shown that beyond their architectural potential, gridshells are well suitable for complex shape materialization because of their intrinsic geometric rationality.

However, the very few number of gridshells constructed up to now attests that they are quite tricky to design compared to standard buildings. Architects and engineers would face both demanding conceptual knowledge in 3D geometry, form-finding techniques, non-linear behaviour, large-scale deformations, permanent bending stresses, etc. and real lack of tools dedicated to their design.

This paper presents a computing tool based on Rhinoceros & Grasshopper that aims at meshing NURBS surfaces with the compass method. This tool also includes a one-way interface for GSA (a structural analysis software from Oasys) to perform the structural analysis of the resulting grid. Thereby, this tool introduces shape-driven design of gridshells. Following a case study – the construction of the first composite gridshell to host people – a methodology to design these shape-driven structures is proposed. Finally, future prospects to their development are discussed.